We get a late start to avoid the crowds on New Zealand’s most famous great walk, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It is a gorgeous landscape of solid volcanic lava flows with new life growing all over the red brown molten landscape. A gorgeous arrangement of red tussock, inaka, curled leaved neinei, wire rush and bog rush, as well as heather and grasses like hard tussock,and bluegrass blanket the lower fields leading up to Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe ( pronounced Na ra ho).

The day is warm and partly cloudy and the trail follows a cheerful little stream up towards the base of the mountains. After 2 hours of hiking, we take a right at the saddle between Mt Tongariro and the ominous looking Ngauruhoe, aka MT Doom, which we plan to climb.

Mt Ngauruhoe is the youngest volcano and the most active vent in the Tongariro area. It last blew its stack in 1975 sending pyrochlastic flows consisting of a mixture of super heated mud, cinders, and gases traveling 100 miles per hour down the mountain side.
We can easily identify the most recent flows from Ngauruhoe as we walk to South Crater, a fan of darker brown rock with little or no plant life growing in it.
The remarkable symmetry of Ngāuruhoe’s steep cone is the result of regular eruptions. Over 70 ash eruptions have occurred between 1839 and 1975, on average about six years apart. Eruptions of lava are less common – they have been witnessed only in 1870, 1949 and 1954.

As we look up to the summit, we know why Peter Jackson chose this sight to film the Lord of the Rings final ascent to dispose of the one ring. The incredibly steep mountain has no defined path up to the top and the ground is made of a sand and cinder mixture that is so loose that our feet sink in several inches every step. Trying to climb the steep slope feels like Sisyphus, the greek legend, trying to roll a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll down again every time. Each time we pull our body up, the ground around us slides down, almost to where we started from. Very quickly we are reduced to climbing on all fours. This goes on for most of three thousand feet, and we spend a good bit of time bent over gasping for breath. Finally we near the summit, but the ground turns exceptionally loose and we start to doubt that we can finish, even though the rim of the crater is only 50 feet above us. Luckily a couple of folks have already made it to the top and yell encouragement to us, giving us the will to consume what feels like the last reserves of our energy and finally pull ourselves over the rim.
We are look down into the very throat of the volcano. It’s otherworldly, especially since wisps of cloud stream by here and there, obscuring and then clearing the views into the crater and the surrounding landscape. If we had a ring to throw in, now would be the time to do it.