Nebelhom's Miscellaneous: Alpine Crossing and Arrival in Hamilton (22.3.2014)

We did it! 19.4 km alpinely crossed. But let's start as usual from the beginning. After yesterday's let down, we gave it another try today. And lo and behold, the weather was much, MUCH better. It was all about wind and visibility. The wind was not even half as strong and you were able to see all the way to Mount Egmont about 150 to 200 km west as the bird flies on the west coast. Something that was unthinkable yesterday. During the hike we also learnt, that due to a volcanic eruption in August 2012, the tour was only fully re-opened this year, so even more luck for us.

We started out again at about 7:30 am from the car park on one side. Many people were out on the paths. The combination of the people from yesterday wanting to try again, as well as it being a Saturday with great weather caused it to be comparable to a typical high season day. It was indeed very crowded on the track and the people were sadly not too considerate with each other. A bit of elbow shuffling if a certain group wanted to get a picture in a certain spot or people trying to rush past you not really paying attention if they may accidentally push you off a ridge. I didn't like that aspect much.

We were still quite tired from yesterday's hike. Isi's constant repetition of "Yesterday was a mistake" was but one example of regret shown in the light of the steep hike ahead of us. We tried to prepare by also wearing among other things two pairs of socks to avoid blister formation for as long as possible. A problem that has plagued me for as long as I can think.

So we started off early, our legs were heavy and our spirits a bit low as we fought for every single meter. At the beginning, I was a little mean to Isi as I felt she was trying to stall and get breaks by taking pictures or the like. The truth is that I was just as tired, but her slow ascend made it harder for me for some reason. I wanted to get the first couple of kilometers past me to get into a certain rhythm and get the muscles warm. I lightly sprained my ankle yesterday during the other hike and it was throbbing the entire morning.

As is usually the case, the higher we got up the mountain the easier it got for us. The view was breath-taking, the body warmed up and everything started to get a bit faster. The landscape seemed strangely martian to me after awhile. Very rocky and partially muddy. The closer we got to the various craters of the still active volcanoes, we started to smell the typical odour of sulphur (rotten eggs). Once we reached the crater, with its little lakes of sickly green water, the coloured rocks, strange rock formations, Mount Doom in the background and the entire National Park opening up before us in the far distance, we knew it was worth it. By that time we had 3 of our estimated 7-8 hours behind us.

Now, the worst part of the tour started; going downhill. I don't if know everyone feels like this, but when I go uphill it is all muscles, but downhill is a combination of rubbing my feet sore (constantly pushing the toes to the front of the shoes) and strong strain on the ankles and knees. We entered after about 2 hours the other side of the hill, which is much greener and sunnier (the Taopo region) with a panoramic view over Lake Taopo. There we also saw the section that erupted in 2012. It is not allowed to go anywhere near the site of eruption, but you could still clearly see the fume columns constantly emitting from the vents and, of course, the endearing smell of sulphur everywhere. It is quite a spectacle to behold.

We passed another hut that was actually hit by rocks being catapulted through the air and into the roof there. From the hut, it was supposed to be another 1 hour 30 minutes, but it felt like one of the longest one and a half hours I ever had. I mentioned I had two pairs of fresh socks to avoid blister formation for as long as possible... Well, that was when the first one not formed but ruptured by one of the many steps down the hill. From then on, I was pretty much on auto-pilot trying to get it over with. Pain sucks... badly and that last bit just seemed to stretch forever.

When we reached the car park it was like a relief. The entire body was sore and we were not sure if we really had it in us, but we got there in the end. I think, once I get the blister problem under control, I may consider doing a two day walk (or longer).

Afterwards, we made our way up to Hamilton and observed the amazing ability of Kiwis to ignore the rules of traffic. It seems that the higher north one gets, the less likely people are to adhere to them. Within an hour stretch we had a guy tailgating us so close our bumpers almost touch at 100 km/h without him really feeling the need to overtake, bikers that felt it necessary to overtake when there was oncoming traffic just to see if they could do it, people cutting off our lane on a two lane roundabout (yes, surprisingly we do it correctly and the Kiwi did not) or people just randomly stopping in the road without indication of where to go and starting to giggle unstoppably. Strange country ;)

Before we're hitting the sack, we went for two drinks within Hamilton and watched a bit of the Super-15 Rugby League. It really is a shame that there is no TV coverage of it in Belgium. I totally forgot how much fun it is to watch Rugby Union. Such a fun sport to watch, especially when you have two equal teams that know how to run a good offense. The hunt for the gap is always on. To my surprise, Isi enjoyed it, too, so we decided to see if we can get tickets for some Rugby game or another, not necessarily highest level. Watching the most popular sport of a country live next to a pitch, is a sure fire way of observing locals the way they really are. Just you go to a football game of the world famous SV Kürnach playing the bitter rivals of the TSG Lengfeld or worse TSG Estenfeld ;)

Let's see if that works out. Tomorrow, we'll sleep long and judge how well we can walk. Most likely, we will visit Hobbiton which is close-by and plan our next steps.