Tongariro Alpine Crossing

What is it that when someone says that you can't do something that it makes you more determined and more resolute to do it anyway...

There are two things you need to know:

1) I love Lord of the Rings (I don't think that I am using the word love here lightly, however, upon close consideration I do think that a better word choice would be obsessed)...I am obsessed with Lord of the Rings...sure, I don't claim to be THE biggest fan. I've read the books once (including The Hobbit), watched the movies twice (one time being the extended edition :-) and busy watching it again, and planning a marathon in the near future. And did I mention six hours of special features?!

2) I don't think I've ever walked 19.4 km (regardless of the conditions)

My aunt was, I think, quite aware of number 2) and probably having my best interest tried to dissuade me from doing it; the walk/hike was mainly going to consist of black rocks (yay...MORDOR!!) and suffering (I suppose I could relate...Frodo and Sam in Mordor on their way to Mount Doom)

I was soooo going!!

And I wasn't really planning on surviving

We had to catch the bus, quite early, as this is roughly an eight hour hike...it was cloudy...not a problem for me, I wasn't going for the views in anyway (it was only going to be black rocks, right?!)...wait, I was doing this...why?precisely....?

 I was disappointed...there were fauna and flora AND other type of geological objects to be found...not just the black rocks I was expecting.

...then the inclination started...

I was motivating myself by saying that I wasn't planning on surviving in anyway.

I was so nauseous I wanted to puke...so this is what self-inflicted sickness felt like...not good.  I now know that I hope that I will never have the ambition or even the thought of the ambition to climb Mount Everest! 

Little steps, little baby steps...one stair at a time...breathe breathe... 

At least the majority of the inclination consisted of black rocks...MORDOR...it helped...at least nobody was going to asked me if I appreciated the view...(but I did! I wanted it to be black rocks, dark clouds and Mount Ngauruhoe looking all red and evil like Mount Doom is supposed to...)

I made it!! (well we all did, but my survival was definitely the most sketchy)...to the Red Crater...(the topmost part of the official trail)

 It was all downhill from there...
I could finally eat my lunch (feeling nauseous while exercising is not exactly a good motivator for eating)...needless to say I felt better...it might have been the food...or it might have been the fact that we were going, I don't know:  downhill...and I was feeling ever so slightly less over exerted...chuckle (should so have started jogging - like I wanted to - before going on holiday)

Oee, and next came the Emerald Lakes...really beautiful (smelled a bit of sulphur...probably another sign of Mordor, or just geo-thermal activity...who knows?)

We walked on...saw many different kind of landscapes;  hills, crinkly roads, mountains, mist, woods, even streams with water as cold as ice.

Why did I walk the Tongariro Alpine Crossing?

So that I can say I did it? ...perhaps...
Because someone said I couldn't?...perhaps...
Because it has to do with Lord of the Rings?...perhaps...

Perhaps before hand, but afterwards, yes I don't want to do it again...

But something changes, doesn't it? When you do something that you think you didn't even plan on surviving?  I can undoubtedly analyse it and come up with an explanation; but I won't...I just know that the person that took the first step and the person that went to bed that night wasn't exactly the same anymore...

And these "not exactlys" add up...