This morning, we were up at 0500 getting ready to hike the Tongariro crossing. A 22 kilometer round trip or a little more than 12 miles, and over 3000 vertical feet up (then another 3000 feet back, ouch!) through volcano country.

Headlamps at "oh dark whatever..."

The volcanos here have erupted as recently as 1975 and part of the far end of the trail is closed right now due to detected activity of some kind this past November.

Fortunately our motel/lodge was only five minutes down the road from the turn out. We planned to leave at 0545 in order to get one of the few parking spots-once they are gone you can only get there by shuttle. Add another ten minutes for missing it in the dark and backtracking then fifteen minutes up a dirt road to the trailhead and our start time ended up being 0615. Also known as “zero-dark-fifteen”. Fortunately we had headlamps, since even with the full moon and cloudless sky, the trail over volcanic earth can be treacherous and easily bend an ankle of the unwary.

The landscape was almost surreal. Moonscape might just as well describe it, except in the first third of the hike where there is some scrubby, but stunningly beautiful vegetation with small streams running through. Not that we could see much. Our headlamps lit the trail but not much else for the first 45 minutes as we hiked in the moonlight, eagerly anticipating sunrise over the high ridge we were looking to summit.

The moonset behind us while sun is coming up over the ridge

As we ascended the first ridge, the sun greeted us for a glorious day of treking

This is a very popular hike in NZ. People come from all over the world to do it. Lonely Planet describes it as: “…one of New Zealand’s life changing experiences”. Actually having done it, neither Ann nor I can disagree. It was amazing.

Anyway, today was no exception to the international appeal. We ran across folks from Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Wales, US, and more.

As the darkness started to turn to dawn, we switched off the headlamps and enjoyed the early morning light. That’s when Ann saw it! A Teddy Bear fallen by the side of the trail, almost hidden by the vegetation! Upon seeing it she vaulted forward and scooped it up. “Someone’s lost it!”, she exclaimed. My response: “Set it on a rock and they will find it on the way back (grumble, grumble…)”. And she did. Carefully setting the Teddy Bear up on the rock so it would have a good view of the surroundings and it’s owners might easily find him later in the day.

But…it didn’t end there. As we contined up our climb, Ann became more and more concerned that the Teddy Bear was very special to someone out hiking with us on this day. Soon we caught up with a small group in front of us. Ann earnestly asked them as soon as we were in range: “Have you lost a Teddy Bear?”. Well…you might imagine the response. They looked at us rather oddly, picked up their pace and replied: “Nooo”

So for the next ten minutes we debated the significance of the ‘Teddy’ until coming across a couple of young women who had stopped to rest. Before I could stop her, Ann again blurted out: “Have you lost a Teddy Bear?”. As I was thinking: “Have you lost your mind!?”, one of the women exclaimed: “Oh my God, Crumpy’s gone!!”.

Turns out the young women were visiting from Wales and Crumpy was a fund-raising bear. For every documented mile he traveled, people would donate money to a charity. He’s been to Thailand and now New Zealand and thanks to Ann will have many more adventures and do more good for the Charity.

Score one for Saint Ann. We made two new friends today (three counting Crumpy).

Ann finds "Crumby"

...and Crumby is reunited with his owner

As for the rest of the trip-the weather was cloudless, the colors of the volcanos were amazing-reds, blacks, browns, yellows and more. We ended up having breakfast by “Emerald Lake” a part of one of the old craters. It was a stunning blue-green, with steam coming out of vents on the side. Our time on trail including a short stop for food: almost eight hours and my feet agree this was a long hike.

At the first summit

At the second summit before heading down to the lakes

Oh my!

The only problem with going down to the lakes...is going back up!

View of the lake area

Just....wow!

Volcano vent steaming in the background

Time to leave the danger zone

Mt Doom in The Hobbit, more commonly known as Mt Rupehu. This peak erupted as recently as 1978

An amazing landscape, an incredible adventure. 12 miles roundtrip and 6000 vertical feet (up and down)

All in all another amazing day in “Enzed”