Picking and choosing

My friend Lesley asked if I had started dreading my hair yet.

This is a fair (and funny) question since I seem to have taken to the backpacker lifestyle pretty quickly. I wear only 2 outfits now, the brown t-shirt number with strategic layering and the purple t-shirt number with strategic layering. I eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and fight with the Brits when they call it jam. And despite my best efforts, I engage in endless debates with my fellow Stray-ers about what tours are worth going on.

We are all in New Zealand to see some of the world's most beautiful scenery, and we are all here on a budget. So it's not uncommon to see a group of backpackers sitting down to a breakfast of toast and instant coffee, tour brochures and and Lonely Planets strewn about, arguing over which experiences are worth paying the full price for.

"The skydive was awesome, but do NOT pay for the DVD."
"..It was absolutely not worth $100! The free breakfast they promised sucked. I'm so pissed."
"Does anyone have any milk I can borrow? I can give you some money when we get to an ATM."

These conversations always close with the wisest backpacker in the bunch stating, "Look, you have to pick and choose. You're not going to be able to do everything." who then passes their milk to the most annoying backpacker in the bunch.

I took this advice to heart when I decided to stay back in Tongariro to wait for some fine weather to tackle the Crossing. The few extra days I would stay at the Park Lodge meant no South Island for me in this first month of travel. It also meant saying goodbye to the first group of travel buddies I was crazy about who would be moving on to Wellington without me. There is nothing like those first belly laughs with new friends who are sharing an absolutely ridiculous life experience with you, and it was hard to let that go. But when the clouds finally cleared and I caught my first sight of Doom the morning I saw them off, I knew I had picked and chose wisely.



The Tongariro Crossing is one of New Zealand's Great Walks- a 20K plus hike through crazy volcanic terrain at the foot of Mount Ngauruho, aka Mount Doom from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. You can do this 6-8 hour hike unguided, I guess. But based on my experience with "the walk" in Raglan, I decided I couldn't be trusted in the bush alone. Besides, if I paid the good people of Adrift Outdoor for some real gear and their expert advice along the way, it gave me that much more time on the walk to think up Lord of the Rings references.



For example, "The Eye of Sauron was fixed upon me" as we began the Devil's Staircase about an hour and a half in.



That's clear in this self-portrait during the first challenging bit of the hike. Tongariro is not a super technical hike. But believe me when I tell you that running up and down subway stairs for the last 10 years is not enough practice. Layering was not necessary over the purple t-shirt number when I was huffing and puffing.



The guides let us break to eat a little lunch and to start gearing up for the winter part of the show. We laced up those crazy snow shoes, crampons, and they taught us how to use ice picks to stop ourselves if we fell and slid back down the mountain. In retrospect, I probably should have stopped taking photos in front of Doom and listened a bit more closely.



Luckily, I made a new German friend named Rochus who always stayed just ahead of me to lend a helping hand when I almost toppled over at least 5 times.



Rochus' lifesaving count slightly differs from mine. But what matters is that he's hilarious and an excellent person to share that moment with. His favorite expression is "YAY!" which is absolutely appropriate for the view here. Lake Taupo in the distance, turquoise crater lakes in the foreground. Thanks to the beautiful weather that I chose to stick around for, the guides told us you could basically see from one end of New Zealand to the other.



Crampon CrampOFF for our descent down the mountain and into the Red Crater. "Crampon Crampoff...the Cramper!" would be a great jingle for how sore I would feel from this hike the next day.



The guide asked us all to pause here in silence to take in the moon like eerie-ness of this section. Then the guide farted. Typical Kiwi sense of humor.



The landscape changes completely on the other side of Doom- rolling greens, blues, golds, and browns that you we easily strolled through on a clearly marked path for an hour and a half until we all met up again at the parking lot. I didn't hear one car or electrical hum. Just the occasional hiker passing by or Rochus singing national songs with a couple from the Netherlands who are gearing up for the World Cup.



There are great hikes all over the world, many of which are in my home country. But what makes New Zealand's nature so spectacular is how varied it is and how it's all stacked together. Where else could you wield an ice pick 20 minutes before hopping and skipping through country like this? If you had dropped me off here blindfolded, I would have said my little brother was close behind me on the Appalachian Trail.



The beauty is disorienting in a way that every good thing that's happened to you before and all of the possibilities going forward exist in the same space. My new travel friends may not have been able to cross Tongariro with me, but they were warming up the rest of the country for me, partying in Wellington and skydiving in Queenstown. All of my people in New York continue to do their thing in the greatest city in the world and wait for me to post new pics. And Conan texts me from Australia to make sure I'm settling into the backpacker life, and to tell me he can't wait to see me there. There is no need to pick and choose. You can have it all in perfect moment here.

Rochus and I had some dinner afterward. Satisfied and completey exhausted, the only thing I could get out in between bites was, "I can't believe that happened. I honestly think that was one of the best moments of my life." And Rochus had only one reply which was all that was necessary to sum up Tongariro.

YAY!

Comments

[Jess Phillips]

Jackson!!!! I feel invigorated by life and I'm just looking at your photos whilst sweating in Brooklyn. This looks awesome1000.

[Michele]

Beautiful is right. What a fantastic adventure you are on. Thanks for including the rest of us in on your insight.

[doeandmouse]

Don't even think about asking me to skydive. We'll see about this glacier thing, though.

[aaron jackson]

effing amazing!