At 5 am the alarm rang and we had to get up to catch our shuttle bus to the start point of the Tongariro Crossing. The bus left at 6am and we still had one hour to drive. At 7am we arrived with all the other tourists at the beginning of the walk. Even though high season is over and it is autumn, but still - many people! We decided to walk quickly to pass the most of them. After the first half an hour we arrived at the bottom of Mt. Ngauruhoe or Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings. It is not part of the tour and said to be quite steep and dangerous but we still decided to climb on it. First there was still kind of a path but after some meters everybody had to find his own way through the rocks and ash. The recommendation was to follow a solid lava flow, but it was still a hard climb. After 1,5 hours we reached the top. We had an amazing view and were lucky to have no clouds around the summit. We had a break, enjoyed the view and flew around with Droni before went down. This part was quite tricky as you had to look for some loose rock sections to slide down in big steps (or rather fall down in a more or less controlled way). It was really fun once we got the hang of it. It took us almost an hour to go back down and at the end our shoes felt like they had more stones and ash in them than feet.

Back on the main path we followed the crater to the next hill. There you could choose to stay on the main track or do another side trip to the Tongariro summit. In our info sheet they wrote that you can't do both side trips (Mt Doom and Tongariro Summit), but we decided to still do it as we were walking quite quickly. After these climbs we passed the red crater as well as two green and a little and a big blue lake. Such a coulorful landscape, all from volcanic minerals in the soil and in the water. 
The rest of the way back to the shuttle was mainly downhill and you left the more interesting crater and volcano zone. At 4pm we were back at the parking lot, perfectly well in time for the last shuttle at 4:30pm. In total we hiked 26km with around 1500m of elevation. It did not felt bad in the evening, but our legs made were just so sore the next day. The perfect time to take a rest day back at our host Kerry.

Cheers, 

Keep cycling and may you always have a tailwind,
Jonas and Vroni