Mount Doom

Mt. Ngauruhoe

We departed the motel early and set out, South around lake Taupo, through Turangi to Tongariro national park.

The park encompasses a group of active volcanos including Mt. Ruapehu, Mt Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom in the film Lord of the Rings).

The national park is huge, very scenic and deserted.

We make our way to Whakapapa in the centre of the park, high on the slopes of the mountains and the starting point of a number of trails around the volcanos.

Chataeu Tongariro Hotel, Whakapapa Village

We walked a circular three hour trail through some spectacular, if somewhat bleak scenery.

We did pass some classy waterfalls though…

After are walk, we drove another 6km up to the ski area and had lunch at the cafe.

I can imagine that with a few feet of snow, this place would be beautiful, but in summer it was far from pretty. The ski area is at 2,000 meters, close to the top of the volcano, as a consequence the landscape comprises scorched, jagged rocks and little else. Little wonder that Peter Jackson used this place as the setting for Mordor in LOTR.