As it turns out, Mordor has a ski resort. And the summit of Mount Doom is about four hours from the car park. But it's still an otherworldly place, with dozens of volcanic craters, vertical scree fields, and billowing steam vents. In other words, not a bad place to spend a few days.
When we planned our time in NZ, there were a few places we definitely wanted to visit. One of those was Tongariro National Park, in the center of New Zealand's north island. This is a place where the clash of continental plates is strikingly obvious, filled with jagged rock and active volcanoes. It's also home to Mt. Ruapehu, which was used in the Lord of the Rings as Mordor, and Mt. Ngauruhoe, a volcano (actually a parasitic cone off the rim of Mt. Tongariro itself) that stood in as Mt. Doom. Luckily, we fared a bit better than Frodo and company...
When we got to the nearby town of Turangi, the mountains were stuck in a cloud, so we spent a couple of days fishing, visiting hot springs, and doing laps in the local pool. We also rented crampons and ice axes since rain in the valley means snow up high - about a foot. When the weather broke we headed off on the Tongariro Northern Circuit, a 3-day loop through and among the peaks and valleys of the park. It was worth the wait - a remarkable hike with bizarre rock formations, some steep ascents and descents, and volcanoes everywhere. With three blue bird days, the crampons and ice axes weren't really necessary. But we did strap on the crampons for a few hours of off-trail fun.
Not satisfied with just walking among the volcanoes, we returned for a fourth day (after a hot spring soak and steak dinner) to climb Mt. Doom itself. It was a steep, difficult climb, but we were rewarded with awesome views and the chance to reenact throwing the ring into the volcano.
Photos from our hikes can be found here: https://plus.google.com/photos/103829313469224560701/albums/6015266209838871825
We're off to the coast for our last week in New Zealand!
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