It’s a terrible cliche but I can’t help myself. Whenever I’m in certain parts of rural New Zealand the music of Howard Shore sings through my brain. At first I figured this was because the Lord of the Rings was my only point of reference (looking out of the plane window the first land I saw through the clouds looked exactly like Hobbiton) but it’s refused to go away. When they say those films were the best tourism advertisement for the country they weren’t exaggerating. New Zealand is Middle Earth, and I was about to go into the most recognizable part – the foothills of Mount Doom itself.
We were doing the first part of the Tongariro Crossing up to the Soda Springs, pretty much a flat walk that takes about an hour. It then gets steep as you pass between the Tongariro and Ngauruhoe summits and pop out the other end seven hours later. I’m planning to go back on my own on Monday and do the whole thing, weather permitting, but for now we were just getting a taste.
That’s not to say the foothills are in any way mediocre. You’re walking over lava flows, some of them fairly recent (Ngauruhoe only became “relatively quiet” in 1975), and the sense of desolation with the volcanoes towering above you is very striking.
Tongariro Crossing photos are here.
Wikipedia is your friend: Mounts Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Doom.
Then after lunch we went up another volcano, this time in a car to the ski village on the snow capped Mount Ruapehu which was very Mordor in appearance and the Howard Shore was booming in my skull. Dum, dum, dada dum… do do dooo, do do doo, do de dooo, dum, dum…
The volcano looks like this from afar:
and like this when you’re on it.
Mount Ruepehu photos are all here.
Coming soon – journey into the volcanic valley!
Great pics Pete, really enjoying viewing them – very jealous too!
Great pics, bringing back lots of memories from when I ‘did’ the Tongariro in 2005.
If you get the chance then I recommend climbing up to the top of Mount Ngauruhoe. It’s a tough climb up but the views are worth it (assuming the cloud clears for long enough to see) and the slide back down the volcano is quite exhilarating in itself – and much, much quicker than climbing up!
James – that’s my intention, especially as I don’t need to dawdle on the first stretch now. Can’t wait!