Corncerning Hobbits.... - Part II

On seeing the volcanoes the other side of Lake Taupo we made our way around the lake, further south and with an ever improving view of the national park.  The Tongariro National Park is New Zealands oldest and houses three unique and incredible volcanic mountains which rise to between 2,000-3,000m.  The self named Mt Tongariro, the highly active Mt Rhuapehu  and  the perfectly conical Mt Ngauruhoe.  Of the most intriguing is probably the latter which doubles up as Mount Doom in the Lord of The Rings trilogy.  Mt Ngauruhoe is just a small peak short of being a perfect cone and on a clear day is an awe inspiring sight.  The taller more active, and often cloudy Mt Rhuapehu is more of a sprawling mass of volcanic rock with several volcanic outlets and was chosen by Peter Jackson to be the fear inspiring scenes of Mordor.

We camped inside the boundaries of the national park and decided to check out Mt Doom from a little closer up.  We took a 17km hike to the Tama lakes, which are two old volcanic craters themselves.   On our way we passed the Taranaki Falls which have carved an impressive cliff into the landscape and continue to erode their way through the park.  What started as an easy stroll in the sun through the forest became a very cold and windy experience up at the top.  We were however rewarded with some great views of the upper and lower lakes as well as the surrounding volcanoes.  This part of the national park also made up a lot of the scenes of Mordor in the film The Return of The King.  As the clouds came in it became easy to imagine 'The Shadow of The East' moving and doesn't take much imagination to recreate the setting.

The following day we stayed in the National Park but made our way further south and spent the night at the small town of Ohakune.  Nestled just within the National Park but not far from a major highway Ohakune is a sleepy little town which relies heavily on passing trade, and welcomes you with (you guessed it) New Zealands biggest... Carrot.  We however not contributing a great deal to the local community made for the nearest free campsite.  From here we were able to do a nice walk along the Old Coach Road which use to house the main route for the central  New Zealand railway.  After passing through an old long deserted tunnel we arrived at the old viaduct.  No longer deemed as safe for use but fine for tramping tourists we ventured across the 120 year old wooden structure.  The viaduct was in fact the site of New Zealands first commercial bungee jump, however this was closed down aswell due to safety fears.  Needless to say we felt nice and safe walking along the viaduct.

In Ohakune, 400km north of Wellington, we popped into the local library to 'borrow' their wifi and check our emails.  This was when we realised we had prebooked our Cook Straight Ferry for the South Island a day earlier than originally thought... a quick clear up of our stuff and it was time to get on the road again, quickly!