Destroying Lord of the rings 5th – 8th November

We decided to skip Hobbiton in Matamata as it was just a bit over priced and we heard mixed reviews. But fear not there are still plenty of free lotr things to do – and we crammed a lot into this part of our trip.

5th November

We drove to the southside of lake Taupo into Mordor, which turns out to be a Ski resort. We completed an 18k hike taking in Taranaki Falls, Lower and upper Tama Lake

(The original battle location for the ring)

6th November

A mammoth day hiking the Tongariro Alpine crossing – one of NZ’s 9 great hikes. A few stats

• Took us 4 hrs 45 mins to complete
• Covered 20k with elevation of 740m
• Weather was lovely and sunny at the bottom, snowing with 65km/h winds at the top.

We were hoping to hike Mount Doom but it turns out that it is sacred Mauri ground (and also insanely hard to climb). The crossing had lots to keep us entertained including some crater lakes, steep climbs and amazing views Skirting past Mount Doom… very lucky that the clouds cleared for us. Entering the unknown Still smiling through the snow… The steep climb to the summit… Imagine 65km/h winds and -11°C (apparently) Not so much Frodo and Sam as Marv and Harry from home alone

We made it … What a view! Ah ok… Here’s the good views … Sulphuric crater lakes A lovely (long) decent. And a little reward for the end…. There’s a full video on my ape-man (poor man’s go pro) when I get round to editing it… Something to bore ppl at home with. We ended the day by splashing out on a hot shower and unfortunately not a very hot sauna session! The fins would be disappointed.

7th November

We drove towards Wellington and stopped off to camp in Rivendell.

You have to use your imagination a bit to picture the elves home but it was a lovely place to stay (even if you weren’t a film fan). We had some fun with the Rivendell archway.

And then things got a bit weird when Florian started to love lord of the rings a bit too much.

A random breakfast concoction (rescued from the greedy ducks)

8th November

Finally for our lord of the rings tour we visited Rohan River and Anduin River (but we literally just drove by it so no pics just distant memories). We headed to Wellington to catch the ferry to south island.

Our last tourist stop on the north island was the Te Papa Museum – we left with mixed feelings about how it covered Gallipoli (WWI) and Mauri history – but I’ll save that for a red wine chat.

We also treated ourselves to a date night to keep up romance … Florians choice so suprise suprise we had a very romantic Turkish kebab.

Next up we are going SAAFF of the river.