doomed

today, i saw mount doom. in person. i'm just putting that out there first, because on the scale of awesomeness, this is, like, an eleven.

this morning we set off for tongariro national park, in the center of the north island. the park is home to three of the most spectacular volcanoes on the island: mount ruapehu, mount tongariro and mount ngauruhoe (aka mount doom). there is skiing (which we weren't going to do) and lots of hiking (which we were). after an initial miscalculation on my part as to the amount of time necessary to get there, we arrived at about noon to the park and went straight to the visitor's centre (note kiwi misspelling) to see which trails were open (it has snowed heavily recently). only a couple of short ones were, but the day was clear and sunny and it wasn't likely that we'd have another chance to come back. unfortunately, none of the three main peaks were accessible without alpine equipment (i.e. ice axes, crampons, etc.). we started off on a ~2hr round trip hike to taranaki falls. we had to trudge through a lot of slushy snow but the views were amazing. mount ngauruhoe (aka mount doom) was in plain site throughout most of the hike, though the top was obscured by clouds. the waterfall was beautiful. we also went on two other short (~30 min round trip) hikes to tawhai falls and the mounds, an area of, not surprisingly, mounds in an otherwise flat plain (apparently formed by some of the volcanic activity back in the day). we had an early dinner in the cafe of the chateau tongariro, an old skool hotel at the base of mount ruapehu with views of the mountains and countryside. they even have a snooker table available.

a bellhop working at the chateau is the one who told us that mount ngauruhoe is mount doom. the mountain is admittedly a bit less threatening when it's covered in pretty snow and isn't crawling with orcs. but it's still cool.

i know i've said this about pretty much everything so far, but despite the fact that the scenery today in wintertime was stunning, i am DEFINITELY going back to tongariro national park in the summertime. there is a one day long hike that traverses a ridge line at mount tongariro that is amazing. there are a number of other sites (crater lake at the top of mount ruapehu, the "emerald lakes" up near the tops as well, etc.) that are all among the best hikes in new zealand. besides, the tongariro experience won't be complete until i can call mike greene from mount doom to tell him that i'm on mount doom and he's not.


*NB: for those who don't know what i'm referring to, mount doom is the stronghold of the main bad guy from the lord of the rings trilogy. when the movies were filmed several years ago, mount ngauruhoe was chosen as mount doom.