Tongariro National Park: Living Lord of the Rings

Now, let me just say that I planned to cram in watching Lord of the Rings over Christmas…but I got too busy hanging out with friends and family that it slipped away. I know, how UNGRATEFUL am I for my insane experiences that I can't muster the time to watch a movie about them beforehand. Sue me.

So apparently we camped in Moordoor and hiked through it. Some people even hiked ‘Mount Doom’ from the movie (which Christina discusses here), but as I don’t like hiking that much in the first place, I elected not to tack on another 3+ hours on an already 6 hour, 19.4 kilometer sojourn.

This was the view of THE Mount Doom, from our campsite!

Now, it was a gorgeous hike. So many different landscapes and colors and geologic formations, from volcanic rock to alpine tundra grasses to emerald sulphur lakes to tropical rainforests.


This first part of the hike had streams with moss that looked like the innards of a pumpkin... amazing colors.





The sulphur lakes...you get used to the smell...and it's just so unbelievable looking, juxtaposed with the volcanic rock.

Yeah, Christina took this picture and only merely saturated the color on iPhoto... the fog is ominously beautiful.

Alpine grasses.


Which segwayed into tropical rainforest...unreal.

And this sunset the night before we hiked was the most gorgeous I’ve ever seen!