Volcanoes
We climb Mt. Ruapehu and see Ngauruhoe
We wake up rather late - must be due to the many glasses of delicious wine we had yesterday - and have breakfast in Joan and Graeme's sunny kitchen. Unfortunately, it's time to say goodbye, but we're pretty sure we'll see Graeme and Joan again. We pack up and leave to Tongariro national park.
Tongariro is a mars-like volcanic landscape. In winter it's a popular ski resort, but some of the chairlifts are working in summer as well to provide trampers with easy access to the higher slopes of the mountains. Two chairlifts take us 2020m up the slopes of a majestic volcano called Mt. Ruapehu. From there we slowly climb a bit higher.
Since we don't have a map and didn't really plan our trip that well - but we did bring warm clothes, sunscreen, sturdy boots, etcetera - we're not really sure how far we should go. We only know that the crater rim is beyond our reach on this trip, since that's a five to seven hour walk and we're not doing that today. Much later, when we're back home making up stories to go along with the photos, Google will help us discover that we climbed an area called the Pinnacles and reached a height of around 2200 meters.
We stop at a point where we have magnificent views to two sides of the mountain, soaking up the cold thin air, staring at the many, many square kilometers of New Zealand around us and enjoying the sense of isolation before scuttling down again. And of course we just make it in time for the chairlift, the chap operating the lift says we have two minutes before he shuts it down for today... :-)
After today's long story there's just one more thing I have to tell you: This is where Peter Jackson filmed several scenes of Mordor for his Lord Of The Rings trilogy, and it's funny to realise the obvious: it looks just like the film! The clouds covered it when we were up Mount Ruapehu, but once back on the road we have a fantastic view of Mt. Ngauruhoe, Mount Doom in the film.
We drive further north to Lake Taupo and camp at Motutere, right next to the lake, and, as we find out during the sleepless night, right next to the busiest road in New Zealand.
