In the land of Mordor . . .

. . . in the fires of Mount Doom, Lord Sauron forged in secret a master ring . . .


What fascinates us about New Zealand, and is one of the reasons that keep us coming back, is the surprises it throws up at almost every turn. Today we were driving from Wellington to Lake Taupo. We sort of knew that we would go through an area of volcanic activity; we sort of knew there was a mountainous National Park; we sort of knew there was a link with The Lord of the Rings.

What we didn't expect was:
- a huge snow-topped mountain (Mt Ruapehu), the highest peak in the North island, to appear in front of us
- to be traversing an exposed and barren desert
- to suddenly come upon Mt Doom (Mt Ngauruhoe in reality, but Mt Doom in The Lord of the Rings).

The area that the Desert Road crosses is not really a desert, as it gets too much rainfall, but it is kept arid by a blanket of volcanic dust and pumice. In the places where the road has been cut through several meters of the stuff, it is possible to see layers, a timeline of past eruptions. It's a strange and quite eerie place.

So here is the desert and here is Mt Doom, not very clear as there was a heat haze and dust was blowing all over the place, but enough to give an idea of why Peter Jackson chose this area of volcanic activity for Mordor and why this was chosen to be the volcano, Mt Doom.



We are now at Lake Taupo, a major centre of volcanic activity in itself, as I'm sure will be explained tomorrow.

For anyone who is following our travels, I should explain at this point that we are currently making our way north towards the Bay of Islands and Russell, our next settling down place. Tomorrow we will be staying just north of Auckland.