Tongario National Park (Mordor and Mount Doom)

Today was supposed to be at least partly sunny with no rain, so I ventured up into Tongariro National Park to see if I could score some mountain photos. The weather did require a bit of patience, but as the day wore on, it got progressively better. So it can be considered a success, though I had to work at it in places. Mount Ruapehu, the biggest mountain in the park, both in height and overall bulk, turned out to be the easiest one to shoot. I took the road that leads up to the Ski area and got high enough that I was above most of the clouds. I did a time lapse there too because there were still a few clouds drifting by to make it interesting. You really need some clouds moving in a scenic time lapse, otherwise, it’s just a long still shot. Then I went over to the the Alpine Crossing trail to see if I could get a view of the West side of Mount Ngauruhoe. The clouds were thicker there, and funneling up a valley so I never did really get a clear shot of the mountain, but I did a time lapse that looks pretty good. I worked on that time lapse for 50 minutes trying to get a clear spot moving across the mountain. My setup was for 600 frames at a 1 second interval. Every time I got near the end of the sequence, it looked like there just might be a hole coming across, so I extended. I did that five times before it finally covered up completely. But there’s a portion that looks good even though I did freeze my tootsies off waiting. Note to self: But Some Gloves! Might as well get some wool gloves to keep a sheep off welfare.

I then drove clockwise around the park for a view on the other side. My destination was the area that Peter Jackson used as “Mordor” in The Lord of the Rings. That is also the area where he filmed Mount Ngauruhoe, better known to Lord of the rings fans as Mount Doom. It was my intention to camp in the area. There seemed to be a remote campsite in the middle of the area. When I got to the area that you are allowed to camp overnight, I found that “Mordor” was still a considerable climb and only 4WD vehicles were allowed to continue up. So I had to park and walk up like an ordinary Hobbit! At least I didn’t have to climb a steep cliff and fight a big spider like Frodo. At any rate, the view was very good up there, and the clouds had finally cleared off completely from Mount Doom. I was hoping for a black hulking mountain with rivers of lava like the movie, but I guess Peter Jackson must have added that in post. Since I couldn’t get the motorhome all the way up to Mordor, I decided to head back down the mountain to find a more suitable place to camp. There are probably bands of Orcs patrolling around there at night.


Here is a Panorama of Mount Ruapehu.


Here’s another view of Ruapehu from the Alpine Crossing trail.


This is the clearest view that I managed of Mount Ngauruhoe from the Alpine Crossing trail.


Ok, I have to talk a bit about this sigh. The first thing you might notice is that the sign is really low to the ground. It’s just about the right height for a Hobbit to read it comfortably! The second thing you might notice is that the Maori names are really hard to pronounce. Let’s take Whakapapa Village for instance. In Maori, “Wha” is an “Fa” sound (don’t ask me why). So it is pronounced Fa Ka Pa Pa Village. Say that fast and it’s even funnier than Fak Fak in Irian Jaya. I wonder if they have a place called Muthawhaka Village. I’ll have to Google that. I digress. Another thing to note on the sign is the “Car Park”. No, that’s not a place where cars go to frolic around. It’s a parking lot. I also like the part of the sign that says (may take longer in bad weather). Well duh… Especially since your Hobbit height sign will be buried in snow so you who’t have a clue which way Fa Ka Pa Pa really is.


I didn’t see the mountains from Lake Taupo because of the clouds, but from the mountains, I had a nice view of the lake in the distance.


Mount Doom! I’m going to have to Photoshop this to add some glowing lava. Hey, if Peter Jackson could do it, I should be able to also.


This is Mount Doom with no clouds. Mordor is in the foreground. There be Orcs here.


A Mordor Panorama.


In Lord of the Rings, they had to light huge signal fires on the mountain tops to call for their allies to help. Now they have Microwave towers instead.