We spent the morning walking the first section of the Tongariro circuit.
As we set off, the massive Ruapehu (Ru-a-peh-u) was on our flank, covered in snow on its summit. The perfect cone of Ngauruhoe (nara-ho-i aka Mount Doom) was dominating the skyline ahead of us, however, as you'll see from the photos, this was no Mordor, with the heather flowers and gentle landscape covered in tussock grass.
As day 1 of the circuit is an easy day, there was some discussion of dropping bags at the hut and climbing Ngauruhoe. Day 2 takes you much closer, but is a difficult day without adding this climb.
Fortunately, the cloud rolled in as we approached the hut and took the decision away from us.
Instead, we spent the afternoon drinking tea and chatting to other intrepid explorers.
These included two Dutch guys who will forever before known as 'Bon Jovi' and 'The Viking' (sorry no photos, so we'll that one to your imagination).
There is still the option of Ngauruhoe tomorrow.... We'll have to wait and see.
The day ended with a stunning sunset casting a surreal light over the volcanoes. By a happy coincidence, the sun set directly behind 'Taranaki', the other large volcano on North Island. Though this is 140km away it was very clear on the horizon. It is admittedly tricky to see in the photo.
There, a whole blog post with (almost) no LOTR references. Quite a feat given the location. As difficult as when Frodo had to face the Cave Troll in the mines of Moria...
Oooh, pretty volcanoes! Any marauding Eagles knocking around to carry you up the slopes of Mt Doom?
ReplyDeleteI would also like to point out the cave troll is a film-only interpolation. In the book, Frodo gets stabbed by an Orc chieftain whose head Aragorn then crushes with Andúril (actually, he cuts it in half vertically).
I may have unintentionally revealed I know too much about LOTR.
Sorry Samuel but there was a cave troll in the book. It stuck its foot into the Chamber of Mazarbul (please don't check my spelling!) and Frodo stabbed it with Sting after Boromir's sword bounced off. I do know too much about the book ...
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ReplyDeleteCommence frantic re-reading of the book.....
ReplyDeleteYes, I know there is one in the book, but the whole point is it spends the entire scene outside the chamber after getting mildly-inconvenienced by Frodo and is a relatively minor irritant compared to the mysterious drum-beater who may or may not be the Balrog.... It certainly doesn't tear the place up and then stab him.
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