Mount Ruapehu

Here we are in what looks very like Mordor: vast basalt and lichen wastes, impossible crags and lowering volcanoes. You even hear the strange guttural language of marauding Orcs - though the source is usually just German hikers.

We tried very hard to rest all morning but by 11ish we were on our way to Mount Ruapehu. The drive up to the alpine village was a geography/geology excursion on its own. Eventually we reached the chairlift which can only operate if the weight of all passengers is reduced by thirty dollars.

Between the money and Lyn's obvious unease I doubted we would be going further. However Lyn demonstrated a Bilbo like sense of adventure (after due interrogation of the chairlift operator). He must have impressed as a "nice man" because up we went.

I doubt any of the many photos I took today will convey a sense of this magnificently intimidating  landscape. The trip is actually two chairlifts one after another.

We walked to the point where the trail began to cross snow at which point we turned around. There were spectacular sights all around but the summit had been obscured for hours by the usual cloud. We were walking back toward the chairlift and voila!

Back at the village we did the short walk out to Meads Wall which is one of the Lord of the Rings locations. At the furthest point of this walk there is a volcanic dyke which rears above the glacial valley. Breathstopping. The hobbits got lost here. But we didn't.

We decided that was sufficient adventure for a day so we have returned to our hut. Lyn is sleeping the sleep of the virtuous as I write. Tomorrow we face a very long drive to the Bay of Islands. So long in fact that we might stay somewhere along the way.