Today we drove south from Rotorua to the Tongariro National Park.
On the way, we stopped at an area of intense geo-thermal activity called the Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal Preserve, an amazing landscape of pools, streams, and bubbling mud, all reeking of sulfur. There were a couple of sinkholes, hissing and burbling below, lazy, stinking steam rising out of them—it’s easy to imagine where prehistoric man got some early ideas of the sights, smells, and sounds of the underworld. One of the highlights was the daily eruption of a geyser, about 45 feet into the air.
We drove on to our hotel for the next two nights, at the entrance to Tongariro National Park. This area is a major outdoor activity playground, lots of skiing and alpine hiking. There are three mountains that make up the majority of the park. One of them, Mount Ngauruhoe, was used by Peter Jackson as Mount Doom. We didn’t get any good pictures today, but will try for a better angle tomorrow, as we plan to hike for several miles around the area.