Mount Doom

We got up buck early to catch the 6:15am bus to Tongariro Crossing from Taupo. It turned out to be a great day, very nice hike. Volcanic rubble turned into orange sulfur craters and several emerald lakes up at the peak of the hike.

Just a couple of observations not on Shannon and my video.

The weather went from sweating at the base, even at 9 in the morning, to freezing with 50-60km/h winds at the top.

Mount Doom was neat to see.

The peak of Mount Doom is sacred and therefore they were not allowed to film it in Lord of the Rings. Didn't matter because they CG'ed it anyways and made it spill with lava.

What I've noticed is that the Maori have made a lot of things sacred. Excusing my insensitivity, it just seems like a waste not sharing the beauties of the land with others. But I guess that's the point. Aside from the peak of Mount Doom, were some fantastic looking hot springs on the eastern face of Tongariro Mountain. It's kind of like going to Banff area and saying boom, Radium Hot Springs is sacred. Therefore no swimming. Also, Lake Louise, so you can go but no photography. Who knows, maybe it was sacred but just the "white man" didn't listen there.

Exhausted after our hike we had a nice shower back at our motel, did some Bali planning at the Internet cafe and had a huge 700g rump steak at a place called Dixie Brown's. It was quite excessive, even I'll admit to that.