miscellaneous rambling

Just coming back from my trip to New Zealand, I have to say that my most memorable days were of mountains and seas. This post is from the first.
This is the World heritage site, Tongariro National Park on the North Island of New Zealand.
More specificially, it's a shot of Mt. Ngaurahoe,which most people ( fans of LOTR at least), will know as Mt. Doom.

I tried to make notes of all LOTR film locations, but I realized that unless I spent some money on a few books, it just wasn't going to be worth the time to do it online. ~ and I didn't want to buy the books.

BUT, this was one place I knew was from the movie, and plus that fact that it's a world heritage site, and then that it's just simply amazing for it's scenery makes it all and all one of the top days in kiwiland.

Of course, Mt. Doom looks different in the day and when it's not done up with computer effects. I was still at least hoping for a bit more similarity to be honest. A bit more darkness, and smoke. But in fact, we had the best weather that day, and the clouds did clear occasionally, so that if you were patient, and looking carefully, you could get a shot of the clear volcano top.

Many people have asked me how my trip was into Middle Earth, as well as other LOTR refrences. I didn't see any LOTR fanatics there, and I was one of the few in my party who had even read the books or seen the movies. And to answer once again, no, I didn't see any hobbits or orcs. I would have loved to have seen a Nazgul flying over Mt. Doom though. Of course, I"d probably not be able to be writing this now then..