Taupo to Whakahoro (Blue Duck Lodge), then to National Park and the Gates of Mordor

After an awesome few days in Taupo, time to get on the road again. 

 First stop; Blue Duck Lodge. This is a remote station in the middle of the Wop wops (Kiwi slang for the middle of nowhere). It's a massive farm, about 44 kilometres from the nearest town. They run a lot of conservation projects, mainly looking after the Blue Duck (or Whio) itself, which is an endangered species. They also make honey, have alot of sheep and cows, and do tourist activities. 

View from the lodge we were staying in

 Also got a chance to catch up with Gary from Aberystwyth who's been living and volunteering on the farm since February. Official job title, Eco Warrior. He's been loving it, and this ex vegetarian told me how he shot skinned, cooked and ate a deer. Pretty Impressed. 

 The downside to this day was that it was pouring it down. So instead of doing a horse trek, I decided to clay pigeon shoot instead. We did  ten shots, five practise shots and then five competition shots. In the first five I got three, was quite pleased. In the second five... Well, I got three in the practise round ok? Now don't ask again. 

 One of the things about being this far removed from anywhere; power issues. The power was off more than on in the evening, but there was an awesome little fire in the lodge, so it was a case of chilling out in front of it for the evening. There was one girl complaining about the situation and suggesting they have generators for all the huts. Don't think she quite got the Eco message they were trying to live by... 

 Worst nights sleep so far though. Never take the top of a metal bunk-bed when it's not attached to anything. Whenever the guy below moved, my bed moved an extra inch or two in either direction. So no sleep and no shower in the morning, you can imagine how happy I was...

National Park

One of the big draws of this area is the Tongariro Crossing. A 19k walk between two mountains, Mount Tongariro  (Tong-a-rare-o) and Mt. Ngauruhoe (Nah-roo-ho-ay) . Probably more of a draw since that area became Mordor in Lord of the Rings, and Ngauruhoe became Mount Doom. My leg is still hurting at times from the tattoo (Almost stopped scabbing, ready for photo soon!), so I decided not to do a massive walk. Instead, got a shower at the hostel, and our driver Snowflake (they all have nick-names, Snowflake works winter seasons on a ski field. My first driver Scratch had an unfortunate incident with a newly painted bus) took four out of six of us on another little trip for no extra  which was great, as he lives around here and knows the area really well.

 First we went to the information centre at the base of another mountain, Ruapehu, where he works in the winter. Loads of info on Volcanoes (all of the mountains here are volcanoes pretty much). It's very humbling knowing that at any time you could be burnt to death by lava or choked on ash.

 We went up the mountain (in the bus!) to have lunch and then went for a 15 minute walk. This did give us the bonus of being able to walk to the Gates of Mordor:

Mounth Ruapehu. This is one of my favourite photos I've taken so far.

That's Mount Doom in the cloud, you can see the snow. Aparently they had to wait for days to get a clear shot. And then went and added all the CGI. 

The Gates of Mordor (or where they are in the movie).

I felt very pleased that we didn't have to do a greuling walk but still got to see the stunning scenery of the region (especially as there's just been a big thunder storm too!). I am a bit annoyed I didn't do the actual crossing, but still glad I saw what I did.

 After this we had a quick walk to a waterfall on a river that comes from on the the glaciers before heading back to the hostel. Wierd mix of sun, snow and rain all in a day.