Mount Doom and Christmas

Day 178

"Think of me long enough to make a memory"

Yes, it's been few days since last entry but quite frankly this is my first opportunity to access internet with ability to upload any content for almost week. Last entry was written in Taupo and I wrote how much I was looking forward to see familiar faces again. No, this most definetly didn't mean that I was returning home, not by long shot. If Moses could not go to the mountain then mountain had to come to Moses. So it ment that my cousin Tuulia and her spouse Sami came to New Zealand to celebrate Christmas and New Year with me.

We met in Taupo and continued trip towards south. Next stop was to be one of the most epic locations in entire country, Tongariro National Park and also home of various locations used in LOTR-movies such as Mount Doom and Mordor. My plan was to do the day walk called Tongariro Crossing which is regarded as the best day walk in entire world. I was very lucky with weather since the day I had planned my walk turned out to be amazing, Mount Doom was waiting for me in clear blue sky.

If I would say that walk and landscapes were breathtaking, it would again be understatement. There are no words to describe the beauty of it. So I'm just going to shut up and let pictures speak for themselfs. Be sure to check bigger versions as well and you will get a tiny taste of what it was like.



Walk was rated as challenging, 20km long with 900m height difference and was suppose to take 7-8hr for any average tramper...I did it in 4h20min and managed to take 100+ pics on the way :)

After magnificient scenery in Tongariro we started heading down south towards our Christmas location. There wasn't many things to see on the road...apart from this giant carrot which Tuulia just wanted to hug...

...also I got kicked in the ass by this giant gumboot...

...and this windy gorge.

On way we stopped for one night in place called Palmerston North...less is said about that place the better...again. If landscapes are magnificient here then on contrary cities and townships in New Zealand are really not that pretty or appealing at all.

Finally on 23rd we arrived to Martinborough were I had booked a holiday house which was to be our Christmas location for 2 nights. Reason I chose Martinborough for Christmas was it's wineries and location close to Wellington. House was amazing and I think we really managed to make luxury Christmas from pretty crappy food selection local "supermarket" had. Oh, and I also cut down branch from pine tree nearby to create something resembling xmas tree :)

Now it's 25th and we have reached Wellington. Because Tuulia and Sami are on tight schedule we have only 1 day here. Tomorrow morning at 4:50am we need to check in at a ferry which will take us to south island and towards even more impressive locations.

I was I could write more details, but I'm suffering from annoying and resilient flu and sitting in front of screen aint helping it. Hopefully next entry from south island will have more details in it.

Take care all and Merry (late)Christmas!