Better Weather in Wellingon and Following Frodo up Mount Doom

Our adventure on the North Island started in Wellington, the nation's capital and a beautiful coastal city reminiscent of San Francisco (though not quite as hilly or densely populated). After our late arrival into the central business district, we made our way the next morning to the Te Pau museum, which vastly exceeded our expectations. The museum was an amalgamation of art, nature and science, Māori culture, and more. Perhaps most interesting were full size Maori made boats (which traversed the Pacific from islands like Hawaii and Fiji all the way to New Zealand, like around 12-1400CE) and carved wood ceremonial buildings. Another fascinating exhibit tracked the arrival non-native flora and fauna to New Zealand, how it likely arrived and what impacts there had been. Given the day of the week, we had the added benefit of enjoying a weekly farmers market outside along Wellington's lovely oceanfront boardwalk.

Within walking distance were several other museums and cultural institutions; Dana and I stepped into the Wellington museum while Peggy and Wayne went on a tour of parliament. Later we made our way down to the beach and all enjoyed a very brisk ocean swim together before grabbing dinner and retiring for the evening.

The next day we traversed the botanic gardens before making our way north to Tongariro National park, which would serve as our jump off point for several hikes. In addition to being home to stunning vistas and volcanos, the namesake point was featured in Lord of the Rings (Mt Doom). We had planned to do a well traversed hike, the Tongariro Crossing, over the peak and past several other craters, sometimes claimed to be the "world's best day hike."

Due to less than cooperative weather (aka rainy, cold forecast, and ominous sock-you-in cloud cover) we altered our plans and hiked to the Tama Lakes while Peggy and Wayne did a somewhat shorter venture from the same trailhead to some waterfalls. This also turned out to be a very enjoyable dayhike, with views over the volcanic landscape, aquamarine water, and lucky for us some sunny weather early on in the day. At the top we even got a stunning view of Mount Ruapehu, Mount Doom!

As memorable as the hikes was our accommodations at the Skotel Alpine resort, which serves as a ski chalet in the winter and housed a wide range of travelers. It offered a nice communal kitchen and dining area with patio views of the volcanoes in the park as well as individual rooms with their own patios. We made and shared dinner (lamb, with couscous and vegetables, of course, made by Wayne) with a delightful family from California, where the mother had actually worked at the resort some 40 years earlier and shared stories of her travels and their experiences.

From there we traveled further inland to Rotorua, which I’ll cover in the next post.

These intricately carved long boats are an important part of Maori culture.

A scaled model of the style boats that were sailed across the entire Pacific Ocean!

A list of flora and fauna that was brought by humans to New Zealand.

A nice swim in the ocean of the Wellington beach.

One of the waterfalls we in enjoyed in Tongariro National Park.

Tama Lakes with Mt Doom in the background!

Skotel Alpine Resort was a memorable stay.