New Zealand - North Island - Tongariro National Park to Wellington - Day 6
December 22, 2005

We set the alarm for 5:30am hoping the weather would be clear for us to see the volcanoes, but after peeking out the window to a view of white fog we went back to sleep. A few hours later and the weather hadn't gotten any better so disappointed we decided to move on, but not before bestowing onto Tongariro National Park the "Most Spectacular View We Didn't See" award.


Tongariro National Park Volcanoes
It didn't look like this for us.

Before we left the area we took a short detour up the side of Mount Ruapehu just outside the ski town of Ohakune. Mangawhero Falls was the destination, a location where a scene from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was filmed. The waterfall itself wasn't shown in the movie, but the stream above that feeds it was - in the scene Frodo and Sam walk along the stream while Gollum splashes about in the water trying to catch a fish. It was freezing cold when we were up there, and apparently when they filmed the scene it had snowed the day before and firemen with hoses had to wash away the snow before they could shoot. So I can't imagine how cold it was for actor Andy Serkis in the water at that temperature.


Gollum's Stream
How it looked in the movie.


Mangawhero Falls
How it looks in real life.

Back in the warm car, it was off to Wellington, with the only real stop on the 300km trip south at Levin for lunch. At 3:30pm we arrived at Fiona's father's cousin Dale's place at Paremata, a suburb north of the Wellington CBD. Dale runs the Marina Motor Lodge and she was kind enough to give us a free room while we were in Wellington. Not just any room though, the largest room we had on the entire trip, complete with a spa bath! For that I give it "The Best Room We Didn't Pay For" Award.


Marina Motor Lodge
Enough Room To Swing A Cat.

With a few hours to kill before dinner we threw some clothes in the wash and headed into the city. After getting lost and making our way through the winding streets and crazy local traffic (who don't slow down on one lane streets when they see you coming, they just scrape your mirrors and climb up the gutters on the way past) we were greeted with 360 degree views of Wellington from the top of Mount Victoria.


Wellington
Viewed from Mt Victoria.

After dodging death again on the way back into town we stopped at Te Papa, Wellington's huge museum. We wandered through the various exhibits on New Zealand's volcanic activity, fauna and maori culture before heading back to the motel for dinner and many drinks with Dale, her husband and her brother. We finally stumbled back to our room around 11pm.

Posted by WetWired
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