WORLD TRIP: NEW ZEALAND: Tongariro, kiwis, glow-worms, Hobbits and back to Auckland

Tongariro - Auckland

Tongariro National Park is towards the bottom end of the North Island, and has three volcanoes - Mount Ruapehu (highest peak in the North Island at 2,797m), Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Tongariro - which rise up from a flat plateau covered with Tussock grass and flax. The volcanoes are active and Mount Ruapehu was on alert level 1 (the same as White Island). Of the three, Mount Ngauruhoe is the most striking, capped in snow, and with a perfect conical volcano shape. The area was used in the Lord of the Rings films as the setting for the land of “Mordor” and Mount Ruapehu doubles for “Mount Doom.” So that’s mainly why we went there. When we arrived the ski runs had just closed, and the summer season hadn't really got going, so it was very quiet. We stayed at the Mountain Heights Lodge, a handy location on State Highway 4, just outside the village of National Park. It was comfortable, but empty (apart from us).

Tongariro Scenic Flight (19 November)
We had only one full day in Tongariro and the weather was fantastic, so we went to the airstrip as early as possible to try for a scenic flight with Mountain Air. Luckily we could go up almost straight away…and what a spectacular flight it was! We were in a five-seater Cessna 206 and had 45 minutes in the air flying across all three volcanoes, over the emerald lakes of the Tongariro Crossing and out towards Lake Taupo. The best bit was the superb view of Mount Ruapehu’s crater lake from a few hundred metres above. It really was unforgettable.

Back on the ground we went walking for the rest of the day; following a track up through mountain beech forest and across a plain to reach a terrace covered with white silica deposits. The volcanoes were in view most of the time and I took loads of pictures, especially Mount Ngauruhoe. During the afternoon it got quite hot (around 25C - the hottest day we experienced in New Zealand).

Back to Auckland via the Glow-worm Caves, a Kiwi House and Hobbiton (20 November)
We had the Lord of the Rings location guidebook, and read that the Hobbiton film set was still intact, with tours operating from Matamata, a small town about half way between Tongariro and Auckland. We realised we’d could do the tour on our way back to Auckland, the only difficulty being that we’d already planned to go to Waitomo Glow-worm Caves and visit Otorohanga Kiwi House on the same day!

We needed to be in Matamata by 3pm, so we left Tongariro really early and drove to Waitomo, where we made the first tour of the morning. Apparently this is one of the top attractions in New Zealand, and we were anticipating a tacky tourist show. Fortunately we managed to get ahead of a couple of coach parties that had just arrived, and the tour was actually surprisingly good. You get a walk in the caves first, then everyone piles into a little boat which glides slowly through a flooded grotto where you see the thousands of tiny blue-green lights made by the glow-worms. They hang on the sides and the roof of the chamber and look like stars in the sky. Too dark for any photos though.

As soon as the tour finished we rushed straight to the exit and continued on to the nocturnal kiwi house at Otorohanga. The birds were very obliging and strutted around their enclosures for us. We saw both brown and spotted kiwis, and they were generally bigger and more robust-looking than I'd expected. Again too dark for photos, but no matter because luckily there was a good photo opportunity outside. Now having dispatched the glow worms and kiwis in good time we drove up to Matamata and made it with over an hour to spare.

The Hobbiton tour was great! We had our photos taken outside the Hobbit Holes and poked our heads through the windows of “Bag End” (Bilbo and Frodo Baggins’ home). It was fascinating stuff (though you certainly need to be a big fan to appreciate it all really) and the attention to detail was amazing. Things like replacing the tree over “Bag End” with another one selected for being a better size and shape. Each branch of the replacement tree was chopped up, numbered, and then transported from its original location to the site, where it was reconstructed by bolting all the branches back together in the right sequence. Not only that but they imported several thousand plastic oak leaves from Taiwan and individually attached each one onto the twigs and branches of the now dead tree!

The whole set was built on a large farm set amongst lush green rolling hills, and it was easy to see why it had been chosen. We had a couple of knowledgeable guides who explained how the place was transformed into “The Shire.” One story goes that when Peter Jackson and the location team first turned up at the farm, the family were all watching the rugby on TV…they told them to come back later after the game had finished and closed the door...

A very full day and a lot of driving, but very satisfied that we'd done all we'd planned. Arrived back in Auckland by evening and checked into the Best Western Airport Motor Inn. This place was a dump but fortunately it was only for one night before our early morning flight to Christchurch.

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