Day 53: Selfie Road Trip - Tongariro, Mount Doom to Otaki

Last night I got chatting to a random trio of travellers made up of one pretty drunk and broke Bristolian Kiwi (who was still getting over the fact he had lost his car keys on the Tongariro Crossing), one an emphatic Argentinian determined (I think jokingly :p) to get down to the bottom of the issue of the Faulkland Islands, and a fresh faced eighteen year old American kid who does the best accents I have heard in a long while...

Anyway, it turned out hey were going their separate ways after 2 months together and the American, named Sawyer, was planning to hitchhike. Mother hen kicks in and I could not let this guy hitchhike his way south and so I gained a passenger on the Selfie Road trip (pictured).

Gutted that I couldn't do the Tongariro Crossing with so little time on my hands, I dragged Sawyer to do a short walk I'm Tongariro National Park just so I could at least see Mordor and Mount Doom for myself. You can see why Peter Jackson felt inspired, this beast of a volcano, with another huge snow capped volcano just a coupl of miles to the south, feels very intimidating. I'm just going to have to come back to NZ one day and climb it myself. 

Not all was lost though as we the walk took us round a beautiful route that opened up onto a fast stream and another waterfall, Tamaki Falls. We climbed up the rocks and sat ourselves right in front of the falls. The place was dead empty, so so peaceful that I could have stayed there all day. 

But I had a big drive ahead so we carried on south through the National Park and down towards Wellington to the busy bustling town of Otaki. Or not, this place is empty (even more so with it being a Sunday) but the motel is adorable. Little caravan like apartments set in a little cottage park. Cute.