National Park with the Chus

Hello, Tom here.  Evelyn's parents came to visit us and we took a trip down to National Park where the volcanoes are.  We stopped, as we often do, at the best cafe on SH1, Licorice Cafe, for some delicious coffee and a meat pie for Aidan.  We also made a stop in Turangi so that Evelyn could show her folks the clinic where she works.  Aidan would have eaten a second meat pie there if we'd let him, but we draw the line at third breakfasts.

Here is a cool view of Tongariro, the old man volcano, seen across Rotoaira.  You can see a puff of cloud where the volcano is pretty much always venting.

Jasper is conserving energy because he worried we are taking him on a long hike later.

When we arrived at Ruapehu, we headed up to Whakapapa, the ski resort.  This is a shot of Happy Valley where we skied back in winter with the boys.  Now there is no snow, so you can see the bare mountainside.  See the poles for the ski lift?

The main lift had just reopened that day for the summer, so we rode to the cafe up on the side of the mountain.  This is a view from the chairlift.  That waterfall wasn't there in the winter.

Here are the Pinnacles.  You might remember them from the photos from a previous blog entry.  I skied at the base of them in winter.

The boys enjoyed it, though it was very cold at the top.

Here is the view back down the mountain.

There are no good photos of all of us, but here is the best we have of our little crew, eating lunch at the cafe.  You can see the bottle of L&P on the table ("World Famous in New Zealand!"), Aidan spooning his hot chocolate, and Jasper hiding.

We wanted to go for a hike at the top, but the conditions weren't yet really hike-ready.  There was still a lot of snow on the trail, so we didn't get very far.  Here is Jasper, checking it out.

Here is Evelyn, making her way across the snow.

Another awesome view of the Pinnacles:

Evelyn and Jasper dancing at the base of the Pinnacles:

Aidan, scaling them:

The dude at the bottom of the lift offered to take our picture.  The picture is a bit blurry, but here we all are with Mount Doom in the background:

Cool photo of Mount Doom:

So, you might have been thinking, "Man, Tom, that landscape looks harsh and desolate.  It could almost stand in for the area around Mordor.  Are you sure that area wasn't featured in the Lord of the Rings films?"  Well, I've got this to tell you - you are right!  The opening scenes of The Two Towers were filmed here.  Remember the capture of Gollum?  Check out the photo below!  That crazy rocky outcropping is called Mead's Wall.

Gollum was caught right there.  There's naught left in him but lies and deceit, but I have to believe he can come back.  That area is covered in very strange rock formations.  Here is another cool one:

Evelyn in front of another one:

This one looks like it could get up and start talking like the Rockbiter in Neverending Story any second now:

This place is about a ten minute walk from the ski area, but is perched over a deep crevasse and is fairly dangerous.  You can see it behind me here.

This is the dramatic front of Mead's Wall.  It is huge.  Frodo and Sam stood here.

Maybe we can just smash this ring with a hammer.  Not sure it needs to be carried all the way to Mordor.

The National Park is great in summer and looks completely different than it did in winter.  We'll have more in a future blog post.  I can't wait to do the Tongariro Crossing in February!