NZ North Island Turnee 2008

We got up at five and started our drive to Owhango & Tongariro National Park. We took the Tours of the Rings around national park to see different filming locations of LOTR. The guide was a bit weird chap, but we got to see many interesting and amazing places. It was really foggy day so we couln't see the mountains, but the weather was kind of perfect to go to Mordor... We started at a short walk to Tawhai Falls which served as a Forbidden Pool in the movies. From there we drove up to mt Ruapehu and Whakapapa skiing area, which was the place where Mordor scenes were filmed.

Because of the mist we couldn't really see mt Ngauruhoe which was mt Doom in the movies. From mordor we drove to Turoa ski fiel and Mangawhero falls where some Ithilien scenes and the scene where Gollum tries to catch a fish were filmed. The tour took seven hours and after that we were pretty exhausted. We drove to Owhango where we stayed at the Forrest Lodge and actually got the whole house just for us There weren't many options for dinner so we walked to Owhango hotel and ordered some lamb - and surprisingly it was just brilliant .