Mangawhero Falls-Desert Road
On my long drive from Wellington to Taupo, I took a little detour to visit another "Lord of the Rings" site at Mangawhero Falls, before continuing on the Desert Road through the North Island's Central Volcanic Plateau to Taupo
December 15, 2004

01-OhingaitiLookout Ohingaiti Lookout, a couple hours north of Wellington ... all the photos in this album are from December 15, 2004, when I was making my way from Wellington up to Taupo 02-OhingaitiLookout Ohingaiti Lookout 03-PowerLineSign Power line sign ... I'm tellin ya, the Kiwis are full of interesting signs 04-MountRuapehu Mount Ruapehu, an active volcano in the Central Volcanic Pleateau of the North Island which last erupted in 1997 05-MangawheroFalls Mangawhero Falls & Mangawhero River 06-MangawheroFalls Mangawhero Falls (pronounced 07-MangawheroRiver Mangawhero River 08-MangawheroFalls Mangawhero Falls 09-Cliffs Cliffs 10-GollumGoneFishinSite Mangawhero Falls, where Gollum/Smeagol went fishing by cascading down the river rocks 11-MangawheroRiver Mangawhero River 12-MangawheroRiver Mangawhero River 13-GollumGoneFishin Gollum gone fishin' site ... the night before they were to film that scene with Gollum, it snowed up here, so the LOTR film crew got the local fire department to hose away all the snow ... the river water, however, was still extremely cold, numbing actor Andy Serkis almost instantly, despite his two wetsuits 14-GollumGoneFishin Gollum gone fishin' 15-MangahweroFalls Mangawhero Falls 16-MangawheroFalls Mangawhero Falls 17-TenaciousFlowers These must be some tenacious flowers to be growing where they are 18-MangawheroFalls Mangawhero Falls 19-MangawheroRiver Mangawhero River 20-MangawheroRiver Mangawhero River 21-MangawheroFalls Mangawhero Falls 22-MangawheroLookout Mangawhero Lookout ... technically, you weren't supposed to go beyond the barrier of the lookout, but I was being careful :-) 23-MangawheroRiver Mangawhero River 24-OhakuneCountryside Pretty countryside near Ohakune, the town just south of Mangawhero Falls and Mount Ruapehu 25-MtRuapehu Mt Ruapehu 26-DesertRoad Desert Road ... the three volcanoes in the Central Plateau, Mt Ruapehu, Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe (the real-life Mount Doom), shield this region of the North Island from most moisture, hence the somewhat 27-DesertRoad Desert Road, between Ohakune and Taupo 28-DesertRoadRainbow Desert Road rainbow 29-DesertRoadStorm Desert Road storm

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