Day 23 & 24 - Wellington - Mount Ruapehu - Mount Viktoria - Harbor - Lord of the Rings (Mountain of Destiny, "Get off the Road!", "Frodo's Tree")

On Wednesday the time had come, the longest drive from Taupo to Wellington with just over 5 hours was about to take place and we were supposed to drive past Tongariro National Park - more precisely: Mount Ruapehu aka Mount Doom, or in German: Mount Doom 😁.

The journey got off to a good start: I thought we should head south straight away. The navigation system sent us north and completely around Lake Taupo. Of course this is complete nonsense 😁. Of course we drove the Roisch route (which I “knew”) and immediately came to the SH1 road that we were supposed to drive along. Unfortunately, it was completely blocked. Finally we had to go north around the lake, drive around the place and back onto SH 1 😅. During the journey we experienced a real moment of terror. Suddenly we were already driving on the Desert Road and drove past all the towns, but we didn't notice it 🤷🏼‍♂️. Then nothing comes at all - except desert, but the tank was no longer so full of octane 91... Then a little panic sets in 😅. We took a break and took pictures of Mount Doom to calm ourselves down. That was somehow relieving and really calming 😊. After all, I have the ring with me... (had?) 😁. I was really looking forward to the mountain like a little child and even looked in advance from where you could admire it best. It probably sounds crazy, but as a fan it's a very important part of the expedition 😃. But since we drove differently anyway and got slightly lost, things didn't go as planned. It was still nice though! There was also the idea of taking a hike up there. But because of the very extensive tour in sub-zero temperatures, we decided against it. We don't have any clothes for that either 😅. What a shame! Strangely enough, at the end of the stop all was right with the world again. Resolution: The fuel needle “recovered” and we drove more or less relaxed to the next town 😆.

We left at 10:12 a.m. and arrived at the hotel around 5:45 p.m. It is very interesting to watch how the landscape changes as the journey progresses. At first there were hills and “smaller” mountains everywhere, which were all green and less forested. There are a lot of sheep and cows on these. Further on came bigger mountains and more forest. At the push of a button there was suddenly a desert (basically Mordor😅). The further south we went, the flatter the country became and it even looked like agriculture 😅. When we arrived in Wellington, we could see mountain ranges again - especially near the coast.

The next morning I returned the rental car to the airport after 3 laps of honor after driving around 1100 km. In the meantime - and since arriving at the hotel - Elisa has washed the laundry in the room's own washing machine (and dried it in the dryer). I don't think I've seen her this happy since New York 😅. We are now fully equipped again 👍🏻.

Afterwards we had lunch and were actually in the mood for a burger. But it was good 👍🏻 Afterwards we went up Mount Victoria and had a very nice view of Wellington. What followed was one of my personal highlights: We walked down the mountain and passed filming locations from Lord of the Rings (“Get off the road”, Frodo’s tree). The location was actually signposted “Get off the road”. But I thought we should take other routes because then we could visit more locations. We don't even know exactly where we have been. Somehow we ended up on the bike cross route and the path wasn't as comfortable as we had hoped 😂. After a while we found the official route again and followed it. At a fork in the road, a teenager asked us if he could help us. Apparently we looked very helpless. I asked him about different locations. All he knew was “Get off the streets.” Afterwards I explained to him which scenes were filmed here 😃.

Then the spot was in front of us 🤗. Oh, that was nice. But the root was relatively small and manageable. They cheated quite a bit. The tree doesn't even exist. It was inserted digitally. Nevertheless, it was really cool and I saw myself as part of Middle-earth 🧝🏼‍♂️🧙🏼‍♂️🏹⚔️. Luckily we didn't see a Nazgul 😁. We only recognized Frodo's tree afterwards because the path was flattened and someone was already sitting there. The closer we got to the tree, the clearer it became that it could basically only be that tree. The girl on site had the same opinion. She probably injured her foot slightly while climbing up. That didn't stop me from climbing the tree at all. Everything wasn't a problem 👍🏻. I told her about the other filming location and she went there. People help each other 😁. Then we hiked downhill happy and content 🤗.

In the late afternoon, when the weather was great, we visited the harbor and treated ourselves to an ice cream there. Wellington is a beautiful city nestled in a harbor bay surrounded by mountains. The water has a beautiful color (turquoise). Elisa said: You would think you were in Cape Town.

In the evening we cooked pasta and drank wine. We wanted to go to bed on time because the next morning - for once - we went out early (irony) 😁.

Goodnight from Kaikura 😴