Piriaka - A Secret Place in Middle Earth

On a road trip, one never knows the surprises that will be around the next curve.  On hwy 4, we were traveling to Te Kuiti and the Waitomo Caves and saw a road sign "Piriaka Overlook."  Peter Jackson had a difficult decision to select what quant village will become The Shire.  This was actually more beautiful then the Alexander Sheep Farm that was used to build Hobbiton.  This is middle earth of rolling hills, evergreens, winding rivers and lush woodlands. It was pure New Zealand and a secret place where tourist don't travel.

Mt. Ruapehu A Painting in the Sky

 

 

 Another photo of Mt. Ruapehu against a backdrop of rain clouds.

The Rainy Day
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Whakapapa Ski Resort On a Summer's Day

 

Whakapapa Ski Area on the north-western slopes of Mt Ruapehu is New Zealand's largest ski area. The drive to the ski resort was astounding, the view was spectacular as far as the eye could see.  It was summer when we visited and it was too windy and cloudy to ride the ski lift so the next best thing was to eat lunch at the Lorenzs' Bar and Café and sight see the valley below.  On a cloudy, windy and misty summer's day, I cannot help but think of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18.

A Summer's Day

William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
     So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
     So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Mt. Ruapehu - A Maori Love Story

 

Mt. Ruaphue and the surrounding valley was visually stunning. There is a lot of moss at Mt. Ruaphue and it is endangered and very old. It is is the tallest mountain in the North Island and very sacred lands to the local Maori Iwi (tribes).  Scenes from The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey was filmed at Mt. Ruaphue. They had to construct a scaffolding to protect the moss and other plants.

Maori Legend of Mounts Ruapehu and Taranaki (Egmont)

 

Ruapehu, the beautiful maid, was married to Taranaki. One day, while her husband was away hunting, she was wooed and won by Tongariro. When Taranaki returned at the end of the day he surprised the guilty pair. A titanic battle ensued in which Taranaki was defeated. He retreated towards the west coast, carving out the course of the Wanganui River as he went. When he reached the coast he moved northwards to the western extremity of the North Island, where he rested. Taranaki, now sits in silence looking towards his wife and his rival. In spite of her infidelity, Ruapehu still loves her husband and sighs occasionally as she remembers him, while the mist, which drifts eastward from his head, is the visible sign of Taranaki's love for her. For his part, Tongariro, who despairs of ever possessing her again, smokes and smoulders with anger.

A Rainy Taranaki Falls Track

 

 

 

 

 

 

 When you are on vacation and you have a tight schedule, you don't allow rain to get in your way.  Taranaki Falls Track was hiked on a cloudy and rainy day.  The track is a two-hour loop that starts from Whakapapa Village to Taranaki Falls. The falls is on the Wairere Stream. Visibility was very poor but it made some interesting photos with hanging clouds, foggy overlooks and misty streams.

'A Room With A View' Whakapapa Village

This was the back deck from our room at Whakapapa Village.  Mt. Tongariro is the large mountain in the above photo.  Taranaki Falls Trail started at the Village. There were only two places to eat and there were no shops. The view was spectacular in all directions.

Quotes from "Room with a View" by E.M. Forster

“It isn't possible to love and part. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.”

“When I think of what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love; it is one of the moments for which the world was made.”

   

“The armour of falsehood is subtly wrought out of darkness, and hides a man not only from others, but from his own soul.”
― E.M. Forster, A Room with a View  

  

E.M. Forster (1879 - 1970), was an novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society.
 He had five novels published in his lifetime, achieving his greatest success with A Passage to India (1924) which takes as its subject the relationship between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the British Raj.

The Majestic Clouds of Mt. Ngauruhoe aka Mount Doom

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the view from our hotel room at Whakapapa Village in Tongariro National Park.  Mt. Ngauruhoe was Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings.  They filmed quite a lot of the Mount Doom scenes in Lord of the Rings, such as Sam carrying Frodo up the cliffs. It is a conical, single-vent volcano with perfectly symmetrical slopes.  Due to rainy weather and approaching storms, the clouds would eventually cover Mt. Ngauruhoe with their hues of pink and golden fingers.

 

Mount Doom From Lord of the Rings

 



Orakei Korako 'The Hidden Valley' and the Mudcake Cafe'

 

 

 

 

 

 

Orakei Korako 'The Hidden Valley'  is a highly active geothermal area most notable for its series of fault-stepped sinter terraces, located in a valley north of Taupo on the banks of the Waikato River. It was an extraordinary spectrum of rainbow colors, gushing geysers, and bubbling mud pools.  My friend Nancy and I ate at the Mudcake Cafe' which has stunning views of the Waikato River. One of the reasons we selected to visit the park because it is located off the beaten track between Taupo and Rotorua and there were very few tourist or local visitors there.  No crowds and the country drive was enjoyable. I felt like this was the real New Zealand.
The park has had some famous visitors. The Hobbit cast including Director Peter Jackson, Actors  Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis, Richard Armitage and Sir Ian McKellen visited the park during the filming of The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey.