April 26th, New Zealand Day 11

These are photos I took on my eleventh day in New Zealand.

As we traveled up the coast, I took this photo of Kapiti Island where the world famous Haka was born. 

This is photo of the crater of Mount Ruapehu which served as Orodruin, Mount Doom, in "The Lord of the Rings" series of movies. Filming was done on the other side. 

This is the first of 4 photos which form a panorama of Mount Ruapehu. 

Photo 2 

Photo 3 

Photo 4 

These are some mountians not too far from Mount Ruapehu. They are typical of the topography of the area. 

This is a shot concentrating on the crater of Mount Ruapehu. Even covered in snow and clouds, it is still intimidating which explains why it was used for Mount Doom. 

This is Mount Ruapehu from another angle. 

These are just some other mountains that are near to Mount Ruapehu. 

These cloud covered mountains are Mounts Tongariro and Ngauruhoe, who lie beside Mount Ruapehu. 

This is Lake Taupo, a water filled crater. The tour stopped for lunch in the town which shares its name with the lake. By the lake it was especially windy. 

On the way to Rotorua, the tour stopped at the very turbulent Aratiatia Rapids which are spanned by a bridge. This is how the rapids looked from one side of the bridge. 

This is a photo of the other side of the rapids. 

This is Rotorua as it appeared from the cablecar that took us up the mountain. 

This is Lake Rotorua as seen form the top of the mountain where we went luging. 

This is Rotorua lit up at night from the cablecar that took us back down the mountain.