Trip report: Ithilien.
Mar. 11th, 2008 09:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izardIf you are fond of Tolkien's lyrics like I am, you could find this post entertaining.
Though, it does not have anything to do with LOTR except few photos taken in the places
where they shoot Mt. Doom and Ithilien.
Unless you really love driving, you can't enjoy the place you end up with after 5 hours driving
on the narrow mountain road. So we took a train. It took 10 minutes to sell us a ticket for a lady at the station. She advised us
to buy one way tickets and buy return tickets as we need them at the destination station as it is cheaper. I've refused and bought
return tickets, that appeared as an _extremely_ good idea later.
The station was busy once but now look aging.
The Overlander train goes between Auckland and Wellington every day in Summer and the whole trip takes 8 hours. It is the only long-haul regular passenger train service remaining in
the Northern Island, so the infrastructure looks a bit aging. The train is nice and not crowded,
even on one of the few last remaining sunny weekends like this one. There
is are 2 observation decks to take photos from. The scenery is supposed to be "exceptionally stunning", but I found it quite similar to one I've seen traveling from Munich to Antwerp, especially when we passed Koblentz.
After we passed 300 meters spiral ascent to the central volcanic plateau and National Park, it became impossible to find a spare spot on the observation platforms.
2 hours later we've arrived to Ohakune [o'akune], a small village close to Mt Ruapehu (neighbor to Mt Doom (Ngauruhoe)). Railway station is located in "The junction" neighborhood that is described as "very busy" in the booklet but it probably applies only when there is snow on the mountain. This time of year, it is absolutely deserted, and my wife found it scary. A ghost town.
We've tried couple of hotels, but did not like either price or rooms. A lady at the second hotel had suggested us a "lovely studio", but warned that it could be "a bit noisy" because of Maory funeral in the next building.
Finally, a nice German girl in the information centre had booked us a chalet for just 65$. Tip: there is an "Information centre" in any decent village in New Zealand, and they do know best deals and do help tourists. The place was great. It was about 1km away from the second hotel, but we still were able to hear Maory songs at night if we opened a window. I can imagine how "a bit noisy" it would be nearby...
It was 4PM when we hired a car and went up the mountain.
About 50 years ago residents of Ohakune had built a Ohakune mountain road, 17km road that climbs up for ~900m towards Mt. Ruapehu.
Most of workers were volunteers. It paid off since I guess.
We made 2 side trips from 11km and 13km to view Ithilien landscapes. P. Jackson decided to shoot it as close to Mt.Doom, as it should be according to The Book. From 11th km, it takes 40 minutes to get to the place that resembles Henneth Annûn.
You have to cross a swamp that look like a miniature version of dead marshes of Dagorlad.
Mordor surroundings look very friendly on a sunny autumn 8th of March.
Beautiful but weak waterfall is just 2 minutes away from 13th km sign.
It looks bigger then it is, because trees are tiny at this height.
The station was quite and dead 5 minutes prior to the train arrival. It remain so after 15 minutes the train was due.
There was nobody to sell us tickets if we would need them, and I am certain that the train would had passed the station without stopping if we hadn't bought tickets a day before. (Later on, there were few stops announced like: "we are passing X, a fabulous dairy farming center. We will not stop here because there is no passengers to pick up.")
# of people: 2.
Total time: 31 hours, including 9 hours spent on the train.
$: 350 NZ$, including 200$ for train tickets. (multiply by 0.8$ to get US$)
Conclusion: one of the best possible weekend trips from Hamilton, New Zealand that does not assume flying.
Though, it does not have anything to do with LOTR except few photos taken in the places
where they shoot Mt. Doom and Ithilien.
Unless you really love driving, you can't enjoy the place you end up with after 5 hours driving
on the narrow mountain road. So we took a train. It took 10 minutes to sell us a ticket for a lady at the station. She advised us
to buy one way tickets and buy return tickets as we need them at the destination station as it is cheaper. I've refused and bought
return tickets, that appeared as an _extremely_ good idea later.
The station was busy once but now look aging.
The Overlander train goes between Auckland and Wellington every day in Summer and the whole trip takes 8 hours. It is the only long-haul regular passenger train service remaining in
the Northern Island, so the infrastructure looks a bit aging. The train is nice and not crowded,
even on one of the few last remaining sunny weekends like this one. There
is are 2 observation decks to take photos from. The scenery is supposed to be "exceptionally stunning", but I found it quite similar to one I've seen traveling from Munich to Antwerp, especially when we passed Koblentz.
After we passed 300 meters spiral ascent to the central volcanic plateau and National Park, it became impossible to find a spare spot on the observation platforms.
2 hours later we've arrived to Ohakune [o'akune], a small village close to Mt Ruapehu (neighbor to Mt Doom (Ngauruhoe)). Railway station is located in "The junction" neighborhood that is described as "very busy" in the booklet but it probably applies only when there is snow on the mountain. This time of year, it is absolutely deserted, and my wife found it scary. A ghost town.
We've tried couple of hotels, but did not like either price or rooms. A lady at the second hotel had suggested us a "lovely studio", but warned that it could be "a bit noisy" because of Maory funeral in the next building.
Finally, a nice German girl in the information centre had booked us a chalet for just 65$. Tip: there is an "Information centre" in any decent village in New Zealand, and they do know best deals and do help tourists. The place was great. It was about 1km away from the second hotel, but we still were able to hear Maory songs at night if we opened a window. I can imagine how "a bit noisy" it would be nearby...
It was 4PM when we hired a car and went up the mountain.
About 50 years ago residents of Ohakune had built a Ohakune mountain road, 17km road that climbs up for ~900m towards Mt. Ruapehu.
Most of workers were volunteers. It paid off since I guess.
We made 2 side trips from 11km and 13km to view Ithilien landscapes. P. Jackson decided to shoot it as close to Mt.Doom, as it should be according to The Book. From 11th km, it takes 40 minutes to get to the place that resembles Henneth Annûn.
You have to cross a swamp that look like a miniature version of dead marshes of Dagorlad.
Mordor surroundings look very friendly on a sunny autumn 8th of March.
Beautiful but weak waterfall is just 2 minutes away from 13th km sign.
It looks bigger then it is, because trees are tiny at this height.The station was quite and dead 5 minutes prior to the train arrival. It remain so after 15 minutes the train was due.
There was nobody to sell us tickets if we would need them, and I am certain that the train would had passed the station without stopping if we hadn't bought tickets a day before. (Later on, there were few stops announced like: "we are passing X, a fabulous dairy farming center. We will not stop here because there is no passengers to pick up.")
# of people: 2.
Total time: 31 hours, including 9 hours spent on the train.
$: 350 NZ$, including 200$ for train tickets. (multiply by 0.8$ to get US$)
Conclusion: one of the best possible weekend trips from Hamilton, New Zealand that does not assume flying.
