![]() ![]() The four-day walk passes through old lava flows that have eroded into black-and-red sand deserts, dotted here and there with a hump of pale white moss or a spray of neon yellow wildflowers. The Northern Circuit circumnavigates Mount Ngauruhoe, better known to the world as the Lord of the Rings' Mount Dhoom. The trio of volcanoes were donated to the British Crown and became the country's first National Park in 1894. The North Island is not known for its multitude of mountains: the area's three lone peaks - Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu - stand isolated, rising up from the surrounding farmland. Tongariro National Park (also known as the setting for Mordor, the fictional universe of Middle-earth in JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.)īest known tracks: Tongariro Crossing/Northern Circuit From north to south, four hikes provide a diverse sampling of New Zealand's ecosystems. And best of all, with a full third of the country designated as National Parks and a hands-on Department of Conservation, the tracks are obsessively maintained, with backcountry huts that feel more like stripped-down inns. Moreover, the hiking is some of the most hassle-free in the world, with no snakes, poisonous insects, large predators or even significant altitude to contend with, as the scenery at 4,000 feet rivals the Andes at 14,000. Related photo gallery: New Zealand’s ecosystemsįrom the semi-tropical beaches of Cape Reinga to the glaciers of Franz Josef, and from the fiords of Milford and Doubtful, over the Southern Alps, to the plains of Canterbury, New Zealand packs stunning examples of Earth's most beautiful ecosystems into a land mass the size of Colorado.Or, you might whisper, “Skip all that and just spend two weeks walking around New Zealand.” If a traveller from another planet wanted to visit some of the Earth’s greatest landscapes, you might diplomatically send him to Nepal’s Himalayas for icy mountains, Tanzania's Serengeti for endless plains, Brazil’s Amazon for lush rainforests, Australia’s Gold Coast for beaches and the United States’ Yellowstone for volcanic splendour.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |