This morning we set out to climb Mount Doom.
But unlike the film there were many green plants growing along the way.
There was also no shortage of water and a few small waterfalls were present.
You also had to avoid stepping off the path as it was marshy in some places.
Even though we were in the shadows of the surrounding mountains we could see Mt. Doom for most of the walk.
We did take a short detour to see some springs, however it only really seamed to be some waterfalls. We never really figured out if we didn’t walk far enough.
Looking back after a good climb up part of the mountain gave a good appreciation of how far we had walked so far. It also looked far less green than on the way up.
The trails were well maintained as it is one of the busiest walks in New Zealand, even at low season. 
Eventually we got to the foot of Mt. Doom and made our way up.
Unfortunately Mount Doom is an active volcano.
And more importantly it has a smooth cone made up of loose rocks which have a tendency to fall and injure people. Which is much too dangerous for hobbits not on a mission.
So just after second breakfast we veered away from Mount Doom to find a nice place to eat elevensies.
This was the crater of one of the most recent eruptions. The whole area around here was loose ash to walk down.
But in doing so we made it to the emerald lakes. Which are probably the first lakes to actually fit the colour description.
Passing the lakes we could look back at the walk down along the red crater and where the crater blew out.
This was hard work making it here and Matt needed a rest. You can also see the fresh lava on the right from the eruption.
Matt did not seem worried about the dangers ahead.
All we got to experience was flowers.
And views.
And giants craters left by rocks flung out from the previous eruption.
And other views of hot springs we couldn’t go to.
It was a long downhill walk that lasted for four hours.
Slowly walking down the volcanoes for four hours, across rivers, through switchbacks and finally a small forest. But we made it in a total time of 7 hours and it was totally worth it with the beautiful clear skies.
