Mt. Doom held out for a while, but finally it submitted. The weather when I arrived was terrible - cold rain with high winds. It stayed that way for the next few days, too.
But I found things to do in the village - yes, I stayed in a village - one pub, two hotels, a camp site, and a visitor center. I put a 500 piece jigsaw together, watched the Lord of the Rings (Two Towers), relaxed in the hotels’s sauna and hot tub, and took short hikes.
Finally, on Tuesday, I did the Tongariro Crossing. It had terrain like I had never seen - I was walking on active volcanos, going over lava flows and previous eruptions (the most recent in 1996). The altitude was low for you Coloradoans - max alt was 1886 meters (so Boulder’s alt), but it was pretty windy, about 50pmh at the summit. But so clear, so dead, it really was Mordor. It was long - 17km - and steep, but well worth it.
Now I’m in Wellington (NZ’s capitol) and back in civilization. I’ve been to the Botanic Gardens - very nice and green, and Te Papa, the national museum. It was very impressive and huge - sharp and polished displays. And now, I await the showtime for the final Lord of the Rings - I’ll be seeing it tonight in the Embassy Theater (where the film was premiered), in a leather recliner. Very good.