Filming locations in Tongariro

Tongariro National Park is a volcanic landscape of ash plains and a near-perfect cone, and it doubled as Mordor. The park's bleak grey flats and the symmetrical peak of Mount Ngauruhoe stood in for the slopes of Mount Doom and the wastes around it in The Lord of the Rings, a piece of casting that needed no embellishment. Unlike the Shire up the road, this set was never built and never struck; it is simply a working volcano in a national park.

That means the way to experience the screen landscape is on foot. The celebrated Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a strenuous, one-way, full-day hike that carries you across the heart of the scenery, past steaming vents and luminous crater lakes. It needs good weather and a shuttle at each end, since you finish far from where you start, so book that shuttle ahead in summer and watch the forecast closely. This is high alpine country and it makes its own rules.

If a full day of hard walking is not the plan, the park still rewards a lighter touch. Shorter, gentler trails leave from Whakapapa village, giving you the ash plains and the volcanic drama without the commitment of the Crossing. The cone of Ngauruhoe looms over much of it either way, instantly recognisable to anyone who has watched the ring carried toward the fire.

Treat Tongariro as a weather-led destination and keep your plans flexible. Summer offers the most stable conditions and the open Crossing, but cloud can swallow the peaks in any season, so build in a spare day if you can. To the north, Lake Taupo makes a comfortable base with plenty of its own activities, an easy place to retreat to when the mountain decides it would rather not be seen.