Advertised as „New Zealand’s best dayhike“ we went for it, of course. Featuring the real Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings, craters and active volcanos, this is truly an awesome hike. It’s almost 20 kilometers one way, so you either book transportation by bus back to your starting point where you’ve parked your car (which was completely out of the question for us – 30 Dollars per Person for 20 kilometers driving, what a ripp-off!) or, like we did, hike it halfway to the highest point, from where you can see all the attractions and then return.

You could also take a detour to climb the top of Mount Doom (or Mount Ngauruhoe, what it’s actually called). We didn’t because it’s very steep and strenuous. In the end we probably could have done it; going back only took us half the time we needed to get up. All in all it was a partly nervwrecking hike, the icy wind on top was especially hard, but absolutely worth it.The views are nothing less but spectacular.