Caution – Julie wrote this post

Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 19.4 km hike, was next on the list.  This hike included sights of Mount Doom from The Lord of the Rings and numerous other beautiful sight seeing opportunities. It is a trek over steep volcanic terrain with many different changes in the scenery. There were parts that looked like Mars, a still active and steaming volcanic vent, crater lakes, a forest, and a lake surrounded by grasslands.  Needless to say, we had lots of variety during the hike.  Also, on this trek, we learned Lyle has taken the selfie craze to a whole new level (see picture below)…  We weren’t able to take as many pictures as we would have liked due to the fact that parts of the hike were near the active volcano so we were told not to lollygag about.