New Zealand's Chateau Tongariro Hotel: Afternoon tea in the shadow of Mount Doom
I don't know which is more remarkable – the mountain I can see through the window, or the hotel I'm standing in. Mount Ngauruhoe is impressive – high, dark, forbidding, and one of three volcanoes clustered together in Tongariro National Park, in the centre of New Zealand's North Island. Conical in shape, it appeared in The Lord of the Rings films as the grim Mount Doom, which Frodo had to climb to dispose of the cursed ring. It's currently dormant, its most recent eruption beings in the mid-'70s. Having said all that, this hotel is also a marvel. The Chateau Tongariro Hotel opened in...