Mordor is more colorful than you'd think. While the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy featured the slopes of the perfect cinder cone Mt. Ngaurahoe as Mount Doom and its surrounding volcanic fields as the Black Land, much of the rest of New Zealand's thermal region sports colors more apropos to a bushel of gems. The Waikato River outside of Taupo flows turquoise through Huka Falls, and at Wai-O-Tapu, lakes come in colors like lime green and teal with an ochre fringe.
For more information: National Park
