Today we walked the Tongariro Crossing, which has been described as the greatest one day walk in all of New Zealand. We had thought about doing a scenic flight over the volcanoes, but funds and the need to burn off calories from eating too much chocolate and ice-cream pushed us towards doing the hike. The Crossing is in Tongariro National Park, New Zealand's first national park, and comprises three volcanoes; Mount Tonaririo, Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu. It was a beautifully clear sunny day so we had fantastic views of the volcanoes; Mount Ruapehu in particular looked fantastic topped with snow as we were driven up to Manatepopo car park by the Mountain Shuttle. The walk started nice and gently and it was t-shirt weather with nice views of the scenary behind us. Further on the wind picked up and the temperature dropped and we were glad of our extra Rohan clothing layers. Up to the Mangatepopo Saddle, the pass between Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe was very steep; we were pretty much rock climbing up to the top. Once at the top we walked through South Crater, a lovely flat walk with great views of the two volacoes. Mount Ngauruhoe is the youngest of the volcanoes and it is estimated to have formed approximately 2500 years ago. It is a single-coned volcanoe and still has a perfectly symmetrical cone-shape. Most importantly for us, Mount Tongariro and Mount Nagauruhoe were used in Lord of the Rings and Mount Nagauruhoe was used as Mount Doom!

After crossing South Crater we had another climb up to the top of Red Crater. The climb up was on top of an exposed ridge and whilst there were great views, it wasn't half windy! Once we could see inside Red Crater we could see where it got it's name; the walls of the crater are a deep red colour. From the top we had a very steep walk down on loose small stones. Again it was very windy, but we took it steady coming down. Our hard work was rewarded though as we saw the Emerald Lakes, which live up to their name as they are a brilliant green colour! After passing the Emerald Lakes we walked through another flat crater (South Crater), then passed Te wai-whakaiata-o-te Rangihiroa, or Blue Lake (no prizes for guessing where it got that name from!). Then it was the start of the long descent down to our pick up point. From Ketetahi hut, a building with beds and toilets and great views over Lake Taupo, the signs said it was 2 hours to the car park we were to catch the shuttle from. According to the leaflet we had for the Mountain Shuttle, there was a bus back at 4:30pm. We really wanted to get this bus as the next one was 6:00pm, too late for us to do any washing. So from the hut, which we left at 3:20pm, we basically jogged down the mountain to try and get the 4:30 bus. The first bit was fun running down the steps, enjoying the fantastic views and scenery. Once we got back down to the tree line, the path seemed to go on for ever! We eventually reached the car park at 4:40pm, to find the Mountain Shuttle still there, but that they weren't leaving until 6pm... Still, we burned off some calaries (even though our legs ached for the next 3 days!). However we managed to catch a lift with some very kind Americans back to the campsite without having to wait for the bus. But it was still too late to do any washing, and to be honest having run down the mountain we were too knackered!

Back at the van we decided to go out for pizza; great idea we thought as there was an Italian restaurant just down the road. However they didn't have pizza on the menu (!) so we went to the supermarket and had pizza, beer and ice cream.