We have seen some really beautiful places today! We started off watching the sun rise over Lake Taupo. We then had to drive for an hour to get to Ketetahi in the Tongariro National Park. This was the end point of today's trek, The Tongariro Crossing, and we had booked onto the 7.30 shuttle bus to take us to Mongatepopo at the start. The Tongariro Crossing is one of the most popular day treks in New Zealand, with over 1,000 people crossing each day. It is so pop...

Finally, the rain has stopped! It was still raining this morning although it was nothing like the storms yesterday. Apparently 2 month's worth of rain fell in just 6 hours and the rain went on for over 24 hours. It caused major floods, power cuts and the roads we travelled down on Saturday were all closed so we were lucky! We packed up and left the holiday park early to go to Wai-O-Tapu. This is a geothermal park just outside Rotorua. The park contains lots of t...

Think we found cyclone number 2!! Actually it's a little scary, lots of rain.... and wind!! And most the activities here have been cancelled!! The photo at the top is taken from our first floor balcony and was a field this morning! I have also come up in a rash on the top half of my body, good times! But never fear here's what we are doing! Anti-histamine, one tablet a day $20!! and we are staying in our little contained apartment tonight, watching the storm/g...

First thing this morning we went to check out the surfing beaches in Raglan. These are supposed to be some of the best in the world and by 9am there were loads of surfers already in the water. We also went to Whale Bay. Here the orcas come into the bay once a year to play with the surfers. Sadly, not today :-( Back in the car we drove to Bridal Veil Falls, just outside Raglan. This is the biggest waterfall we've seen yet at 55 meters. Very pretty! We also used t...

Day 3 of the road trip and we had a fairly chilled morning. Checked out of the Peppertree Lodge around 10am, having stripped all four beds?! Jo has some minging bites on her arm and legs so headed to the pharmacy for some anti-histamine cream, at $15 a tube I hope it works!! Whilst in the shopping area of Paihia we found some lovely driving maps for the north and the south island as we had to return Annas to her today. We passed a lovely little fudge shop, "get...