The morning started crisp and cold up in the mountains at Whakapapa Village, we had to put the gas burners on to warm us up as the air was decidedly frosty - just so our family and friends in the UK know that we are feeling your pain! (Lol as if...J)

We decided to forgo another walk out into Tongagiro NP and headed straight out to Stratford, Midhurst and Mt Taranaki. Just as well we allowed lots of time for the drive, the road was mostly tarmac but also had plenty of gravel roads with switch-back turns and four saddle passes with fantastic views to enjoy. Very beautiful, a mix of open farm land (with the characteristic 100' tall pyramid-like creases in the landscape (from old volcanic activity when the land was forced up into pyramids?) The vegetation - whilst always very green - at times looked Welsh, Scottish and a generous mix of tropical with tall fern like trees. Still lots of happy cows laying with their chins on the ground and plenty of sheep. The sun shone - hotly - in a not always cloudless sky, the wind has warmed somewhat. We drove through the 'independent state' of Whangamomena and evaded their border control lol, aka the passport office in the pub! (Google it.) We passed only about 12-15 cars and two cyclists along the 153km drive.

Arriving at Midhurst via Stratford and bearing gifts, we headed straight to Jamieson's Motors to say a personal thank you to Bruce for his rescue and warm hospitality to Sarah and Katherine after their van crash coming down from Mt Taranaki, whilst on their world tour two years ago. What a lovely warm man, didn't get to meet Pam ( Bruce invited us to drop in this evening but we didn't want to impose.) Drove back into Stratford to the Stratford Holiday Park to say a huge thanks(with gifts) to Doreen for her great kindness and care of the girls, Bruce having dropped them off to stay there whilst their van was repaired.

We decided to drive up Mt Taranaki through Egmont NP, 2,400mt, what a fabulous mountain to look at, rises straight up out of flat farmland and the views are far reaching - east to Tongariro NP and west to New Plymouth and the Tasman Sea. Had the best coffee in the Mountain House on the way down - a very nice ski lodge and well worth a visit / overnight stay. Btw, a large coffee here is as hard to come by as it was in Italy. The nearest we have got so far is a long black expresso coffee with hot milk on the side. Zing!!)

Back into Stratford for the evening and a Weightwatchers microwave meal lol, some things never change

Thoughts and meanderings:

The big old world can be a small place with thoughts of homelands:

The guests registered in the camp ground just before us are a couple from Guernsey! Doreen hails from the North of England but her daughter nursed at the hospital in Guernsey at the same time that I did in the 1970's. Had a lovely chat with a lady in the gift shop in Rotorua about Pau shells, Pau to New Zealanders, ormers to us Sarnians. The only two places in the whole world where ormer / Pau can be found. A quick call home to check on the folks to find Dad has three ormers for his tea! Kismet lol. Incidentally, over here they remove the outer horny shell layer of the ear shaped ormer shell and commercially polish them to reveal a stunning turquoise and blue grey 'mother of pearl' which is used extensively here in jewellery. Our Guernsey ormers by contrast are smaller and the inners are more pearly white / blue / grey than their NZ contemparies. I shall keep my eyes open for Pau on the menu on our travels in the South Island (where they are readily available).

Tomorrow we move on to Wellington and our sea crossing to South Island on Friday.