Yesterday we arrived back in Taupo- we were looking forward to coming back here to do the Tongariro Crossing- the most challenging alpine walk in the whole of New Zealand! So this morning we almost missed the bus by waking up at 5.30 am on the dot (when we were supposed to be getting on the bus) but luckily us Brits were well prepared and had packed our bags the night before! So after that shock of a start to the day we began the walk. Just like the trek in thailand it was incredibly tough!! Frazer and Pete decided they wanted to take on the colossal task of climbing Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings- it's got to be the steepest ascent I've ever seen and at approx 2200 metres tall its not exactly the easiest of climbs! I would give you a better account of it but as I'm sitting here writing this Frazer is still asleep and has been since he got back at about 3 o clock this afternoon so I'm not sure what it was like! Me and Pete's girlfriend Kelly decided it looked a bit too hard for us so we continued on to do more of the crossing- we couldn't do all of it unfortunately because one of the volcanoes is due to erupt very soon so the last bit was blocked off...but as we had to walk back the way we came and we climbed to the summit of Mount Tongariro which is about 1960 metres we still ended up walking the whole 24k anyway! It was a really tough day but definitely worth it for the incredible views that we got, and for spending most of the day above the clouds! :D