Before we left Waitoma we visited the third of the caves. This was a biggy- 5 Kms long and deep. They built an amazing huge spiral ramp that goes around at least 6 times before you reach the floor of the cave. Finally we got to photograph glow worms but with the flash all I got was a very black picture. But I did get some good shots of their bead like webs hanging down from the walls of the cave. Peter at this point was all glow wormed out as he had now heard its life cycle six times. The cave had some very impressive formations including stalactites that look like curtains. They take millions of years to form growing on average one cubic centimetre every 100 years.

We then headed back to Volcano Valley- this time the very southern end to Tongariro National Park with the three volcanoes, Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro. Geologically the volcanoes are of recent origin, around two million years. They are part of the line of volcanic and earthquake activity that runs around the Pacific Ocean, the Ring of Fire. The last eruptive activity on Mt Tongariro was a gas and steam driven eruption in 2012 that formed a new crater and eruption fissure. Mt Ngauruhoe last erupted in 1977 and ejected red hot blocks of lava and ash up to 3km away. Mt Ruapehu has a deep crater near its summit containing a hot acidic lake. More than 60 eruptions have been recorded since 1945 and it has the nasty knack of emptying its Lake down the ski slopes- not pleasant! So it's still a pretty active area.

Next day Peter went on a 19.4 km hike between Tongariro and Ngauuhoe hoping to see a bit of action. I was quite happy staying with Sid and partaking of no action!

After this we drove north to Lake Taupo, to visit, yes you’ve guessed, more geothermal sites. Lake Taupo is NZ largest lake (616 sq. Kms), with a maximum depth of 186 metres. The lake (like Rotorua) sits in a giant volcanic Caldera made by over 30 eruptions over the last 27 thousand years.

Taupo is a very sweet town with a small brewery and pub which of course we visited one evening. Earlier that evening we had a go at an unusual golf driving range. It sat on the edge of large bank overlooking the lake. The green was on a small pontoon in the lake. As you can imagine most balls end up in the water. Some poor sod has to go snorkeling every day to retrieve them. All was going well until Peter hit a ball and sent it of at an angle down the beach under the bank and straight into a duck. Yes I tell the truth his ball hit a duck- what is the chance of that! The duck was ok and didn’t seem at all fazed by it, whereas I couldn’t stop laughing. Peter claimed he was getting revenge on the bird world as a gull had poohed on him earlier that day.

The final geothermal site was Orakei Korako. It was a great site on the far side of a lake so you had to get a small ferry over to it. It has quite an extensive terrace over which 20 million litres of water flows every day. This was defiantly the last geothermal site.

After this we headed for Napier the Art Deco city of NZ. Why Art Deco? Well in February 1931 there was a rather big earthquake (7.8 on Richter scale) that destroyed most of the downtown area. As a result of the earthquake Napier was tilted upwards - a maximum of just over 2m (7 feet) - and the floor of its large bay to the north and salt water lagoons to the south were lifted more than 2.7 metres and drained giving Napier much needed land for expansion in later decades. A council was set up to organise the rebuild whilst businesses operated for 2 years from a tin town in a park. They decided they should build in a modern forward looking style. Art Deco was at its peak in places such as New York and was deemed both a safe and economical choice. The new concrete buildings were more resistant to earthquakes and fire, materials were cheap and the stucco relief ornaments typical of Art Deco offered a less costly form of decoration. It was mixed with a bit of Spanish Mission, Prairie and Stripped Classical thrown in for good measure. The committee had the final say on all plans submitted so it was not difficult to end up with what amounts to a very pretty town centre. Today, Napier's town centre is recognised as one of the largest collection of Art Deco buildings outside Miami.

We went on a nice little bus and walking tour looking at the key buildings in the town – I was in my element as I do love architecture. Unluckily the campervan site is just a bit far from the town centre so we caught the local bus and even then we couldn’t get away from very friendly and chatty New Zealanders who have either been to Britain or have relatives living there and want to tell you all about them. On the way to a small museum with lots of weird electrical gadgets we stopped to look at the map and before we could agree on the direction a man came out of the car showroom by our side and asked if we needed help.

Whilst in the area which is known for its wines Peter decided we should go on a wine tasting tour so we contacted 'Vince’ – recommended by the tourist information office and of we went. Now I really don’t like wine but I had strict instructions from Peter not to refuse any drinks as he would have them. I dutifully obeyed but it soon became obvious that he wasn’t going to drink them all so what was I to do. It seemed rude to say sorry I don’t like wine so I drank them and ended up very sloshed and not feeling too good- never again.

The next day we left Napier after popping into the British Car Museum which is really a rather large private collection and I mean large as he has over 360 British cars some piled on top of each other. It was really lovely in a ramshackle way with old British cars doing what they do best, rusting and leaking oil. After this we drove over to the west coast to visit yet another car museum.