On route to Taupo we had a stop at Rotarua for a couple of hours we had 5 minutes of wandering around the hot mud pools, smelly and bubbling, and an hour or so of lazing on the grass. Sounds silly but to be able to sit in the sunshine, having a chat and desperately trying to be anything other than british white, after travelling on a bus all week was lovely. Setting off again we stopped at another mud pool (they don't get anymore interesting), and a hot spring (we didn't have a dip it was very smelly) we finally made it to Taupo. Its a shame we only had the one night here it is a very pretty town. Will make a note to pop back and have another few days here if we get chance. Ending off the day with yummy fajitas and a guy with a guitar, unfortunately we have a ridiculously early start tomorrow so early to bed. I don't mind getting up at 6am if it is for some very good reason like to catch a flight to somewhere nice or so someone can give me a lot of money for no reason but unfortunately this was for the Tongariro crossing. 7hrs (ish) up a mountain and then back down again, i hear it is one of the top ten things to do in NZ. Thankfully, we decided to watch Home and Away, sit in the hot tub and put the world to right with a beer on the terrace with the most stunning view of the mountains. We aren't lazy we just know our limits. We stayed at a hostel come beautiful hotel called The Park and after polising off a steak sandwich and more than a few glasses of wine we rolled back to our loft about 2am.