Tongariro National Park has one of the world's best one-day walks, passing over the volcanic terrain of the active Mount Tongariro and near to Mount Ngauruhoe. It has spectacular, barren landscapes, unusual coloured lakes and stunning views of the surrounding countryside. Unfortunately, when I woke up on the morning of the walk, I was painfully reminded of my toe-stubbing the previous day. It had turned completely black and stiff and I couldn't put any weight on it. Damn! A 7 hour walk was out of the question. And due to my tight schedule I couldn't afford to wait for several days for my toe to recover, especially as the weather forecast was grim and this was supposed to be the last day it would be possible before they closed the track. Not cool.

Instead a small group of us from the bus spent the day admiring the views of the volcanoes from a distance. The photos should look familiar to all you Lord of the Rings fans, as it is where they filmed all the scenes of Mordor and Mount Doom! We went to the visitor's centre and had nice tea and cake in a cafe. We then drove up to the ski resort which is closed for summer, and I hobbled along the snow line. The other 2 girls and the bus driver also walked to a waterfall for a couple of hours but I couldn't manage that so had to wait behind! All in all, not a particularly thrilling day but it couldn't be helped. At least it was made better when we arrived at our accommodation for the night, a beautiful park hotel/hostel, easily the nicest place we'd stayed in so far. It had huge comfy beds and a lovely lounge area with big soafs and open fires. There was also a hot tub which was a welcome relief for the tired walkers.

The following day we drove to Wellington, New Zealand's capital. We spent the afternoon wandering around Te Papa, a very modern and interesting museum. It was our last day with our cool driver, Magpie, as he was continuing to the South Island, as was some of the group. I traveled up to Auckland the following day and spent one night there before continuing north to the Bay of Islands.