Back to Taupo to do the Tongariro crossing. Unfortunately it was cancelled our first day due to weather conditions but we were able to do it the next day. The walk was in Tongariro National Park and we had to have an early start to enable us to finish the walk in one day. So 6am start - not used to that. The walk took us to the top of Tongariro Volcano, an active volcano next to Mount Doom (from lord of the Rings). The first part of the walk was ok but then we ha...

Before arriving in Rotorua, we stopped off at Waitomo Caves. Kar and I went for the Haggas Honking Holes caving expereince. We had to be suited and booted first becasue we were going to get wet! Got to wear lovely white gum boots. Sexy! We got to abseil 3 underground waterfalls, crawl through tiny holes in the caves in mud and water, do some rock climbing and see lots of glow worms. It was excellent fun. We were about 100 metres underground at most points a...

Drove into Aukland for just one night before heading to Comorandel Coast to a place called Hahei. Stayed in a holiday park right ont eh beach. Walked along hte beach route to Cathedral Cove. At night we went to hot Water Beach and dug a hole in the sand which strangely filled with very hot water and voila, we had our very own spa. To tell the truth we couldn't find our own hot water so we invaded someone elses and diverted their flow of water. The water was am...

Stayed 4 days in Wellington adn that was probably enough. Went to the Te Papa museum, it was good to find out about the Maori history. Took the cable car to the top of the botanical gardens and although this isn't my picture I have one the same! Karen and I took a Sweish guy to his first rugby game, Wellington lions v Aukalnd, his name was Jimmy (how funny) and he was so excited. I think he was a bit disappointed it didn't turn out to be like the All Blacks ...

Managed a full day hike on the Franz Josef glacier. It was excellent! Got all the gear and got spikes to wear on our feet and boots! It wasn't as tough as I thought because the guide had to keep stopping to cut steps into the glacier as it changed daily. Managed to see and go in lots of crevices. Some of them were a bit of a squeeze and you were soaked rubbing agianst the ice. Very proud of ourselves as we made it to the bottom, just as we were getting our sp...