Although the weather was not good on our journey south from Rotorua, cold, wet and windy, the scenery was far from boring. We travelled over the central plateau, a volcanic area, at the centre of which is New Zeland's largest lake, Taupo, a vast water filled crater. The area is also renowned for skydiving, bungy jumping and jet boating, all of which are out of season - thank goodness.

At the southern end of the lake is Tongariro National Park which contains three active volcanoes, last erupting in 1996 and thankfully no action on our journey through the park. We particularly wanted to visit this area as it was Mordor's Mt Doom in 'Lord of the Rings.' Unfortunately, some of the roads were still closed due to huge snowfalls a few days ago and the skiing season is not in full swing. We could only go as far as the Chateau but it was good to see the snow and hopefully will see plenty more in the south island.

The road to Wanganui took us through land that had obviously seen plenty of volcanic action and was lush and green with plenty of cattle, sheep, goats and deer. The road was pretty treacherous with all the hairpin bends and water cascading down the sides making them very wet. It is also hard to concentrate when you are watching all the raging white water rivers alongside.

The city of Wanganui sits at the mouth of the Whanganui River (yes spelling is slightly different). Once a thriving port is now a thriving holiday spot for river activities but once again not much going on as it is winter. Fortunately, only an overnight stop for us and once again it was freezing. We can't understand why they don't have any decent heating systems here when it gets so cold. We spent the evening huddled under a quilt eating chips and drinking Milo (Derby and Joan or what)? Thankfully it does seem to be standard to have electric blankets on beds.

Wellington tomorrow.

Jen and Ray