We slept well and woke with surprisingly few aches and pains. Breakfast was a healthier option this morning with some lovely fresh fruit.

We headed out in search of a gentle walk to the waterfalls near Whakapapa (pronounced fa-ka-pa-pa) and found ourselves at NZs highest cafe at 2020 meters altitude. I had a delicious hot chocolate whilst Gary had a flat white rated 8/10. The views were amazing as we'd taken two cable cars to get there.

Tempted by the snow on Mt Ruaphehu and the promise of good views we scrambled up more scree (obviously not put off by yesterday's walk) for about an hour. The views looked across to Mount Doom and to yesterday's stomping ground up at the snow line. Gary had a small child moment and rolled in a patch of snow and reminisced about skiing. We returned to the cafe for a lovely lunch before heading down the mountain. We passed on the idea of the waterfall walk as I had done our scramble in my barefoot shoes and had discovered foot muscles that don't normally get used!

We've spent this arvo doing domestic chores and attempting to ram all of our possessions into our bags in preparation for our trip to Welly tomorrow and in the ferry the following day to the South Island.

This evening Gary is doing a ready steady cook challenge to try and use up as much food as possible! And we're heading to the local pub for some beers.