We spent yesterday in the National Park. We were really lucky with the weather and the clear day allowed us to see the tops of the mountains. We did a tramp and Mt. Doom was looming over us. Stunning views and lots of flora and fauna. It was a very hot day. We spent the afternoon mooching around National Park Village. Today we drove to Napier, we were able to see the volcanic gasses pouring out of the side of Mt. Doom, so we drove fast!, Evidently a 1 in 5 chance...

We decided that if we wanted to see Mt Egmont this would be the day. When we planned our trip we didn't quite appreciate the roads. This bit may have been done in a better order! However, we had a photo of mum and dad that we thought was at Mt Egmont taken around their engagement in 1950. We ended up on a road called Forgotten World Highway. A route of twists and turns. As we left Taupo we had really clear views of Mts rutapeka, tongmra and Ngaurukoe. The highes...

We had a leisurely day on Wednesday 16 Jan. when we planned our trip we made this a 4 night stop as we thought we might need a rest!! We walked around the lake to the town. The weather is very different here from the heat wave we had in the north. There has been a very cold wind coming off the lake and we have had to wear our jumpers!, Obviously not cold like you are experiencing, we are aware you have snow! We browsed the Taupo shops and had a coffee. The lodge...

We spent the day in Rotorua. Firstly we went to the museum in the Bath House. We had a guide who went on a bit but parts of the museum were really interesting. We then went to Te Puia, a Maori cultural centre with a geyser. We saw a Maori cultural performance, and had a really good guide, telling us about the Maori way of life, and saw sculptures and weaving. We then waited for the Pohutu geyser to blow. It didn't disappoint!! We rang Will in the evening which w...

The last blog I did was Saturday morning outside the library, sitting on their lawn. Can be difficult to get WI Fi in some places. We spent Saturday in Whitianga, exploring town and harbour. We had hoped for a boat trip but no spaces so booked one for Sunday morning. We then went to Hahei beach, some of us swam and then went to the Hot Water Beach. Here we dug a hole on the beach and sat in the hot spring water. Amazing!!!!! This beach had great waves, John sw...