Today we planned to drive to Palmerston North, which wasn't a very long drive, so we decided to visit 'Craters of the Moon' which was a park with thermal activity and craters left over from eruptions. The walk took about an hour, and then we went to our favourite shop, Pak N Save, to stock up on supplies.

As we started driving towards Palmerston North we passed the huge mountains, one of which was used as Mount Doom in the LOTR films (see picture). We stopped to take a few photos before continuing our drive through the restricted area on the desert road, used by the NZ army for training. There were warning signs along the sides of the road about explosions that may occur nearby! Quite scary stuff! The drive was quite nice - long, straight roads (not many hills!) with lovely scenery. We stopped at a pic nic site to eat our lunch then found a campsite about 90km North of Palmerston. The fee was $9 each for a powered site and a sign saying to stop and pay at a nearby cafe the next morning if noone came to collect the money (hmm...).

We phoned the Tui brewery to book our tour for the next day then settled down for the night.