After all the adventure in Taupo, we headed to Tongariro National Park. We wanted to complete a one-day trek called the Tongariro Crossing, we'd heard it was supposed to be brilliant.

The walk started as a gentle gradient up a valley called Mangatepopo and then leads into a steep climb between 2 active volcanoes, MT Tongariro and MT Ngauruhoe (also known as MT Doom in the Lord Of The Rings). This was quite exhausting, but the scenery was amazing. We then walked across the South Crater and finally reached the highest point of the trail (1886m), the Red Crater. The next point on the trek was the Emerald Lakes which were absolutely beautiful. You can see from the photo's how green the water looked. We stopped here to eat our lunch and take in the views before starting our descent through an area called Central Crater and North Crater where we actually saw snow on the track as well as several hot springs, waterfalls and native forest. Quite amazing to see such a contrast throughout a 17km walk.

The walk took us 5hrs 30 minutes to complete. We were quite pleased with that as we were told it should take between 7 and 8 hours. Maybe we are getting a little fitter, although every time we do something like this it still doesn't feel like it.

We have now got to understand how quickly the weather can change in New Zealand. We actually tried to do the Tongariro Crossing a few days prior but all walks were cancelled due to gale force winds and heavy rain. The weather was so bad, that all the electricity in our campsite went off. We now know why all Kiwi's tell you to be prepared as you can have all 4 seasons of weather in one day.

Next stop Masterton to visit Allisons uncle and get a real feel for Kiwi day-to-day life.