Monday 31st July - After staying over again in Rotorua we escaped the smell (or some of it) heading south for Lake Taupo. We stopped on the way at the Huka Falls. They were so powerful! Apparently 65% of North Islands power comes from power stations based on this river. Arrived at the campsite to find they have hot water washing machines!! This is indeed a rarity so Laura promptly took over the laundry with all the washing we could find! Properly clean clothes.....happy days! Went and watched the sun set over the lake, which incidentally is a massive volcano crater but hasn't gone off for thousands of years! Oh and more importantly laura booked to do a skydive the next day!! Tuesday 1st August - Woke up to cloud, not good Laura's skydive hopes, but we had a bit of time to kill before so went to see the craters of the moon. Apparently they used to be geysers but due to the power stations taking the thermal energy out of the groud they don't shoot water out anymore! So more bubbling mud, steam and bad smells! We hung around most of the day but the cloud didn't clear so eventually the skydive got called off. Laura was really gutted, so we're just going to have to try at some of the other locations you can do it. Drove on to the Tongariro national park, apprently used in Lord of the Rings as mount doom and you can see why(see pics) Really impressive views on the drive up there and we parked up at the campsite overnight ready for our big walk the next day! The original walk we were going to do was supposed to be the best in the country, but at this time of year you need ice axes, crampons! So we were advised to try a different slightly more friendly walk for the next day!