Wednesday 1 December - Left Wellington and went to Turangi. The bus ride was pretty uneventful except for the fact that the driver left two people behind when we stopped at Bulls, and he had to go back and get them. He was not happy, but I thought it was quite amusing. When we stopped for lunch at Flathills I ordered a cheese toastie and chips, but didn't get a chance to finish it as I was worried I might get left behind if I wasn't back on the bus in good time. Weather wasn't great when I reached Turangi - really overcast. Thursday 2nd - Got up at 6am!!! because I wanted to do the Tongariro crossing, but because the weather was bad it was cancelled. So I got up really early for nothing! I think I've had more early mornings here than when I was back at home and went to work. The Tongariro Crossing is a 17km walk up the side of Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe, both are active volcanoes. I was gutted as the scenery was supposed to be out of this world. This is the second time I've tried to do this walk - the first was when I was in Taupo, but it was closed then due to bad weather. So just stayed in the hostel and went on the net, because Turangi is a really small place and there isn't much to do when it rains. The weather did clear up later in the day, so I went for a walk down by the river.