So I think we were in Tongariro National Park on the 19th... it is close enough!!! We had spent a day in Taupo the day before, but we didnt really do anything because there wasnt anything to do, and the weather was a bit blah... We went for a walk to go see another smelly volcano bath thing place called the craters of the moon, and it was a lovely walk there through the forrest, but when we got there ya had to pay to get in and since we had seen them already in Rotorua we gave it a miss. Not much else to report on Taupo to be honest... the MacDonalds had a converted airplane as part of the restaurant.... we didnt go in

Next stop was Tongariro National Park, home of three active (ish) volcanoes, a dual Unesco Heritage site, and some of the best walks in New Zealand. We stayed in the town called National Park, which consisted of a hostel, a few ski lodges (you can ski on the mountains), a pub, a restaurant, a garage and a train station... exciting place!!!! Unfortunately the weather had gotten even worse. THERE WERE clouds right down on top of us for the whole time we were there, and THERE WAS no way we were going doing the Tongariro crossing in it, you could barely see in front of you standing outside the hostel. On our first day there we went on one of the warm up walks. We had been told it would be ok in the rain as it was mostly through forrest. We couldnt really see much however, and got quite wet. We got to Taranaki Watefall and on the way to the Tama lakes (crater lakes) we turned back because it was too miserable. I can only imagine what doing the crossing would have been like!!! The crossing, by the way is a 5-8 hour trek across the side of Mt Tongariro, when the weather is good you can see all three snow capped volcanoes, loads of lakes and other volcanic features, blue lakes, green lakes, orange ground... the brochure looks epic!!! Also in the brochure is a picture of what we would have seen..... clouds... lots of clouds.. oh well!!!

On the plus side, they had a climbing wall in the hostel, so I gave it a go. Regina didnt want to because she is kind of afraid of heights, and as weak as dike water in her arms (not that I am much stronger). It was great fun, but pretty tough too. I failed on some of the harder climbs but did manage to fly up the easier ones, so I cant complain!!! Other than that though we just hung about the hostel. I went for two runs in the rain (havent run in rain as bad since the floods in cork)

With good reason to come back, we headed for Wellington.... I reckon we were 20 miles down the road and we broke through the clouds, they stayed behind us though... apparently its common at this time of year!!!!