We stopped off at Taupo for a 2nd time on the back to Auckland, this was because the 1st time the weather was awful and everything we wanted to do got cancelled.

THis time the weather was perfect the first time I had been able to wear shorts and a t-shirt in ages!!!

One of the main things to do is the Tongariro Crossing which is a 19.8km walk over 3 active volcanoes! One of which was used in filming lord of the rings as mount doom. We got up at 6.20 so we had enough time to do the walk to catch the last bus. It was quite a tough walk and we had the option of clmibing mount doom but the girls didnt want to and I didnt have proper hiking boots, plus it was 2,200metres pretty much vertically up!!

So we missed that out and chose to climb the peak of one of the other volcanoes, this was still tough going but way easier than the big one. The whole walk was really challenging but we both had a great sense of achievement when we finished. After we got back we chilled out at the hostel and there was a girl in her room whose b-day it was and she wanted to go out, we were so tired and felt bad that we said we weren;t going out so we went to the shop and got her a cake, she loved it and looked like she was going to cry!!! Was a pretty good end to the longest but one of the best days of the whole trip.

Hope everyone is OK and thanks for both our mums messages we both enjoy reading them much love from us both.