Our first point of call in Taupo was Finn MacCuhal's Irish Pub to watch the Champion's League Final, which was definitely worth the 6.30am wake up call. Having been thoroughly woken up by its excitement, we thought we'd better get back to the culture so took a trip to Huka Falls.

After taking the wrong route and ending up on a very pretty but unnecessary walk, we managed to get to the falls which are certainly the most ferocious we've seen and we both agreed we wouldn't fancy rafting down them, despite our recent practice. Having taken enough photos of the falls, our next stop was the 'craters of the moon', however, we were put off by the 5km walk as we would be clocking up enough miles the following day, so didn't manage to see them.

As we weren't taking part in a skydive, it seemed we'd exhausted all that Taupo has to offer in the Winter, so headed to Tongariro National Park for what was to be the most exhausting day of our trip so far.

Having to be awake and ready to catch our bus at 7am was difficult enough and could've had something to do with the minus temperatures. After both being told that our footwear wasn't suitable and being almost forced to hire something more appropriate, we were dropped off at the starting point of the Tongariro Crossing. The first section of the walk was fairly pleasant, mainly due to the flat terrain, and it wasn't until we began to venture up the 'Devil's Staircase' that I started to regret my decision. Several difficult hours later we'd reached the top and began to start feeling the cold amongst the clouds and snow.

Although the scenery wasn't the best we'd seen in New Zealand by a long way, it was still breathtaking and the views of the Volcanic Craters & Emerald Lakes on our journey down were fantastic. Having thought that getting down would be the easy part, we were sadly mistaking when greeted with several metres of volcanic ash which proved fairly tricky to walk down. Eight hours and 16kms later and we'd completed the crossing ahead of time it seemed, as we then had to wait a while for the bus back to our campsite.

Despite the early morning and taxing elements of the 'Devil's Staircase' we both thoroughly enjoyed the hike and luckily the weather stayed fine for us as we've since heard it had to be cancelled on the following days due to bad weather. I must admit though that the best part of the day was taking advantage of the spa at our campsite that evening, although it hadn't seemed to have done much to help my aching muscles the following morning.

We would both like to use this opportunity to say how deeply upset we both were to hear the sad news of Simon Fox's passing recently. I was fortunate enough to have spent time with Simon during his young life and found him one of the most charming and considerate of young men and he will be sadly missed by everyone who knew him. Our thoughts are with Marianne and her family at this difficult time. If you happen to have a Facebook account then it'd be worthwhile taking a look at some of Simon's fantastic photography, it puts my efforts to shame.

Rosa