We started our trip from masterton to taupo on Thursday morning, loaded the car up, said goodbye to Rupert & we were off!! Lovely drive down. I can again see difference in landscape to the south, a lot of the surroundings are like certain places in uk but nicer!! We arrived at sams family holiday home in taupo by lunch time, the house is beautiful with a stunning view of lake taupo, the sun was shining & everything was just beautiful! We took a 10min walk to the lake & had a dip but it was freezing! The next day we got up early, prepared ourselves with tuna rolls, water & all the essentials & set off to walk up mount tongariro, a live volcano! This was a big challenge! Up & back took us just under 5hours!! We couldn't have asked better weather it was glorious! But still cold at times the higher we got! We made it to the top where we saw the red crater, blue lake & emerald lakes and steam coming out of the ground which was all just stunning views! Made it all worth it! Walking down was just as hard on the legs as climbing & when we made it to the car it felt amazing to sit down & take the trainers off! Massive accomplishment today, feeling good!! But shattered!! This mountain & the surrounding mount ngauruhoe (mount doom) & others were used in scenes of The Lord of the Rings! Early night tonight before we set off to rotorua!