Our shuttle was booked for 9am the next morning, about 25mins away...so we had planned to get up at 7.30 to get there, breakfast, make sarnies and be ready to head....so imagine our shock the next morning when Shane luckily woke up and Phil looked at her watch and it said 8.05....the phone battery had died...so there were things flying everywhere as we tried to get on the road as quickly as possible!!!...the campervan looked as though it had been robbed!!!...but we made it in time, and even had a hurried standing breakfast!!! After that we were on the bus heading towards the walk.

Unfortunately at the moment 2 of the 3 volcanoes are active!!! One of them especially so, therefore instead of being able to do the whole walk, which is meant to be NZs best day walk, we had to go half way and then turn around!!! It's been this way since Nov, as it isn't safe to go into the area as smoke is constantly coming out of a vent! It was still well worth the walk though...we headed up towards Mount Doom, and then veered towards Mount Tongariro, where we reached the Red Creator. From here you can see the Blue and Emerald Lakes, but it's also the end of the walk for us! So we got back hot, sweaty and tired but glad that we had done it....we then hit the road south, looking for a campsite that would offer us a much needed shower!!! We found one in Mangaweka which fit the bill perfectly...it had 2 dollar hot showers, a river for a fish and a spectacular setting, right at the bottom of some HUGE cliffs.

The next day we hit the road an hour south to Palmerston North, where we were meeting up with Bill Deane, Shane's dad's cousin. So we had a good catch up with him, his wife and son, and we had our first NZ fish and chips with them!! They were also kind enough to let us use their power shower which was AMAZING!!!:)