Beautiful morning this morning so we all headed up the mountain (in the car ...now don't be silly!) to view our surroundings. The snow peaks were still capped with snow, the sky a brilliant blue and we could see all the way across country to the peak of Mt Taranaki peeping throught he clouds (we will try to upload some photos at some point.) Now we journey on to Wellington. Arrived and settled in our holiday apartment at the Top 10 site and the weather is cloudy...

We are enjoying a months visit from Jo (Simon's mum) and Malcolm (her husband). Esmee is having some time off school to enjoy her grandparents and we are all off for a bit of a tour around lower North Island. First stop is Ohakune for a night, Ohakune is south of Tongariro National Park where the mountains (seen in our earlier snowy pictures) and ski fields are. They kids are most excited about staying in a "gypsy" caravan at the Top 10 holiday site.