We woke to the blissful silence and a still warm fire in the slow burning fireplace. It was a glorious sunrise with mists in the valleys. We had a delicious breakfast of farm fresh eggs and bread made by our host - Sam.

We then met Sam to feed the alpacas. They are skittish animals but with some feed we were able to coax them to eat from our hands - they have lovely soft eyes and are peaceful animals.

We drove down into Taupo to the eye-site tourist information to work out what we wanted to do that day. A quick coffee and wifi check later and we were on our way to the Huka Falls. The falls are amazing - more horizontal than vertical. It's a powerful sight seeing all that water funnelling through the chasm (2 Olympic swimming pools a second!).

We then drove up trough the Waireke area of Taupo (past the Huka Lodge - very nice, next time) to the thermal area of Oreiko Koroka. This is an amazing place - a natural thermal area of sink holes, geysers and silica terraces. We took a boat across the lake and then it's a self guided walk up and through the steaming hot water - it is very well laid out and informative.

The mud pools (kids favourites) were smelly and my favourite was the bumbling soda fountain. It was lovely walk back down the hill through the fern forest - very tranquil and very New Zealand. The kids were getting hungry so we drove back to the farm for lunch.

We had a bit of quiet time and then it was animal feeding time! The kids (in particular Eleanor) were super excited to help Sam load up her "jeep" with hay and then walk around the farm feeding the horses, alpacas, sheep and goats. Sam is a character and the kids loved hearing about the different personalities of each animal (she has lots of very old horses). A real highlight for the kids and a lovely contrasts to the beaches we've been enjoying so far on our trip.

The evening Spencer and Mum made tacos for dinner - delicious!

We enjoyed a cosy sleep with the fire burning in our little farm lodge. We had brekkie and got ready while the kids fed the animals one last time.

A quick stop in town for a coffee and we were on our way to Tongariro National Park. We drove around Lake Taupo to get there - the lake is impressive in size but was not at its best in the grey skies we've had a lot of on this trip. Nonetheless after about an hour we turned left onto Whakapapa Village Rd (the kids got a kick of how you pronounce the work Whakapapa).

We had skirted the live volcano (we could see steam rising from vents on its mountain face) and we were now facing Mt Rehapua. The mountain is amazing - permanent snow atop its ridges. We parked the car and then began our 2 hour walk loop to Taranaki Falls. Despite being early Autumn, there was a chill in the air and on the top of the mountain a forecast of negative degrees. We started off our walk in the tundra and then into the forest as we walked along the Taranaki river. It was beautiful scenery and the kids did very well - 2 hours was about right as the kids were getting tired as we walked back into Whakapapa village. What a great experience - next time perhaps we can do a longer walk to a hut.

Back at the car we drove onto the unusually named town of "National Park". We stopped into a local ski pub for a quick lunch and a game of pool (kids are hooked on pool). We then drove onto Waitomo - about an hour and a half drive through lovely Waikato country. The country is beautiful but there are some slow drivers and not many options to overtake - it can be frustrating!

We arrived at the Waitomo Glow worms around 3:30. I remember the Glow worms from when we visited New Zealand in 1985(?). Anyway, the glow worms are still here and as spectacular as ever. The kids were mesmerised and enjoyed it immensely.

Our Glow worms tour finished we drove about 3 minutes to our Airbnb house - what a great house - a great size, well decorated and the owner brought over some DVD's for us to watch. The weather was getting wet so we went next door to the local place for some takeaway ribs and pulled pork pizza and watched the Martian with the fire on - it was very cosey. Our North island adventure almost complete - it was time now to head to Queenstown!