After breakfast & schoolwork, we packed & cleaned the cabin - one of the nicest we've been in, so far! Said farewell to the owners, & headed south. Brief stop at Piriaka lookout, & later at the railway spiral, where the track gains 200m in height. Still rainy & low cloud, so all we could see was the model of the spiral, not the railway track itself.

On into the National Park, and up into the mountains. Stopped at the Whakapapa Visitors Centre for lesson about the geology of the area, & volcanoes in general! D bought Lord of the Rings filming location guidebook, & started to read!!

Continued the climb, & drove up to the Whakapapa ski field, passing through "Morrrrdorrrr" (as L insisted in pronouncing it!) Still some snow at the top, but sadly very cloudy, so little in the way of views!

Drove down the steep, windy road, & stopped to walk to Tawahi Falls. Back in the car to drive around Mt Ruapehu, with a quick break to admire the Makatoke railway Viaduct. Then a long climb up to the Turoa Ski field, where we watched people skiing, snowboarding & tobogganing, and ate our lunch.

On the way back down, we stopped at the Mangawhero Falls (filming location). Then a tedious hour in the car, before turning off the main road & following the bungee jump signs to find the Moawhango River gorge (another filming location) - just gorge-ous (ha-ha!). the bungee jumping bridge was narrow & the gorge so deep that we all had butterflies looking over the edge (~80m sheer cliffs!). Stopped at another bridge on the way back to the main road, for more vertiginous photos!

Then another tedious hour in the car, looking for somewhere to stay. Failed to find a couple of campsites in Hunterville & Marton, & when we arrived in Bulls, the information centre was closed, and the only person in sight was another Brit, waiting for a bus, with the same guidebook as us! Eventually got to ask a local (in the rain) & were directed to the Riverside Motor Lodge ($55) - very basic cabin: x2 bunk beds, with no safety rail for the upper bunk, so D had a very poor nights sleep, worrying about M in the top bunk - so eventually she got moved down, at ~3am!