Wed 8th Feb 2012.

(above is a pic of me attempting to climb an old small volcano in new plymouth that i mentioned)

Today we were up early and off! We got to our destination at the national park where we were ... going in an earoplane to look over the volcanos!! The one we wanted (cheapest one!) would have been naff as it was too cloudy but we ended up doing a slightly more expensive one which lasted a little longer. we met our pilot, matt, who said he's wanted to do this job since leaving high school... he was 20! not the best thing to hear just before u go up! he was good tho. we got some great views of the volcanos, including one that was starred in lord of the rings and on top of one was a clear blue crater lake. it looked amazing! It was only a 25min flight but well worth it. we then came back to the hostel got some things and headed of to a hot water stream that lou's cousin had informed her of. the directions we got were slightly off meaning we de-toured for about an hour, ooops, but we got there. its somewhere that isnt known to many tourists and mainly just locals. when we pulled up i asked someone if it was there and he said yes and gave us some tips. (he was a tour guide) he said dont leave anything on show in ur car as the locals like to claim things from them! dont wear jewellery in the water as it will discolour and dont put ur head under or get it up ur nose as it can cause meningitis!!! A downer on it i must admit but we still went and looked. We actually got in, keeping heads well high ofcourse, and it was amazing. it must have been about 40degs and was just below a little water fall. pretty cool for a natural attraction! there was a little shelf to the side of the pool with loads of little tea candles which were obviously used by the locals when they use it at night. i bet it is great down there then! we then hopped in the car and came back to taupo where we looked around the shops and then had some tea.