Ohakune (Pronounced 'oh a koon eh' - doesn't that sound lovely)

Left Lake Taupo and as the weather was improving decided to have a swim in the Lake; the water was really quite fresh but so clear, loved it. On the drive to Ohakune, stopped at a great viewpoint high up over the lake and had brunch.

Arrived in Ohakune, which is the base town for the ski season on the mountain Ruapehu (We are now within the Tongariro National Park and the whole area is dominated by Mt Tongariro, Mount Ngauruhoe and Mt Ruapehu all of which are active volcanoes).The town is small and cute, wandered around to get our bearings and went on a 10k walk along the old coach road which once served as part of the rail and coach route between Auckland and Wellington. Not much happening in the town after 10pm (!!), so back to the van.

Woke up to pouring rain and cloud, (bit like being in the UK in the summer) no chance to get up the mountain today so decided to catch up with our washing, exciting eh!. As the weather was not improving we decided to go and explore further south to seek the sun, unlike us. On the way we drove through a small town called "Feilding" which has won the title of 'prettiest town in NZ' 14 times. It was actually lovely, pristine, felt homely and had many well-kept floral displays.

Following on we drove through some lovely scenery on the way to North Palmerstone to visit the Rugby Museum (apparently you have to visit it! NZ love their rugby). Unfortunately we stopped so many times that we were too late to visit the museum, Sue was so disappointed …….not!!! Instead we followed the river, had a walk along the esplanade and then had a beer!

We returned via the west coast town of Wanganui, which in the early 1900's was the largest provincial city in NZ and is based on NZ's s second largest river. It has lovely art deco buildings and is definitely vying for NZ prettiest town ahead of Feilding.

Finally headed back to the campsite, tracking along the river but just had to stop at a riverside bar as it claimed that the next available bar would be some 70k along the highway.

Finished what was a great day; 350k of fab scenery and then back to a home cooked pasta and a few beers……brilliant!!

Off to Napier tomorrow.