Waking up in a carpark in Wellington was a bit odd. Turns out the carpark was next to a busy office block, so we felt pretty daft as we sat on our camping chairs to tuck into a bowl of cereal with workers in suits rushing by. Such is the life of a backpacker.

The Wellington weather did what it does best: rain. So we next took shelter in a McDonalds for a cheapo coffee until the Wellington Cable Car opened. Seemed a bit silly riding it in this weather, but we were leaving Wellington later today (the carpark campsite was prohibitively too expensive for another night's stay) and you wouldn't go to Paris without climbing the Eiffel Tower would you? Exactly!

The funicular runs up a steep hill offering views of the city from the station at the top. It was nice, but would obviously be better if the sun ever appears in Wellington. We could see the pretty harbour area we'd wandered around last night, and the cluster of modern buildings including the swanky Te Papa below.

There were some gardens to walk around and a little museum where we learned all about the history of the funicular. It was probably better suited to kids, but Bret enjoyed it. Ahem.

Once back down in the city we headed to Te Papa and quickly realised this was where most of the wet weather action was for tourists. We happily whiled away several hours exploring the impressive museum. It was so huge, we signed up for an engaging guided tour which helped us find the main bits. Nat particularly liked the earthquake simulator, while Bret was most impressed with the giant pickled squid. There was a lovely section dedicated to Maori stuff as well. Our chirpy guide was really passionate about Maori history and culture so did a good job of bringing the place to life.

After all that brain stimulation, we filled up on a deeeelicuous homecooked meal in the museum restaurant before leaving Wellington behind us, and heading north towards Taupo where we hoped to stop for the night.

The rain followed us practically the whole way, but we still got a glimpse of the differences in landscape here in the North Island. There were the same random Wild West-style towns here and there, but through the countryside areas everything was so much more… volcanic.

Bret had been looking forward to passing Mount Doom (aka Mount Ruapehu, of Lord of the Rings fame) but it was so foggy we could only just about make out the outline as we drove by. At one point we pulled over and questioned whether we'd make it to Taupo as the fog and mist was so dense. But we persevered like the adventure travellers that we are (!) and eventually made it to a lovely hot pool centre just south of Lake Taupo by sunset.

There are loads of natural hot pools in this geothermal area, but this one, Tokaanu, was one of the government run complexes so it was a little tired. But it was a cheap and friendly place, mostly used by local families - and at a lovely 40 degrees, Nat was in as soon we'd parked up. For $10 we hired a private pool and enjoyed a hot soak in what's considered to be healing waters until we crinkled.

Feeling suitably relaxed, we snubbed the nearby overpriced holiday camp and opted for a seriously basic honesty box DOC site out of town. It was difficult to find but we followed another Hippie Camper there and we camped side by side in a dark and overgrown spot.

The rain has fizzled to a fine drizzle now, which means dinner by the camping stove tonight, before catching up on Sopranos in our 4.7m x 1.7m palace.