Between Wellington and Lake Taupo we had a night in Napier but there isn't much to report in that respect. Suffice to say, Napier is an attractive town, completely rebuilt in the 1930's after an earthquake in the Art Deco style.

Our next stop to note was 2 nights in Taupo. This town sits on the banks of Lake Taupo which is the largest lake in Australasia, apparently being roughly the same size as Singapore!

After a long drive we headed first to Orakei Korako about a 25 minute drive North of Taupo. This is an unspoilt geothermal area reached by crossing the Waikato river by ferry boat. It is an area filled with Geysers, boiling mud pools and some of the largest silica terraces in the world. The Lonely planet guide describes it as one of the best thermal areas in NZ and one of the finest in the world so it seemed crazy to give it a miss.

We were very impressed with the place to be honest. Once you got used to the sulphur smell and the heat of the sun combined with the hot steam coming out of the ground you could really marvel over the unusual features and this strange environment.

We eventually headed back to Taupo taking in views of the lake along the way and plugged our van in at the top 10 holiday park about 2.5 km's out of town. That evening we walked into town finding a lovely Italian and then went looking for a bar. It wasn't that there was a shortage of places to go to but we were trying to find a pub where the average age was not 18. I have now reached the conclusion that everyone in this age group looks the same, very little individuality at all. The girls-long hair, usually blonde with a side sweeping fringe and stick insect thin. The boys-messy, too long hair, tan and wearing either jeans slung too low and showing off their pants or board shorts and flip flops even though it is cold outside. Youths...ha ha.

We felt very out of place when we finally settled on an Irish bar on the water front. We stayed for the quiz and, bless them, the questions were far too hard for the majority! I have to say however that we were not taking it too seriously as we soon found out that whoever won a particular round had to carry out a silly forfeit such as obtaining a piece of underwear from a stranger or doing the limbo under a pole. Fortunately we avoided all this nonsense and arrived back at the campervan relatively unscathed.

The following day we took the campervan out for the day and headed out to Tongariro National park. If we had more time I would have liked to have done the Tongariro Alpine crossing which is said to be one of NZ's finest full day hikes, stretching from one side of the park to the other and taking you across the volcanic landscape and active Volcanoes. Instead we settled on a tramp to see some waterfalls. The walk started at the main village, outside Chateau Tongariro and took us into the forest and then across some volcanic landscape where we could see old lava flows. We also got to see Mount Ngauruhoe, better known by Lord of the Rings fans as "Mount Doom" where Frodo has to throw the ring into the churning lava in the centre of the volcano. Stephen was really happy to see this, though to me it was just another mountain, albeit a volcanic one!

Next on the days agenda was a visit to "Mordor"-another lord of the Rings film set which is actually situated just below Whakapapa skifield (quite a funny name I thought-I have visions of children hitting their fathers!)

It was quite a climb to reach this spot, made all the more difficult in the camper van but we eventually got there and could immediately picture ourselves on the set of the film. Thousands of black, volcanic rocks and boulders scattered along the floor in unusual shapes and formations-I could imagine Frodo and Sam clambering over them to reach Mount Doom or maybe I was just drunk! Anyway, I was actually quite impressed!

After a full day at the National Park we headed back to Taupo for the night, leaving the next day for Rotorua.

We didn't stay in Rotorua for long as we were immediately overwhelmed by the strong smell of sulphur and the slightly strange inhabitants. I couldn't put my finger on it but they were all a bit weird! It was a shame in a way as we could have probably spent a bit of time by one of the lakes or visiting a Marae (Mauri village). Instead we pressed on to the Coastal village of Papamoa, situated in the Bay of Plenty.