Friday we left Taupo stopping off at the Tongariro National Park, there was a 2 hour walk that we could do but being as we saw so much the day before and were both aching we decided not to do it!!The weather was really nice so we sat out in the sun for a while and looked around the visitor centre.It took a few hours to get from here to River Valley where we were staying in a lodge over night.We spent the evening playing cards with our new travelling buddy Ruth, the Swedish Couple and Mischa the American math genious!

We left River Valley after lunch and had about 3 hours on the bus until we arrived in Wellington.Didn't get to do a lot by the time we'd checked in and done some food shopping.Yes, we had to stock up on noodles, 5 packs for $3 its no wonder travellers survive on a diet of noodles!!

Saturday morning we went to visit the Te Papa museum, it was really good and even better as it was free!We spent a few hours there looking around at the history of New Zealand and the volcanoes and earthquakes, realising we are quite lucky in England not to have any of this dangerous stuff!In the evening we went out for a few drinks as it was Ruth's birthday the next day.I was very sensible this time (as we had an early ferry the next morning) and made 3 drinks last all night, quite an achievement!!