Wellington and Tongariro Crossing

We'd been warned that the ferry crossing to the North Island was pretty horrific (thanks Neil & Duffy), so we really weren't looking forward to 4 hours of rough sea and sickness! However, we were lucky enough to have calm waters, a nice sunny day and club class open to everyone, so the trip was very uneventful - well, apart from a middleaged couple (who looked like they were twins!) who were giggling and canoodling the whole way over. We wouldn't have minded but they weren't the most attractive - try to imagine a big american trucker....... and her twin partner!!


Stunning Views from the Ferry to the North Island

Anyhoo, arrived in Wellington and decided to hit the town - well, the plan was to go out for a quiet meal, however a good few beers later we stumbled across a bar holding an 80's fancy dress competition, which was pretty amusing. Then we moved onto an American bar where Nath taught me a lesson in pool! (Stace actually plays better when drunk?!)


Thrashing Stace at Pool (again!)


A few too many....

After a long lie in we thought we'd take in some culture and history so visited the Te Papu museum, which was pretty cool and displayed alot about the Mauri history and culture.

We then took a very long drive up to Tongariro National Park, which is in the middle of the North Island. We stayed in a lodge which was surrounded by 3 huge Volcano's called the Norther circuit - this is supposed to be the best 3 day walk in New Zealand - luckily for Stace's legs we were only attempting a one day hike called the Tongariro crossing, but even that should take 7 hours! We set an early alarm and got picked up at 6.30 the next day - not sure how we got Stace out of bed that early! Arrived at the base of Mount Ngaurhoe (which was Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings), and just thought "oh shit" - basically, it was more of a scramble than a walk, up over whats called the Devil's staircase, lot's of rock and snow, to the Saddle of Ngaurhoe and the Tongariro volcano. We then had an uphill climb in the snow and strong winds to the volcano craters - the highest point of the walk, just under 1900 metres!


Views of the Volcano from the camping park - we climbed the saddle in the middle photo!

The walk was definetly worthwhile as the views were stunning and apart from the strong winds, it was a really clear day and we were treated to the views of the Emerald Lakes and blue lake (very colourful as the names suggest!) and on the way back down we saw the Ketetati Hot Springs. In all we walked 17KM, but did it with an hour to spare before our bus picked us up at 14.00 - not bad for a bunch of novices. We were put to shame by two Kiwi guys though, who were just wearing shorts and a fleece - we had about 7 layers each on (Crazy men!).


Some views from the Tongariro Crossing (bottom right - we just walked down from this!)

Feeling really tired now but very chuffed with ourselves! We are off to Lake Taupo now for a spot of gentle Sky Diving (any excuse not to use our legs!)....