Mountains of food and volcanoes

Back in Auckland after the weekends driving we decided to take in a little culture and history at the Auckland Museum. It's a pretty varied collection of New Zealand stuff from Māori artefacts to  natural history exhibitions and World War II pieces. We were in there for ages, Boyd especially loved the war history sections and we all found the Māori history parts very interesting.

It might be a long wait for a beer Janine

Māori carving

Thursday was our last day in Auckland for a while so we gathered Cam, Rebecca, Hanna and Janine's parents and went to a Mongolian BBQ all you can eat buffet. A couple of hours later we all rolled back out again feeling like we wouldn't need to eat for a week. Leaving Auckland also meant we had to move out of Cam and Becs (and Toby the cat's) house. We were sad to go but have really enjoyed living with them. They made us very welcome in their home and we will stay in touch and hopefully see in the UK at some point.

Toby saying hello

On Friday afternoon we hit the road again with Hanna, this time to Whakapapa in the Tongariro National Park. It was about 4 hours in the car but luckily it was not as hot as our previous 4 hour journey with her. We met up at a campsite with JB who kindly erected the tents before settling down to some food and a few beers. The next morning we were up insanely early at 5.30am to start the famous Tangaririo Crossing. This is usually an 8 hour long hike from one end of the park to the other over the mountains. At the moment Mt. Tangariro is erupting so most of the 2nd half of the crossing is closed. Instead you have to turn back when you reach the look out over the Soda Pools at the Red Crater. It still an epic trip and totally worth it if you are feeling fit enough. Janine did the crossing in the snow in June 2007, she loved seeing it in a different season and how much the landscape changes.

On the drive to Tangariro

At the start of the trek bright and early

Looking nice and relaxed half way up

Walking across the Southern Crater

Sunrise over the Southern Crater

Mt Ngauruhoe was used as Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings films

Going up the mountains was hard work but you just had to be careful with your feet. Coming down was easier physically but get quite slippy due to the loose rocks. All of us slipped over at some point although Janine's fall was particularly special as it was on the flat. One of the high points was seeing the sun rise over the mountains as we were hiking. As soon as the sun hit you it was boiling which was a shock. We all fried as I forgot the sun cream.

Rest stop

Can't go much further at the moment

One the Soda Pools

On the way down it got a little foggy

Golem impression

Flowers still grow very high up

How did we only see this on the way down?

Still a long way down

Easier going on the boadwalk

This bee farm was close to our camp grounds

We had arranged to call JB when we were finished so he could give us a lift back. Technology failed us though, my battery had died, and we faced a long walk back to the camp grounds. Luckily about 10 minutes in a nice British lady and her son offered us a lift most of the way back. We were so grateful as it left us with only a 20 minute walk at the end, we were even more grateful when we found out the access road to the car park is the same length as we had already walked up the mountain. It would have taken us hours to get back! Needless to say JB was a little surprised to see us stroll into the camp looking quite fresh. The afternoon was spent relaxing and napping in the sun with a few cold ciders.

The next morning was a much later start as we took our time sorting out and packing up the camp. Once the cars were packed up we drove around Lake Taupo to the town of Taupo. After some exploring a cafe by the lake was found for lunch, I had another epic burger, they are monsters over here. The rest of the afternoon we chilled out by the lake in the sunshine. We said our goodbyes to Hanna and jumped in JBs truck for the 2 hour drive to Ohope. I was nice to get back to home comforts after a couple of nights in tents, especially to sleep in a proper bed, I think I'm getting old, sleeping on the floor isn't as easy as it used to be.

Looking out over Lake Taupo

Duck going for a swim in Lake Taupo

I cut off her legs here but she was actually in the water