the ultimate

Apologies for the wierd formatting on the pictures, computers truly are a mystery!

Since the last post much has been going down, at rotorua we went to see the "most colourful thermal park in nz!" (their words) It was amazing though, absolutely class colours and just a crazy place, the egg smell was quite lovely in places.

That was followed withy some top quality mountain biking around the forest where the national downhill track is for NZ, there was loads of fun and it was quite mad.

Next we headed to Tongariro National Park, a volcanic area bang in the middle of north island. It was incredible, we almost jumped off a massive waterfall but just at the last minute bottled it and thought safety first, should have done it though!! The following day was an aboslute scorcher and we headed for the mountains, starting out on the Tongariro alpine crossing and cruising our way up to mount tongariro (1967m), the first peak on our list. The views were stunning and it was class to be out in the space and wilderness. After lunch we webnt down across a plain to embark on our second, this was mount doom from lord of the rings, mount Ngaurago or something like that. Its a massive volcano, still very active with 45degree angle all the way up and crazy loose volcanic scree, IDEAL! It was so hot and loads of hard work but we all did it and marvelled at the class view from the top (2282m woweee!) The way down was alot easier as we just slid down the snow, great fun!

Next we headed to Raglan, the home of NZ surf, on the way we checked out a class 6m lake jump on lake taupo, it was loads of fun, flying in still clear blue water, well warm too.

Next day we got told off for camping somewhere we shouldnt have so that was interesting but by the afternoon we had boards and the waves were pumping. We got out for a great session and some mint waves were had. The long left is a complete dream to surf. If your goofy!

We are now in new plymouth and have just had a massive fried brekky, just waiting for the waves. Come on surf. 3 days left in cecil the camper!