Mordor
After Christchurch we continued on to the Able Tasmin national park. Plan here was to spend a couple of days relaxing.

Day one - kayaking all day, day two - all day hike, Susie has almost forgiven me.

Crossed from the south to the north island, entering through Wellington, their capital. Wellington is known as the windy city, so I knew I'd fit in. The high rise buildings and commercial centre took a bit of getting used to, after an hour or so in a cafe it felt good. The national museum 'Te Papa' is situated on the waterfront, a really interesting place with modern exhibits explaining about their geography and the maoris, so something for everyone.

After Wellington we headed further north to a place imaginatively called 'National Park', the base from which we would attempt the 'tongaririo crossing', billed as NZ's best one day walk. Much of the area was used as the setting for Mordor, so pretty barren stuff. We set off early in the morning, mist rolled around the minibus as it took us to base camp. We set of eagerly and by the end of the day had climbed up, over and down the other side of what is one of the world's best treks through active volcanic mountains. The views on a good day are breathtaking. The walk took our breath away but this was more a case of trying to extract oxygen from the low clouds, we saw bugger all. Our first bad weather since leaving the UK, so shouldn't complain.

Today we've driven to Rotorua, renowned for its spurty geysers, bubbling mud pools and eggy stink. Obviously I'm going to make the most of this and have mexican beans and yeasty beer tonight, a chance too good to miss.

Tomorrow we have to give back our hire car(t) in Auckland, then we stay with Susie's Aunt (Susie's mum's identical twin), so I'm on best behaviour, wish me luck.
- posted by Adrian @ 6:09:00 AM