Sunday 8th March 2009

Awoke to a lovely morning and took a photo from our bedroom window.

Longest drive of the holiday today – 330km. We left our penthouse room at 9.30 in sunshine and headed off on highway 1 to Tongariro National Park just south of Lake Taupo. Travelled on a dual carriageway for the first time in 2 weeks.

We decided to go for the scenic route via Wanganui then up on highway 6. It was very picturesque but not a patch on what we had seen on the South Island. Lookat this picture on the right - call this a mountain? Nah!!

I said I would drive as long as the roads where flat and straight but I ended up driving 160 km through the hills – Fred said I couldn’t have it easy all the time!!

We arrived at our Alpine Lodge accommodation at 3.30pm. It is a ski resort in the winter so after settling in we donned our boots and went on a couple of short walks.

The first to the Mahuia rapids and then to the Tawhai Falls.

The clouds where hiding the peaks of the mountain range but we drove the 6 km up to the Whakapapa ski area at 5350 Ft. Just as we were coming down the cloud cleared a bit so we could see some of the peak of Mt. Ruapehu at 9175 Ft.

Tomorrow up to Rotorua via Lake Taupo a mere 160kms – easy peasy!!