Monday 24th Nov

Sat 21st Nov.
Woke up in "Pong City" and went in search of the smell. The sulphur in the air is really strong. In the south of the city very strong! Here we went to Te puia, an active valley. There were hot bubbling mud pools with mud volcanos and the geyser Pohutu which erupted almost continuously while we were there throwing water up 10 to 20 metres. The mud pools are really eerie! We then went to the Buried village up in the hills to the south. There are many lovely lakes up here and this very well set out and poignant site where a village frequented by Victorian tourists was destroyed in an eruption in1886. It was very tranquil with the homes of Maori and the hotels dug out of 2 metres of ash and mud and well displayed. The Volcano still broods over the lake which it boiled and threw the mud down over the village.
In the evening we went to the night opening of a wildlife centre which was very bright and colourful and had a wonderful nocturnal house of the endangered Kiwi which are very shy but quite fascinating they are very retiring but one grew quite sociable and almost pecked
Jennifers hand. Here they also breed trout the size of small whales but apparently do not put them on menus? They are protected and can only be caught as game with a licence.

Sunday 23rd Nov.
Woke up and found we were very lucky as 7 cars and tents had been raided overnight on our site. They burned their way into the tents with a heat gun as people slept. We drove south to lake Taupo the site of a volcanic eruption bigger than Krakatoa by several times which has created the Caldera which has the biggest lake in NZ. We then went into the Tongarriro Park. This is the site of several 10,000 foot volcanos that are snow capped and still very much active. When we went for a walk we carried a card showing safe areas and the route of Lahars (mud Flows) in recent eruptions. One mountain is a classic cone shape and was the Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings. The next Mt Ruapahu is a ski resort but also doubles as "Mordor" We drove up here in the evening and red sunlit snow with back rugged lava is Tolkienesque indeed.

Monday 24th Nov
Little to report today drove over 6 hours to reach Wellington for the boat to South Island tomorrow. The moutains from last night had changed character. Wreathed in strange cloud forms and with a howling cold gale pouring down the east side which blew us all over the road as we drove away. Strolling round a windy and wet Wellington tonight so we've dropped in here to blog.