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Today is our last day on the North Island! Tomorrow we catch a bus at 7.00 (early!), then a ferry at 8.25, and another bus at 12.30 and should reach Nelson sometime in the afternoon - lots of travelling!
Our next stop after Rotorua was Lake Taupo, which is the biggest lake in NZ and has a bigger surface area than Singapore - fact! We arrived quite late in the afternoon, so went for a walk to the lake shore and took pretty pictures as the sunset over the mountains reflected on the water. We were up bright and early the next day (5.15 - I thought it was the stuff of fairytales), and on a minibus at 6 heading to the Tongariro National Park to undertake what is reputedly the best one day walk in NZ, and one of the top 10 in the world - the Alpine Crossing which passes between Mounts Ngurughoe (also known as Mount Doom) and Tongariro - active volcanoes! The walking was relatively leisurely at the beginning, as the slope was rather gentle and the paths were quite easy. The views of the volcanoes and the neighbouring Mount Ruapehu were pretty awesome, and we couldn't see why the hobbits made such as fuss of climbing to the top. But it soon got steeper; lots and lots of steps appeared in the path and our lungs definitely began to notice the altitude. When we reached the South Crater, the terrain evened out and we thought the worst was over... Deciding that summiting Mount Doom was more than we could manage in a day (it looks much steeper up close), we continued on only to find that the climb up to the Red Crater (1886m above sea level) was very steep and very challenging (especially when we have spent 2 months sitting on buses), but we made it up to the top! The crater itself was rather formidable-looking, and steaming ominously which left the lovely smell of sulphur wafting around us. The descent was much easier (though rather slippy to begin with), and the Emerald Lakes and Blue Lake were very pretty (though we expect rather deadly) - as were the views of Lake Taupo and the surrounding fields and volcanoes. We arrived in the carpack at 3.30, very tired after our 19.4km expedition; needless to say that I didn't expend too much energy the next day!
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Christine C After that very long walk, how was your very long (another one!) bus/ferry/bus travelling ?