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So here we are on the North Island after a eventful 3 weeks on the South Island. The first point of call was Wellington after a 3 hour ferry crossing. We spent a couple of days in Wellington but unfortunately the weather wasn't great so we didn't get up to much. Our impression of Wellington wasn't great as it seemed very industrial and worlds apart from the stunning environment of the south. One plus point though was that Wellington was full of bars and clubs, however considering we are running dry on money these days all we could do was window shop and that is no fun when it comes to alcohol!!! Needless to say we didn't stay long and the height of the excitement was a visit to a really busy cinema, check out the pictures. Next port of call was Wanganui.
We decided to visit Wanganui as it was kinda half way to Tongariro National Park, the place we wanted to visit next. After reading through the Lonely Planet we thought this would be a good place to stop as there were quite a few things to do on the local river including riding an old paddle steamer. However, when we got there we found out the paddle steamer didn't run in the winter and apart from that there was b***** all else to do on the river. So once again it was one night and off on the road. Highlight of this place was that campsite had a goat on a lead, now that tells you it all really!!!
Final stop for this blog was Okahune. Ohakune is a small town and is used as a base for skiers in the North Island and also as a jump off point for the Tongariro Crossing. This is probably New Zealand's most famous walk and it takes you across MountTongariro and the surrounding volcanic landscape. Now our plan was to do this walk the following day however once again weather intervened. It was miserable, with showers all over the place, not quite walking weather we thought. The weather we were experiencing kinda put everything into perspective and made us realize that we have actually been dead lucky so far, as most of the time in NZ its like what we were experiencing here. The next best thing, we thought, was to drive around the park and take photos that way. Although not quite the walk experience, at least we weren't soaking wet and shattered. The area around the park is really cool and is the place were they filmed the Mordor scenes for LOTR, so you can imagine what it is like. Lots of black rocks with all kinds of mosses and prehistoric looking plants on them.
So is that the most boring blog we have written or what? I'm going to name it the David Batty of blogs as it fills the holes!!!!! Hope we haven't put you off reading our website forever and since then we have been up to much more cool stuff so I promise the next blog will be more exciting.......
Grant
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