My 'East As' trip started on a very miserable and wet day, being assured that the weather on the East is usually opposite to Taupo I hoped this was a good sign. There was only 8 of us for this part of the journey, a mixture of people one of whom was 72! Our first stop was Te Kaha, a small homestead run by a man who fancied himself a singer, who spent most of his time drunk and who could also marry people off. You expect to find guys like this in Vegas not in one of the remotest places in New Zealand!

We traveled through the Lakes District and beautiful countryside to reach Homestead Lodge all a bit worried as we had been told it was expected of us to sing at least one song that night. The homestead we were staying in was really nice, although our bedrooms were in a separate building you pretty much mixed with the family using their kitchen and facilities. They were on the beach, which would have been great if it had been nicer weather (what they say about the East weather is true, just turns out Taupo had sunshine after we left....) and they also had a hot tub where you could look out on the sea and watch the sunset.

That night they seemed to be taking ages to set up the singing so I think we were all lulled in to a false sense of security, but sure enough when we thought we had got away with it they called the 8 of us over, with the guide Bollos as a guitarist, a random man who decided he was going to join in (an who incidentally was obsessed with possums, would not stop going on about the creatures and the many different ways of killing them) and the drunk singing vicar we all sat down round the bar and began. The drunk (who's name I think was Paul) started off by singing us a Maori welcome song, he had a pretty good voice actually and was lots of fun. Then it was our turn, obviously we had decided to do a group song and had written out 2 verses of it to sing. We were going to make out that they were the only words of the song but unfortunately the guys we were singing too had heard of it! So they made us sing it twice. None of us were singers except one who pretty much carried us and the 72 year old had disappeared to bed so we were a man down. I think the owners realised we weren't too keen on the singing and when they mentioned a pop idol type competition and saw the horror on our faces they thought about it again and decided we would do just one big sing along. The night turned in to a good laugh where we sang a lot of famous songs but with the words changed, most of them rude. Paul, the owner, even made us call the dad of one of the girls we were traveling with as it was his birthday, I wonder what he thought as a bunch of strangers sang happy birthday down the phone to him!

One of the best things about this part of the trip was the late mornings, its all very chilled on the East coast so the next day we rose late to rain and headed off to Rangitukia passing through some beautiful scenery, stopping off at the longest pier in New Zealand, which was pretty damn long and stopping in a little town to get some beautiful fish and chips! Our lodge for the night really was in the middle of no where this time. That afternoon I went bone carving and from a piece of bone (cows I think) I made a pendant, came out surprisingly well. Took ages in a freezing cold loft so I'm glad it turned out well. That night we sat in the kitchen and played cards, me and a friend were so immersed in our game of cards we didn't realise there was a fire that one of the boys had managed to set off while trying to cook until we looked up and realised we couldn't see anything because of the smoke!

The next morning we got up really early to see the sunrise, probably the biggest waste of time as there was no sun rising that day. So I went back to bed. Our last stop was definitely my favourite on the East coast. We stayed in a place called Tatapouri which was on the beach and went stingray feeding. It was quite scary at first, wading in to the ocean (in very green and rubbery waders) and having these huge rays come up to you and start pushing at your legs for food. They are beautiful creatures and when I got the courage fed one of them their mouths are like vacuums and they suck the food up from your hand. I noticed we were only allowed to feed the one who didn't have a tail. Since the tide was coming in we had to leave the stingrays and head back in to the lodge for some tea and biscuits. That night we had a great BBQ and toasted marshmallows on the fire.

Which brought us back to the last day, which we were quite sad about as it meant getting back in to the hustle and bustle of the kiwi bus again. But to drag the last day out we stopped off in Gisbourne, a nice town and at a beach on the way before heading back in to Taupo. Thankfully the weather was good here so I booked on to the Tongariro Crossing for the next day.

An early start for the 17k hike which passes through 2 volcanoes one of which is Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings and other unearthly scenery. We set off to the base of the trek where we started our own 'fellowship of the ring' (but without the ring, orcs, gollum, orlando bloom...) expedition to the other side. It was a great hike and has to be done if you are ever in this neck of the woods. Mount Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom) was the first volcano we passed, a perfect conical shape it was covered in snow and looked nothing like it did in the film. We continued on our way while some nutty people decided they were going to climb the still active volcano. We passed through some stunning landscape, ice and snow covered parts of it while in other places you could see steam coming from the ground and craters. We passed by a red crater, where the ground was warm and most of us stumbled down the steep side which was made of moving rocks and dust. Mount Tongairo was the second volcano also covered in snow and not such a perfect shape as Mount Ngauruhoe finally coming to the blue lagoons, there were 3 lakes of such a perfect turquoise they were beautiful. The hike finished by passing through jungle type terrain, we had perfect weather (although the wind threatened to blow me away a few times) and the day was excellent. I even saw, by Mount Tongairo a man get down on one knee and propose to his girlfriend. Since they were holding hands later I'm assuming it was a happy ending.

That night all exhausted we rented a DVD and ate pizza! My last day in Taupo was a chilled one, I sat by Lake Taupo (which I have recently learnt is actually a crater to a volcano). We had one last night out before heading to River Valley the next day. On our way to River Valley the big green bus, always so reliable broke down. Luckily it broke down in Tongariro National Park so we could go for walks or just chill out on the grass. A replacement was soon sent and we made our way to River Valley which was beautiful. Set in a valley, surrounded by lots of green, hills and trees it was a chilled out place to be and with the rafter guides all hanging around it seemed the perfect place to stay for a few days. I didn't, if I had more time I would have considered being a 'slave' (their job title for doing all the crappy jobs). A lot of people went white water rafting, I missed out this one having done it in America although this is one of the few grade 5 rivers. They cooked a lovely roast dinner for everyone and it was a really good night.

The next day was a late start before heading off to Wellington, the capital city. Wellington is a small city and is the windiest in the world apparently. This seemed like a good place to stay for a bit so the last few days I have been to the museum (where I learnt I'm in one of the most dangerous places in the world in terms of volcanoes and earthquakes especially Wellington which is right on top of a fault line), took the cable car to the botanical gardens and have been shopping. Tomorrow I get the ferry to the South island which is supposed to be even better than the North island. Can't wait!