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Day 138- Our camera was on the blink so we took it to a camera shop to see if they could see what was wrong with it and left it with them for an hour. We went for a walk and checked out the hostel before heading back to the camera shop. When we picked it up he told us it was the camera charging USB socket that was faulty and couldn't be fixed. He was kind enough to charge the battery for us though so we had a few days to decide whether to buy a new one or to buy a battery charger and memory disk to computer adaptor. We drove north of the centre to do a small walk. It was through a national park that followed the Waikato river which was a beautiful bluey-green colour and its currents were scarily strong. It was a lovely walk that snaked along the river until we came to Huka Falls. These were more like rapids than falls where the fast-flowing river was propelled through a very thin passage creating these amazing 'falls'. The bright blue water was churned into a brilliant white colour and the bridge above it gave us a great view. We took a few snaps before walking back the way we came. At the start we crossed a little bridge where natural thermal spring water was flowing from the ground and since we brought our swimmers, we took a dip. It was unbearably hot, you could actually see it bubbling but it quickly mixed with the river water and was great. We sat in it relaxing for a while and I went for a little swim before setting off once more. We drove South-West to a tiny village called National Park (yes that's its name!). On the way there we caught our first of the Tongariro national park where we noticed ash and steam coming from a volcanic vent. It was fascinating to actually see an active volcano erupting right there in front of you. We arrived at our hostel after midday and were very disappointed to discover the amazing erupting volcano had ruined our plans! As it was active the Tongariro crossing was closed. The crossing is a 7-8 hour trek through the national park which straddles several volcanoes-one of which was erupting, meaning we could only go half way. This also meant you had to pay for a shuttle bus so they could track who was going in and out of the park. We didn't have much choice though and was no point not doing it so we paid the price and packed our day bags for the next day.
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mam reading this out to nana and jonny boy who are loving it xxx