Left Chris house today to start our journey down to Wellington. Stopped off in Taupo on the way and headed off for a leisurely walk around the lake. We had only been walking 5 minutes when I noticed a sign saying "Caution Scalding Hot Water" next to a stream which is feeding the river. Nick also noticed the sign and decided to check the water with his bare feet (the look of pain on his face confirmed that the sign was absolutely correct!) Now if you were anywhere else in the world you would question why a streams water would be boiling hot? However we are in a geothermal zone where steam billows out from the ground and hot mud pools bubble beside the road so quite frankly he should have known better. We did see several similar signs on the rest of our walk and he obviously had to test these out! He spent the walk home barefoot I suspect he has some mighty fine blisters! Went to the local pub in the evening to watch NZ once again hammer England in netball. Got back to the car park where we are freedom camping around 10 and went to sleep, however we were awoken a couple of hours later by what we thought must be a madman shining a torch through our windows and hammering the door. It soon transpired he was from the council and was checking if we had a toilet onboard (as freedom camping is illegal if you do not have a toilet). Fortunately we have been carrying a portable toilet around with us for this very reason so were pleased to show him. The problem is we would realistically never be able to use the toilet in the van as the van is no bigger than a Mondeo estate but he did not seem concerned by this!