The boys introduction to the 3 volcanos near Lake Taupo in the centre of the North Island was a bit overshadowed by clouds for the most part. Mount Tongariro is pictured above, that's the one you may have heard has been spewing off steam for the last few months. There is a great one day trail (7-9 hours) that you can follow called the Tongariro Crossing which takes you past the craters and two lakes at the top. Unfortunately, our boys are much too young to undertake that much adventure in one day, and half of the trail was closed due to the steam you can see rising just off centre to the left in this photo. We passed Mount Ngauruhoe which is a near perfect conical shape . . . just behind that cloud! It last erupted in 1977.
Then we drove up to the ski field on Mount Ruapehu, which last erupted in 2007. Cool landscape in summer when there's no snow!
After visiting the visitor's centre where the boys could touch pieces of volcanic rock, look at photos and videos of the eruptions, see landscape models of the volcanos etc, we headed off on a short walk for a bit of exercise, to yet ANOTHER waterfall. :-)
Best quote of the day comes from Xavier, who was picking up rocks along the path and showed me a small, black and very porous rock. I told him that he had probably found a piece of rock from the eruption of the the volcano. He says puzzled "What volcano?"
Seriously? We'd been looking at them, driving on them, taking photos of them, seeing videos of them for over 2 hours . . . "what volcano??" He's the blondest kid we've got and sometimes he has the memory of a goldfish.
Then as we continued our drive for the day, we told them they couldn't play their DS games until the volcanos were out of sight . . . so they could enjoy the scenery! LOL They said they didn't want to see another volcano in their entire life!
The clouds cleared enough get this shot of Mount Ruapehu. I was a happy girl, so we got to stop for ice cream cones.
It turned out to be a very late night getting into the campground at Palmerston North. We had to pick up some groceries and then cook dinner and we ended up setting up the tent in the dark. Luckily only one slightly pinched finger as the boys helped with the tent pegs. Needless to say, if they get to bed at 10pm, they need extra sleep in the morning. Actually we usually don't mind this at all! However, since we had a ferry to catch, we just left Xavier sleeping and packed up around him. It was nearly 9:30am when we had all showered, eaten breakfast and cleared the tent out that we were able to rouse him.
Made it to Wellington with an hour to spare, so we headed downtown to the old-fashioned cable car that heads up the hill, past the university grounds, cricket oval and up to the botanical gardens. Nice view!
We saw a Royal Caribbean cruise ship in port and were suitably jealous . . .
Down at the wharf with a picnic lunch waiting for the ferry.
Can you spot the van in the queue?
All aboard! The kids were protesting mightily that we asked them to sit outside for the first part of the journey out of the harbour. They thought playing games on a table inside would have been more fun. It was a lovely sunny day, so we insisted on enjoying the view for at least the first half hour.
So, that was the end of our North Island itinerary. But cheer - up! Our journey continues here and there around the South Island and Dave claims it more scenic anyways.
