Taupo/ Tongariro Crossing/ Wellington

Well it has been a busy couple of days, after leaving eggy smelling Rotorua it was off to Taupo when we got there we headed straight for the lake. And it was like being at home freezing cold!

The next day it was up early at 5.30am! to get bus to Tongariro Crossing one of the best hikes in NZ. When we got there and had received our map it was straight off, lucky Charlotte and a few others about 6 of us went together. The beginning started off flat but then suddenly became very steep and we went through a part called hells gate, well it was definitely hell lol as the steps just kept going and going. After that we continued up with several steep sections of the mountain with very uneven surfaces, sometimes you felt like you were going backwards rather than forwards! and seeing the vertical drop below was pretty scary. Then it was back down to the sulphur lakes below where you were practically sliding down, we had a good laugh there where several of us fell on our bums.

After the lakes it was more steps up then around a mountain which then led down to the lunch stop! yay we got to sit down but not for long, we then set off through a rainforest with several lovely little stream running down.

By the end we were all very tired but feeling amazed by what we had done and had a well deserved sleep on the grass before getting picked up.(We did the crossing from 7.30 till 4ish and did it an hour an half before the bus came).

That night we went out for a few drinks and bumped into Alex and Drew who were buzzing from doing a sky dive! It was a short night as paracetamol was need for sore knees and hips! well it was one of the hardest walks I have ever done apart from the Itex Jersey!

Next day was rather boring on the bus all day to Wellington, but got to the hostel and was amazed more like a hotel (me and Charlotte even asked if we had gone into the wrong part lol).
Then it was off to the rugby with our walking group which was great fun to watch and an exciting score right at the end (unfortunately though my camera got stolen then so I don't have any photo but charlotte and rebecca have send that they will copy their so will have a few).

Yesterday/evening was the Cuban carnival with a street parade,live bands, markets and it was great fun.