Rain, Rain, Rain!

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After leaving Waitomo, we headed for Tongariro National Park so we could do the Tongariro Crossing (the tramp Trev did). We arrived at our next DOC site having driven through terrential rain and it didn't look like it was going to stop. We sat in the car for a while then decided to head to the little village nearby called Whakapapa. We had a good laugh at how to say it as in New Zealand "wh" is prenonced "f"!

As it still hadn't stoppped raining we gave up and went back to the campsite to set up the tents. We set up a great little cover between the tents with the tarp still kinda covering G.I.Jane and we had an area in the middle where we could cook and drink rum (well, it was really cold!). We all dropped off to sleep but was then woken up be Ben and Tor screaming that there was a rat nicking our bread. It had been brushing up against Ben's feet and they thought it was a possum. It may as well have been as it was the size of one! Again we eventually drifted off but i was so cold down one side and couldn't work out why. I soon realised that i was lying in a massive puddle! The rain had got under the tarp and was slowly spreading towards me. We then realised that it was had come in by our heads too so we had to abandon ship and slept in the car.

We all got up in the morning (Jon and I extremely stiff!) and went to find out if we could do the walk. I decided not to go as it really didn't interest me when Trev did it, let alone when the weather was rain and 60 kph winds! Jon decided not to as well so we dropped Ben and Tor off at the beginning and went to find somewhere to dry the tent. We ended up realising that it was never going to dry so booked into stay at a backpackers lodge. Best decision we'd made! It was so cosy and we ended up sitting around all day watching films and drinking tea!

After picking Ben and Tor up at the other end of the walk we headed back to the lodge for a hot tub and sauna, luxuary and exactly what the guys needed after their very difficult day.

The next morning we went and packed the rest of the tent and things up and headed off to Taupo.

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Photos

Keeping Dry.
In our make shift double tent, at this point its lovely and dry but give it a couple of hours and we should have been wearing wetsuits!!

Waste not, want not.
Ben and Toria looking happy but its probably because they just downed rum and coke off our binbag carpet after spilling it.

Start of a hard day
Ben and Toria at the start of the Tongariro Crossing, ready to brave the awful weather. They did make it though, very proud.

Clouds
The cloud formations over the National Park were amazing. This was at sunset.