Lord of The Rings

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From Taupo we headed on to the wonderfully named Whakapapa (note that locals tend to say "F" instead of the "Wh"....so childish I know!)

Anyhoo...on the way we stopped to check out the Craters of the Moon...did the compulsory walk around the track and "ooh'd and aah'd" as appropriate. In fact I think most of us just wanted to get back on the bus and snooze (typical backpackers!). Then we stopped at a waterfall where our crazy driver and some of the lads decided it would be a great idea to jump off into the freezing water below....ice melt off the mountains above! Silly! In the meantime the rest of us watched on (although Paul did decided to do a commando style roll down a very very steep slope almost giving me heart failure..."who put that there?!"...no injuries though- phew!). About half an hour later they eventually plucked up the courage to jump, quickly got dressed and then we were off. Boys!

We did do a mini walk up on Mt Ruapehu...checked out some of the Lord of the Rings sights...supposedly where they filmed the Battle of Mordor....did a bit of our own camera work (see pic of Amy and Nat).

We then headed back to the Skotel at Whakapapa (tee-hee!). I decided to do another mini trek to Taranaki Falls....absolutely amazing being out there all on my lonesome, not a soul around but the most amazing scenery. Headed back to camp to make the most of the facilities...nice....chilled out in the spa with the others before settling down for a night of obligatory non-stop Lord of the Rings.

Next day, we said farewell to Lord of the Rings world and headed onto Wellington.

Stopped on the way down at Ohakune and then Taihape "Gumboot Throwing Capital" and of course had a wee competition. Amy won for the girls and Luke seemed to enjoy throwing his backwards rather than forwards! After all that sporting activity we stopped off in Bulls for lunch. Yes, Bulls! Crazy thing is that all the locals seem to play on the name (see photo!). Bless them!

After another stage of travel we eventually arrived in Wellington, met up with some long lost travelling buds and headed straight for a cheeky beer...and as ever that led to a night of "just one more"!!!

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