Rultland Arms Inn Wanganui

Day Eleven - Egmont to Wanganui <br>I spent a short while in town in New Plymouth before driving along the Surf Highway that loops along the coast south-west of the town. I headed towards a lighthouse that was shown on a map, but when I arrived, the road didn't lead to it, and it was rather unimpressive and utilitarian, so having negotiated my way past a goat that was chained to the middle of the path for a short walk, I drove on to Egmont Park. It was ...

... cafe places etc. Anyhows after my wee paniky moment i vertually ran back to my car - yes i have a set of wheels. wierd driving a gutless Automatic, quite dangerous in fact, you go to accellerate and the car just drops gears rather than speeding up! crazy japs. Found myself in a wee town about 200km North of Wellington called Wanganui in a fancy hostel. it has free tinternett so hence loads of pics and blog updates.

... beach' to have our lunch, but it wasn't too pleasant as the wind was really howling and blowing sand everywhere, so we ate in the car and moved on. We stopped again later at Waiinu beach a couple of kilometre's from the main road, the wind was still howling but we went for a walk anyway. The sand peppered our legs, so we didn't stay too long, but decided to move ontowards New Plymouth.

Today is the 100th day of our great adventure (woooh!), and it was always going to be ALL about the weather... <br><br>Our alarm went off at 5:45am so that Katie could get herself organised to be ready for our 6:25am bus to the drop-off point for the Tongariro Crossing, one of the best ...

... that happened on the trip that really has changed my life is that I have fallen head over heels in love. I have experienced a connection with another being that I didn't even know was possible, that I didn't know could even exist. It's the kind of stuff dreams are made of, the kind of stuff people spend their whole lives searching for. And here, on this amazing journey, I have experienced it, even if only for a short time. And the nice thing ...

We decided that we needed to get a move on to get back to Auckland in time to sell the van and leave New Zealand by the 25th. So instead of driving across to the other side of the country to see Mt Egmont (Taranaki) we would visit the Tongariro National Park - home of Mt Ruapehu, Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe. Mt Ngauruhoe played Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings films. We drove to ...

It's ok people, I know how worried you've all been over the past few weeks but I can now safely reveal that I am not in fact dead. Unfortunately the internet here broke and even though it was a five minute fix with a new modem it took them over a week to get round to it. So a quick round up of the last fortnight, I have finished spending a week and a half using a blow torch on ...

... and it wasn't that bad, a bit of sweeping and general cleaning. Oddly enough though I seem to have confused house keeping since they think they're full for staff and don't really know what to do with me. But the manager had my name down on the list and I'm here to stay. Met up with a couple of paddlers and staff at ...

... from before being riped apart by the water. This is where the A team moved in paddling back into the rapid behind the rocks. Baring in mind what had happen at "The Washing Machine' when we attempted the same move on a much tamer bit of water this move seemed like suicide, but we handled it with ease. Our guide then jumped onto the rocks and pulled out the damsel. All that was left to do was get her into the boat ...

... of the Tongarario park, and climbed slightly, the heavy rain turned into sleet, then into snow, it was unbelievable. We were driving through a snow blizzard with big chunks of snow falling, "it won't settle" Lee said, then two minutes later we were surrounded by hills covered in snow - doh! We drove onwards and upwards, still snowing, along the desert road. It finally stopped snowing just a we hit dense fog. On our right hand side we should have been seeing a stunning mountain range ...