Taupo, New Zealand

Yes, back here again. I missed out doing the great Tongariro crossing trek when I was first here as Id just done 2 days of snow boarding and I had a very tender rump. A 17km trek over a snow capped volcano wasn’t the most appealing at that time. So I came back. Well actually I went to Rotaroa again first, checked into a hostel, walked around a bit before realising that I had actually gone to the completely wrong town and I cant do the trek from here so I needed to travel down to Taupo quickly otherwise I wouldn’t have time to do it. SO, I get back to Taupo, check into another hostel and get a nights rest.

6am and Im off in a bus to the base of the mountain. I cleverly bought big, clunky, take up lots of room in your rucksack, hiking boots before I left the UK and I was pretty chuffed this was the second time I was gonna use them in my entire trip. They actually rape my feet each time as well so Im not the biggest fan of them. Anyway, the trip is split up into a few stages and it’s a little upsetting when it tells you the hike takes about 7 to 8 hours. That’s 7 to 8 hours of non stop walking up and down a volcano. But in actual fact its not that bad. The aptly named ‘Devils Staircase’ part of the mountain got me sweating and panting a fair bit but apart from that it was all fairly easy going. That’s probably because Im so incredibly fit and healthy.

"A normal photo. How strange"

At the top you get the satisfying views and also you can warm your arse up on the rocks when you sit down as it’s a great big volcano and has loads of steam coming out of the ground.

Its all very strange but you try not to think about the whole thing erupting right under your feet (as a neighbouring volcano did only 10 years ago). After that its all down hill. I was actually the first one I the group to finish it and managed to complete it in just over 5 and half hours, considerably less than the stated time. Probably because I did really stop as I was focused on getting it over with. I feel I needed to do it since I was here but I still haven’t made my mind up if Im the trekking type. Certainly a good time to clear your head and do a bit of thinking. But I’ve had plenty of time to do that. Also good adjusting to being on my own again since Ive had Andy with me since April. Mountain conquered, all that was left was to pop back to Auckland fly to Fiji. Which I did. Although I did manage to squeeze in a night of Karaoke with the lovely Kitty Kat from Perth.

And that was New Zealand. A place that is both extreme and beautiful. You could say it is ‘extremely beautiful’. Or not. I crammed as much as possible into a month and did a whole host of crazy shit that I'd never done before. If I had time to stay and linger in one place I could quite easily fall in love with this place. Top marks all round and a real highlight of the trip.

Ok I’ve got one week to get a tan in Fiji before the states.