I think I neglected to tell you that Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe - our nearby mountains are in fact active volcanoes! Ruapehu last erupted in 2007. This accounts for the volcano eruption emergency procedure on the wall of our room! But so far so good and we move on tomorrow.

We did quite a long and varied walk this morning to Taranaki Falls, which despite the name is close to where we are now and not where we were a couple of days ago. It was another lovely morning, though generally there has been a bit more cloud today and perhaps a few degrees cooler. We started the walk from the hotel and went through alpine scrub and forest, followed a stream and passed over various old lava flows. The falls themselves were specatular - the water seemingly being thrown over a cliff!

Taranaki Falls

Ruapehu summit in the distance

Then we decided to take the chair lifts (2 of them) up Ruapehu - not to the top but a fair way up. I toyed with the idea of wearing my fleece but was discouraged by Steve who felt it would be unnecessary! So off I went with just my thin cardigan! I soon regretted this as the higher we went the much colder it got! Yes I know it gets colder as you go higher but if the sun had been out it would have been OK!

Still 900m from the summit

View from Ruapehu

It was really cold at the top and we didn't stay long to admire the views. And although the views were great the actual mountain is very ugly - must have something to do with it being a volcano! I expect it looks great covered in snow! Not one of our better trips.

Down at the bottom we enjoyed our lunch sitting in our warm car - and still with great views! After that we did two more walks - both of them short. The first was to a viewpoint to see some mounds which are the result of volcano avalanches and the second to yet another waterfall. Looking at the landscape from our room it seems rather unlikely that there are so many waterfalls so it has always been a surprise when we came across them!

Tawhai Falls

Since then we have been taking it easy - not something we have done much of so far but with the view from our balcony it was a treat! As I write now we are waiting for sunset to light up Ngauruhoe. Tomorrow we leave volcanoes for geothermal activity - can't wait!

Sunset on Ngauruhoe