Day 9 Snow & Ice

Goodbye Lake Taupo.....



....hello Mt Ruapehu!
These massive supposedly dormant volcanoes tower up majestically from the farmland. I say 'supposedly' as we found out on our return to Oz that the Mt had a small dummy spit and flicked a boulder at a couple of skiers. Perhaps they had just annoyed it?



It is odd topography. The map calls the area along side the mountain 'desert'. Coming from the outback, we were intrigued to see the NZ definition of desert. I guess I would have called it tundra. There is a very defined strip along side that has stunted vegetation which backs up again onto lush farming areas, not too far from the base.



This was the girls first experience of snow. Their father felt it his duty to help them to understand the concept of being smacked in the side of the head by a snowball. All in good fun. I'm sure he will understand the concept of payback and that women have loooong memories.


We camped at Palmerston Nth for the night. Busy town. The camping ground didn't meet the quality of the past few. Think camping at Eugowra show ground and you'd about have it.