Road Trip

This will be a bit of a photo blog as although it has been a while since my last post but its mainly been because I haven't been up to too much lately. The most significant activities of late have been climbing Mt Tauhara (an extinct volcano outside Taupo) and flat hunting in Wellington both of which had some pretty good photo ops.

Mt Tauhara was a pretty easy climb, taking only 1h15 to climb and 45 min to descend on a gloriously sunny day. The climb was mostly done through bush, so it made it quite a nice climb despite the heat of the sun whilst in the open. Photos as below:

The start of the climb

View from halfway up

Trig marker at the top - made it!

Panorama from the top

View down to Taupo town

Overlooking the great lake

Standard NZ Scenery

Random gorge the path went through

At the bottom, slightly sweaty!

On Monday me and Em got up at the ungodly hour of 5.15am ready for the 5 hour drive to Wellington in order that we could go flat hunting. I wasn't expecting much from this drive as being used to motorway driving in the UK, I was anticipating dual carriageway monotony the whole way however to say I was pleasantly surprised would be something of an understatement.

The drive started as the sun rose over Lake Taupo, following the Eastern side of the lake all the way to the south end before becoming the "Desert Road" on the way to Wellington. With fantastic views of Mount Ruapehu (a volcano) the desert road is probably one of the most impressive roads I have ever driven along and if I thought it was impressive in the morning, it was even more so on the way back home with the sun setting. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any photos on the way out there and the photos on the way back don't really do it justice but you should be able to get an idea of what the scenery was like.

Actually a sunset whilst boating the week before but you get the idea!

Driving through the edge of the Kaimanawa Forest Park

First Glimpse of Ruapehu

Taken whilst driving (as are all of the morning ones)

Return journey on Tuesday as the sun sets

Ngauruhoe - a secondary volcano off Ruaphehu

Ngauruhoe again

Mt Ruapehu

The Wellington flat hunt was reasonably successful with us seeing two 1 bed properties that we both really liked. We've applied to the letting agency now and just waiting to hear back on whether we get approved. Seeing as I'm unemployed and Emma is a student bum, I can see no reason why they wouldn't immediately approve our application!