Apart from the odd patch of interest the North Island of NZ is relatively plain in comparison to the grandeur of the south. Scruffy charmless towns and endless rolling grassy hills fill the majority of the island, the remainder being filled with rather home sick looking sheep.

The Tongariro crossing was a good walk. A steep accent to the edge of the crater was followed by stretches of other crater crossings. It was particularly cloudy that day and so the majority of the views where obscured with broken cloud. The area was used extensively in the filming of Lord of the Rings, the volcano itself playing the part of Mt.Doom (minus the fiery eye of course). A lot of geothermal activity still exists around the area with many steaming vents, hot streams and mineral stained lakes. Although this added an extra dimension of interest to the walk it also made it rather pungent. Sulphur, does not smell good.

After departing the national park i headed for Rotorua, the giza capital. How anyone lives here is a mystery. The entire place reeks of sulphur, and the majority of the population seem to spend their time trying to charge you vast amounts of money to see why. I've never in my life had to pay to see unguided, naturally occurring and maintenance-free phenomena and I'm not going to start now. Call me stubborn, but they can sit on their gizas for all i care.

Instead i went down the local park, massive steaming lakes and bubbling mud would normally be quite entertaining if it weren't for the local council permanently retrieving crispy fried duck from the surface. Despite all this, I've actually just been relaxing here for a few days, reading, walking etc. Mainly in an attempt to put off going to the reputed sprawl of Auckland.

The hostel owner here is a Jordy, and one of those "people say I'm crazy" characters that terrorize the work place. He's made over the entire hostel as an American western style town. Currently I'm staying in 'Jail'. I joked with a Japanese man from my dorm that it would be my first night in the cells since being away.

"Ohhhh..For me seventh" he said
"So you've been staying here a week?" i asked
"No No. First night"

I decided not to pursue the conversation any further, padlocked my backpack, and fell asleep.