Mount Ruopehu

We drove to Tongariro National Park to see the volcanoes. The closer we got the thicker the cloud became so we had coffee in the Chateaux Tongariro and by the time we emerged the sun had emerged the clouds were parting and the peaks came into view. A drive to the ski slopes took us through what looked like cut blocks of peat but was actually volcanic rock. Tongariro National Park was gifted to the New Zealand government in1887 by the Maori. It was the first national Park in New Zealand and only the fourth in the world