had blown steam at us the night before!! Now this really was a strange place, a wasteland littered with various pools of steaming water and bubbling and boiling mud - and this was just the public park!! We wondered what the places that you had to pay for must have been like!! Still, that would have to wait, as first on the list was a look at Lakes Tikitapu and Rotokakahi, otherwise known as the blue and green lakes respectively. In between the two is a viewpoint on the ridge, where you can clearly see the contrast of the vivid blue and green colours of the two lakes, which are caused by their varying mineral content. A short drive further on was Lake Tarawera, a beautiful setting with magnificent views of Mount Tarawera.. It sent shivers down my spine just to think of what it must have been like on that night in 1886. The answer was provided at the nearby Buried village, where most of the houses collapsed under the weight of ash which was spewed out of the volcano.

It was time to find a home for the night, so we headed for Lake Rerewhakaritu, south of Rotarua, the other side of the volcano, which had a couple of cheap DOC campsites. One of them, ******, was an absolutely gorgeous place, where we set up camp with the place to ourselves. We were soon joined by a motley crew who turned out to be “Big Al’s fishing safari”, a friendly bunch of Kiwis who had come to fish for trout in the lake. Interestingly, it is illegal to sell or buy trout in New Zealand, an ancient law meant to keep them available for fishermen only!! After a top nights sleep and a big Rob style English brekky we were keen to get some exercise in the shape of a good walk. According to rough guide it was possible to walk up Mount Tarawera and along the rift and craters. Unfortunately though, it had been closed by the Maori because of disrespect and vandalism to their sacred land. We were gutted - not just because we couldn’t do the