Taupo > Palmerston North
We had a leisurely breakfast (and gave James a last runaround on the bouncy cushion, or "boing" as he called it). Then we headed out of Taupo on the 1 along along the shores of the lake. It's massive, and on re-reading the Lonely Planet book, the lake was created by the largest volcanic explosion ever!
 
In the distance we could see the snow capped mountains (actually volcanoes) of Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngauruhoe in the Togariro National Park (a World Heritage Site). We were relieved to read that the Desert Road was open (We hadn't anticipated it being shut!). The pass took us over the mountains and through the Rangipo desert. and the top of the pass was 3000ft. It was amazingly beautiful, but not at all like a desert. The ground was covered with bronze soil and dried scrub and went on forever without anything in site - fanatastic.
We stopped off near the top and took photos of each other looking windswept. And then, miracle of miracles, there was an Internet Cafe which allowed me to log my laptop onto their LAN. So we had lunch at Subway (50 questions to make a sandwich) before I logged on at The Blue Duck in Waiouru.
 
And then the wind started... Wow was it windy!! I was wrestling with the controls anyway, but was nearly thrown off the road everytime a truck passed us on the other side of the road. Another of the hazards of campervans...
Palmerston North is a large (by NZ standards) town with a 1950s Crewe-like concrete town centre - so we risked another restaurant hunt (not that our expectations were somewhat lowered, just imagine!). We were rewarded with a Thai restaurant which was great. James really wanted the peas out of my red curry, and I just wished I'd captured his reaction on camera - he did a big eyes-closed shudder before asking for "More!". We walked into town and back from the campsite through a pretty suburb area which reminded us of Phoenix
Funny how you don't appreciate some things until they're not there: the camp site (not a Top 10 one) didn't have hot water in the toilets. Brrrr!
Not sure how long we'll spend on the South Island, as lots of the activities seem a little over ambitious for a little boy: Heli-skiing, white water rafting, glacier walking etc. So, we'll see... We catch a ferry Thursday (tomorrow), anyway.
4:01:00 PM 
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