Summer Reflections

MY PIC OF THE BUNCH

well slightly annoyingly I don't know where Dean has stored all of our photos so I have had to enlarge my favourites from what he has already posted, hence the poor quality...but I think they will do to illustrate my account of our latest travels. So first we climbed Mount Ngaruahoe A.K.A Mount Doom, as seen on 'Lord of the Rings'. Even though I remember hearing on the news that there had been an eruption at Mount Ruapehu a few years ago, I still didn't quite realize that we have active Volcanos in NZ.

So Here I am at 'red crater' (after 4 hours of climbing) It was amazing the weather was bad coming up I only had a rubbish bag as a raincoat, when we got to the top, the air was so warm there was steam rising up from the crater and the ground was HOT, it was like being in a sauna, but its a volcano, and it was all red and black and just really cool. There were warning signs on the way up saying such things as 'If you fell rumblings in the ground do not remain in the valley'.

So after 10 years living in the North Island we finally went on their one and only world heritage trail, and even though I am a South Island loyalist I have to say that its one of the most scenic things I have ever seen.

Asher our super model

I had a good laugh when I saw this picture, because I though little Asher looked like a sports illustrated model posing. So the night before our trip up the mountain we headed out to Raglan to have dinner and watch the sunset, it was such a hot evening we decided to go for a swim...I took Asher out into the surf the water was lovely and warm and he just loved being knocked about by all the waves. He always wants to hang out with us big people and do whatever we do.

Fletchers Bay

Raglan

Tongariro Pass