New Zealand: Mount Ruapehu

I still have a few photos to share from New Zealand, better late then never.
We went and stayed near Mount Doom! It's real name is Mount Ruapehu. But imagine it without the snow and you can just see little Frodo Baggins climbing this to destroy the ring.
We stayed in the gorgeous Bayview Chateau Tongariro,

which had endless views of the surrounding snow capped mountains.


On our first day we hiked to Taranaki Falls. The falls flow 20 metres over the edge of a large lava flow, which erupted from Ruapehu 15,000 years ago. It was a fantastic walk with spectacular views the whole way.



On the second day we went to Whakapapa Ski Field – the largest ski field in New Zealand. The Maori pronunciation for WHA is FA, I will leave you to work out why this amused us so! It was Adam's first time ever in snow. The snow was a bit too crunchy to make good snow balls. However, that didn't stop us enjoying ourselves. We rode the chair lift to the stop, slipped around and had some hot chocolate while admiring the view.




We also learnt that you do indeed pull the safety bar down on the lift. After I initially said to Adam that it didn't seem like anyone else was pulling it down so it mustn't be the cool thing to do. After a rather scary ride, we noticed all the people in front of us pulling up their safety bars. Needless to say the second trip was a lot more relaxing.