Porridge for brekkie before we pack up and hit the road; we grab a coffee each first, from Delta Coffee

Our journey begins entering Modor, from Lord of the Rings (LotR) – the weather’s not great so we don’t get an amazing view of what is meant to be Mount Doom (Mount Ngauruhoe)

We drive up Mount Ruapehu to reach Tawhai Falls (Gollum’s Pool) – this was a filming location for LotR and has a little walk to take you there from the main road

Continuing the road up Mount Ruapehu, we drive through Tongariro National Park climbing up and up right into the clouds

Snow! We’ve found snow as the temperature drops down to 6°C

We drive up as far as we can, into the clouds, and we get to Whakapapa Ski and Snowboard Resort

Sadly, the weather is rather foggy so you can’t see a great deal – we had hoped to go on the Sky Waka Gondola so we will have to come back!

It’s around lunchtime now so we drive to McDonald’s in Taumarunui for a break before making a big hop to the Three Sisters

We arrive and realise that you can see two (formerly three) 25 metre rock formations as well as Elephant Rock

A little further on, you can park up at the beach which can allow access to the beach and these landforms at low tide but this isn’t for a couple of hours yet so we carry on

We make it to New Plymouth and check into our accommodation, at The Devon Hotel

Starved, we walk down the road into town but are quickly enticed by a Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet

We have four plates each of mains as well as two plates of dessert ????

A nice stroll back to the hotel and then we put a load of laundry on before bed