Cycle: 14km

I woke up at 6am to the sound of howling wind through the trees surrounding our tent. It was very cold, so I zipped myself up in my sleeping bag and, safe in the knowledge that we couldn't be able to do the Tongariro Crossing in the wind, went back to sleep.

I woke up at 9am (after all the buses had left for the Tongariro Crossing) to complete tranquility and perfectly clear skies. Oops. It looked like a perfect day for the crossing, but we were stuck down in the village.

We considered our options for the day and decided that cycling up to the ski station would be a suitable challenge. The ride was a 500m ascent up a 6km road with some really steep sections. We both really enjoyed it and were greeted with lots of "Well done"s at the top! We chatted to a lovely couple from Yorkshire who were interested in our tour and our plans.

We sat down to enjoy a nice cup of tea and a sandwich when about 30 Harley Davisons came whizzing up the mountain! It was a brilliant sight - there was so much sparkling chrome I could hardly believe it. We got a great photo of Humphrey & Lottie in front of them all! They were all on their way to a bike festival thing in "Palmy"!

We went for a walk across the mountain so we could see the view of Mount Doom (Nga..?..whatever) and we got some fun photos standing on rocks in front of it. Although calm on the side of the mountain we were walking on, apparently at the top and other side it was blowing 55km/h winds, so we were right not to do the crossing. I was just worried that we wouldn't see such clear skies again!

The descent back down to the village was great, whizzing round the corners with incredible views. Great fun!

We spent the afternoon watching the interesting videos at the DOC centre. There was one about the Mauri legends describing the mountains and the second was a more geeky one about volcanoes in general and why the mountains are as they are today.

In the evening we went up to the ski hotel and did some blogging before hitting the cheaper of the two chateaux restaurants for some dinner. Then an early night hoping for clear weather and light winds for our crossing! We wrapped up mega-warm in the tent to try and counter the unusually cold weather (there were frosts the night before!)