13, yes 13 degrees! Rain with the occasional sight of sun.
Woke to pouring rain and the heating on in our bedroom!
The Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 19km walk across the mountain range to some spectacular lakes and views, was closed due to the bad weather, which was a relief as we might have felt obliged to do it! As it was persistently raining we decided to have a relaxing day and do nothing in particular. The weather was very variable, the sun would come out and everything would steam and the black storm clouds accumulated and drenched everything. At one point when the clouds cleared we went out onto the balcony at the front of the hotel and were amazed to see how close Mount Ruapeho was to the hotel, this is an active volcano!
John was keen to keep t-shirt, shorts and flip flops on, even though it was only 13 degrees; Clare wasn’t!
After lunch we decided to go for it and do a two hour walk to a popular waterfall, so we got ourselves ready in wet weather gear, walking boots, etc. Left the hotel in a light rain and 10 minutes later returned having decided it was daft to carry on as the cloud had dropped and the rain was quite heavy and was not showing any sign of stopping. So had a G&T in our room to compensate, using the last of our well travelled lemon which we bought on the first day we arrived in NZ! Which goes to show how abstemious we have been!
Rain eventually stopped at about 6pm, so we had made the right decision.