Sitting waiting for our flight, so this is obviously the 'last post'
We finished with four days at the beach, at a place called Mt Maunganui. Very pretty, even though we had slightly mixed weather.
This did not stop us walking up the mount (in the rain), and swimming in the surf (in the rain)
The mount is on a headland, and looking out one way, you see the Pacific. If you look the other way, you get a cruise ship in the foreground, and NZ's biggest container shipping port in the background. There's also an uninhabited spit of land in the harbour, which has quite a lot of geothermal activity going on.
We decided to finish with a bang, so booked a trip to White Island, which is NZ's most active volcano. It sits approx 30 miles off the coast, and is the easternmost visible sign of the string of volcanic activity, which starts at Tongariro (beyond Taupo). The 'ring of fire' then goes underwater for good, until resurfacing in Hawaii.
The volcano gave us yet another opportunity to say: "Never been anywhere like this before"
Hopefully took some great pictures inside the crater, as well as some 'short films'
