Mount RuapehuNow I have got my permanent appointment, I am free to apply for any post that is advertised across the country. A magazine is produced every two weeks with loads of jobs. Last week I applied for a job at a little village called Raetihi in the Tongariro National Park.
Oohhh I want to climb that hill!This is the area on North Island where the ski-ing is found and it also has three active volcanoes! The biggest one is Ruapehu at about 2900 metres above sea level.
It was the Queens birthday weekend and we decided to drive down to Raetihi for a look around. It took about four and a quarter hours to get there and it is about 350km south of Pukekohe.
Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings)
The police station at Raetihi!!!
The village of Raetihi was a bit of a let down as it is very run down and not in keeping with the other villages we have seen. All is not lost though, as there is a cool village 10km away called Ohakune. This is like an alpine ski resort and was a much nicer place to live. I just need to get a job interview and hope I can talk them into letting us live there and not at Raetihi.
A nice waterfall on the road to Wanganui
We also drove out to the coast along a spectacular mountain road for 88km to Wanganui. It was one of the most scenic roads I have ever driven along but it was hard work with all the hair-pin bends!
Hayley and Charlie on the beach at Wanganui
It's pretty remote on the road to Wanganui!
One thing we really noticed was the difference in temperature. We have still been getting temperatures around 18-19 degrees in Pukekohe, but in Raetihi it was about 6 degrees during the day. It made us realise how used to the nice weather we have become!
