Tongariro National Park

This morning, we drove for 2 hours to the Tongariro National Park, where we spent an equal amount of time hiking to the Taranaki Falls. The weather was perfect, and the 65-foot falls were full with yesterday’s rain. Tongariro is New Zealand’s oldest national park, a dual World Heritage area, and home to three active volcanic mountains, two of which are pictured below. After visiting the park, we drove 4 hours to Masterton. Despite my earlier claims about the lack of straight and flat roads in New Zealand, a good portion of our journey today had such stretches and a speed limit of 62mph which made the trip much less arduous.