Up at 4.45am, woke Mum. I'd had a broken night worrying about sleeping in. Did some ironing, finished packing, showered, had a brew and some juice. All ready for 5.50am. Went and stood outside to enjoy the dawn and the birds singing. Fran was a couple of minutes late but we were on the road for 6.15am. Its around a seven hour drive to Wellington. We drove past Lake Taupo, which is a huge volcanic caldera, and the active volcanoes on the southern edge. Climbed up to the central plateau on the desert road. It is like a vast moor but on ash instead of peat. The ash was swirling around in the wind. The cloud lifted to give amazing views of Ruapehu, the volcano which spewed out the ash we were driving over. 10.39am, still driving south with the central fault mountains on our left. They mark the southern edge of the Pacific Ring of Fire or the plate boundaries for the Pacific and the India/Australia tectonic plates.
12.08pm, arrived ferry port, made really good time, now queuing to check in.
Ferry left at 14.10, twenty minutes before departure time. I said to Fran it was just as well we had arrived early or they would have gone without us. He reckons they would have waited for anyone who had bought a ticket, until the correct time. This is a couple of views of Wellington from the back of the boat.
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