The Ferry, waiting to take us away across windswept Cook Strait from Picton to Wellington, the Capital of New Zealand.

Welcome to Wellington. The first view of its wooded hills as you approach the Harbour.

Te Papa Museum, with its Awesome Forces exhibit. Just a prelude to the real thing in Rotorua.

Waikanae, a pretty seaside town on the west coast of the North Island, en-route to Rotorua.

The three Volcanoes, Tongariro, Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe on a clear day. An unsurpassed view, not often seen. They are benignly puffing smoke from their snow-capped peaks. Apparently, there's only cause for alarm if they stop 'smoking'.

Below: The three volcanoes, shrouded in mist on this particular day, although you can just make out the ouline of one of the craters.

Plopping mud pools in the Whakapapa centre, Rotorua. They look like grey porridge and smell like rotten eggs. It's a smell that pervades Rotorua and random steam vents are everywhere.

The hot rocks and Pohutu Geyser at the Whaka park. The geyser shoots up fountains of boiling steam about every five minutes.

The seaplane on Lake Rotorua. This plane transported three of us into a world of volcanoes, fissures and craters. The still very active and dangerous White Island is visible in the distant Bay of Plenty. There is also a hot-water beach there; would love to have visited.

The Bay of Islands with some of the clearest turquoise waters I've ever seen and the Hole-in-the-Rock formation. Are we really going to be able to squeeze through that? We did!

Above:  From the top of the Auckland Tower, you can see for miles and miles and miles, like in the song by the Who.

A big Stingray taking a leisurely swim near the shore,

Below:  John enjoying some warming sunshine near the Bay of Islands.

The Auckland Tower dominates the city skyline and in the evening abseilers could be seen sliding cautiously to the ground. Great fun to watch while eating Dinner at Denn'ys.

Below: Ferry at Devonport, a delightful enclave of galleries, coffee shops and pretty homes and gardens.

Maori huts at the Whakapapa Centre ,Rotorua

 Below: The pale green, gushing torrent that is the Waikato River, slices through the geothermal region of the North Island, providing Hydro Electricity  It is also the longest river in New Zealand and flows for 425 kilometres through the North Island.

I may be able to display more photos later.  Some that I thought we had, I couldn't find.  However the internet offers some great photos of N.Z. if you'd like to take a further look.