Well the big day had arrived, not going to lie have been a bit nervous the last few days about this.

So the alarm went off at 6.15 as I needed to french plait my hair, we showered and Dave did some warm croissants in our kitchen for breakfast. We left at 7.15 for our meeting point 30mins away. We checked in and jumped in a minibus to take us to the start point. There were now 17 of us, mainly European, including Emma from Devon who is out here visiting some family and doing a similar itinerary to us.

At 8.45 we started ‘The Tramp’. Basically a hike but this one was an epic one though. We were going to walk over 2 active volcanoes, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro, climb the devil’s staircase to 1886 metres and cover a distance of 12.7 miles.

The walk started well although the weather seemed to be against us and it was by no means certain that we would be able to complete the walk. After a lovely flat start we began to climb and we had some fine rain, visibility was worsening and the wind was picking up.

After a few hours we were definitely feeling it as the ascent was upon us. It was getting colder, the wind had picked up even more but the rain had stopped.

As we ascended to 1800 metres the wind was ferocious and the guides were teetering on whether we should continue but thankfully they decided we should push on, basically heads down and walk quickly until we were over the top at 1886 metres.

And wow, the clouds cleared and we were rewarded with the most amazing views of the Emerald and Blue Lakes. Unfortunately we now had to descend a section on basically volcanic rock scree and I only took about 2 steps before I slid on my backside, thankfully the guide let me have some poles and I descended that section with no further mishaps.

We had a quick lunch break by the Emerald Lake and continued on past the Blue Lake then it was a massive descent which went on for hours.

We completed the walk in 7.5 hours having done around 40,000 steps.

Our transportation was waiting to take us back to the shop and we then drove the 30mins back to our hotel.

We were so lucky to have done this hike as they have now cancelled the one for tomorrow owing to worsening weather conditions.

We chucked a wash on whilst we jumped in the heated indoor pool to try and ease our aching legs before showering and heading down to the bar for a very well deserved drink and a bite to eat.