Our day began in the snowy shadow of Mt Ngauruhoe, with a 17km trek through Tongariro awaiting us. We had travelled thousands of miles across many oceans to New Zealand, for the opportunity to conquer Mt Doom. At 12:30 we were overjoyed to reach the summit, and returned cold and damp to our car, unaware that the real 'doom' was yet to come..
After a long and exhausting day we looked forward to relaxing in our 'Top 10' holiday park in Wanganui, and enjoying what delights the town had to offer. Oh, how naive and foolish we were.
At around 6:30pm we were approaching Wanganui, but still miles away from any other evidence of civilisation. At this moment, our accommodation appeared through the darkness. We had arrived.
After seeking out our room we concluded that not only was the car we had arrived in larger than the cabin we'd booked, but arguably felt warmer and better furnished.
Nevertheless you might expect that the cabin would have the bare essentials, such as a nice bed, warm duvet and a pillow on which to rest our weary heads. Yet again, our naivety got the better of us, as we discovered that we would have to pay an extra fee to hire the duvets. However, by the time we visited reception to relunctantly accept the duvet charge, we discovered that the reception area was quite firmly closed.