These were the words that greeted us as we came to the volcano area.

We woke up to this view this morning before leaving

The journey to hawera was 3 hours through lovely hills and gorges and rivers running through valleys. It looked like hobbit land but I will take photos of this another day!

We passed beautiful surf beaches too.

at Hawera we found the annual procession of American cars and quickly stopped to watch the parade and wander through the streets looking at all the fantastic vintage cars. 

This is our first pictures of the volcano..its lush!

And lastly looking down from the volcano xxxx