On the weekend a bunch of us trundled up to the top of Ruapehu to see what we could see. In perfect weather we made our way around from above Turoa skiifield to the crater glacier and camped on the summit plateau (the entire Taupo Cessna fleet gave us a fly-by in the morning). We got a good view down the Whangaehu River towards the Desert Road of the large dirty braids the lahar had made en route to Tangiwai Bridge. The crater lake now has a beach all the way around it, though you might want to take a beach umbrella as the scientists have been talking about the possibility of geysers. Which is all asmuch to say, GNS have released photos from the crater webcam of the dam bursting, and you can find them
here.