Best Western Parklands Motor Lodge Turangi

... wollten, kamen ploetzlich blau** Himmel und die Sonne zum Vorschein. Inn**halb von nicht einmal 5 Minuten ist das Wett** komplett umgeschlagen. Zum Glueck zum Positiven. Wir waren uebrigens auf 1600m. Ganz schoen hoch od**? Man hatte jedenfalls eine tolle Aussicht und es war ein bisschen kalt da oben.<br>Auf dem Rueckweg sind wir noch einmal um den National Park h**umgefahren um die Des**t Road zu sehen, eine d** hoechsten Strassen hi**, die haeufig wegen ...

... massive snow capped volcanoes that line the southern shores of Lake Taupo. Before calling it a day, we hiked along the forested cliffs of the Tongariro River and watched the sunset over Lake Taupo. This was one of the best sunsets we've seen yet. Hard to believe. <br><br><br><br>Our accommodation that night was a very large room with lots of amenities. We were given the room because the ...

... for me, cuz that'd be no fun for anyone.) I began to feel particularly ridiculous with all ma gear as I saw people in tennis shoes and shorts running around. The first part of the trail was a flat track along piles of lava rock that lead up to one huge pile (Mt. Ngauruhoe) I imagine if you were an ant who built a home in black sand, this is what it would look like to you (only, with snow on top). Some say that you don't see anything for the first hour, but I ...

... easy things [she] found impossible" Tramping (hiking), for example. Yes, I can jump off a bridge into questionable water, or hitch hike on a boat, but the idea of the Tongoriro Crossing gets my knees shaking, for many reasons. First, I'm not entirely sure I have ever walked for seven hours straight.... especially up some mountain, oi. I mean, when we go bouldering and have to walk up to the spot, I'm the kid who's gasping at the top (well, usually ...

... es schon gar nicht mehr so schlecht aus. Immer in Richtung des grandiosen Kegelvulkans Ngundsoweiter (der in Herr der Ringe als Mount Doom hinhalten musste) bahnt man sich den Weg aufwaerts in eine superschoene und vor allen Dingen immer noch aktive Vulkanlandschaft. Beim Ausstieg aus dem Suedkrater wird es dann doch recht windig und somit hier oben auch schon wieder verdammt kalt! Die Aussichten auf Mount Ngauruhoe und die umliegenden Krater ist ...

... me the 30 minute ride back to Whakapapa. It had been a unique and very satisfying experience, only marred a little by the dramatic profile of Mt Ngauruhoe remaining hidden by cloud and by having to share the experience with rather a large number of other people (I'm obviously an anti-social B!). Having achieved my ambition it was time to leave the awesome desolation of Tongariro and next morning we set off for the Waitomo Glow worm caves en route to Auckland.

... with more color. We loved this place and spent several hours exploring all the sites as well as shooting a few hundred more photos of mud bubbles in action. The Emerald Pool was the highlight of the walk, as it's a lovely blue clean pool with orange and white edges. This is definitely a worthy stop on the North Island. We continued southwards, checking out a huge geothermal plant which provides 5% of NZ's power. This place ...

... sad) to see how excited we were to be going back to a town we were already familiar with (even if it does smell like rotten eggs). We even got a deal on our motel room because the owner remembered how good Laura was with her dog. And I got to return to the best honey-hole of free wireless access I've ever found in New Zealand. You've just gotta love this place; · Speaking of Lake Taupo, one of the reasons we wanted to go past this lake ...

... dry and as we were hiking the sun rose behind Mt. Ngauruhoe, an almost perfectly cone shaped volcano used in the filming of Lord of the Rings as Morodor's Mt. Doom. We snaked our way up several steep switch backs and came to South Crater, which makes you feel like you're walking on the moon. Next we hiked further up Mt. Tongariro with a great view of Red Crater to our ...

... Xmas cards, it was the first time all trip we've done anything like that and it was really nice to do. <br><br>We'd much rather have been on Lake Taupo taking advantage of some of the fantastic activities on offer, but frankly there was no point because it was raining and visibility was just horrible. <br><br>We flirted with taking a canoe ...