The Cove Taupo

... geholfen. Das war ziemlich lustig.Sogar das Radio war da! Ueberhaupt isses schoen einfach mal ne Aufgabe zu haben und das Gefuehl zu haben dass man gebraucht wird. Mal schauen wie lange wir hier bleiben.<br><br>Now we are in Taupo again where we work for accomodation and food for a young woman with 2 small kids who has just been left by her husband and is therefore a little ...

The next stop was the Wangainu Valley as we followed Hwy 5 better known as the thermal highway. Alright, so forget Wyoming and ole faithful this is the beginning of the world. The valley is loaded with thermal lakes, ponds, and geysers. Laura took some amazing pictures and the whole trip took about 2 hours before we arrived at the giant lake where the bus picked us up to go back up the mountain. The highlight was the inferno crater which looked like a smoldering neon blue lagoon ...

... Amazing fun - freezing cold - but worth every shiver. We then have a relatively calm stretch of water which is whizzing along where we all jump in and get whisked down stream. All great fun until you've to get back in the damp raft - I'm the last one able to drag myself out - it is the most difficult thing to haul yourself out of a raging torrent into a swaggering boat. It doesn't help to laugh at your vain efforts. Of ...

... rushes we'd had that morning it wasn't as exciting as I'd expected. It was still pretty cool though. The pilot took us up and over Huka Falls, the 'Moon Craters', and eventually to Lake Taupo. The views were pretty amazing and the water in the lake looked gorgeous. Lake Taupo is bigger then Singapore and is the crater of a volcano. The area is surrounded by mountains. The pilot headed for the airstrip at the sky dive centre that we'd been at the day before. We watched as some ...

... charged me $16 instead of $160 for two nights in our double room with a bathroom...sweet. This is a brand new hostel, so it's a bit more expensive than the other ones. But the almost 2 to 1 exchange rate is making New Zealand sweet! Ok, fingers crossed for tomorrow... Goodness, I will be so dissappointed and we may have to stay in Taupo and give up something else... We really should be here for longer, but oh well, it's a big world. --Jimmy

... shops and cafes. Plus, who could resist the awesome beer that comes from the Mac's Brewery based in Nelson? We spent a night in the Mac's pub...they even make cider! Just for me! Abel Tasman is one of the smallest nat'l parks in NZ, but also one of the most visited. I can understand why when it's got stunning beaches and lots of wildlife (as in, birds). It's only accessible by boat or by foot and we explored it by both. We got a water taxi up the coast ...

... and a smoke was sounding pretty good)! Don't worry Mom, i didn't do it. Lake Taupo is an ok resort town and if its clear then you can make out the volcanic mtn range across the lake, but then again it's never clear. Anyways we had a nice Xmas meal. Amanda: We knew we wanted to check out Tongariro National Park and John was keen to do the three day hike before Christmas. It's a popular site and home to some active volcanoes -- one having erupted as recently as ...

Hello again! This morning I woke up at 7:45am in my room that I had all to myself....what a way to wake up. I was worried all night long that I would sleep in and miss the bus, but thankfully my internal clock was working quite nicely and woke me up with plenty of time to spare. From there I went to the kitchen and cooked a quick egg sandwich, went back to my room to pack up...and at 8:45am the Magic Bus departed for Taupo with a ...

... the people coming in and out of the hotel looked at us like we were mad! So the 13 hr flight over here was unaventful, more films, food and sleeping! although there was an incident at the airport with a starbucks and a dunkin donut, but you'll have to wait for the photos to find out what!!! so we arrived into Auckland International at 4am, we didnt get to go to sleep as we had to wait for the receptionist to arrive at 8.30...(no working our womanly charms ...

Ok, so i must<br>apoligise for not writing in this diary for ages!! Its a tiny bit more<br>up to date in my other blog (the address is on the main page) I will<br>get on to it, when we find another internet cafe! They seem to be few<br>and far between in New Zealand! Ill update soon, and thats a promise!!<br>xXxAlice and TobyxXx