Taupo

So this past weekend a group of 11 of us rented two cars and headed out on Friday night for Taupo, NZ. Taupo is about 3.5 hours south of Auckland and is just a nice town with a lot of outdoor activities to do.

The trip there was pretty terrible. One of the girls miscounted and instead of there being 10 of us, there ended up being 11, which meant that 4 people had to squeeze into the back seat of one of the cars. Becca, Katie, Fady and I were the ones who ended up having to squeeze and the ride was pretty miserable. We got to Taupo at about 11pm and headed straight to bed in order to get up and tramp in the morning.

The Waikato River

We started off tramping the Huka Falls walkway, which wasn't really a tramp at all, simply just a walk, but the view at the end was absolutely gorgeous. The Huka Falls are formed by the Waikato River and is caused by the build up of pressure as it travels through this tiny gorge.  The falls at the end were absolutely gorgeous!! On the walk back we discovered that part of the Waikato River produces a lagoon like natural hot spring that we all had to try out. It's strange to think that mother nature can produce something like that.

The next trip that day was to Craters of the Moon, which is a geothermal hot spot in Taupo. There are tons of steaming holes and lots of bubbling mud. The walk wasn't amazing, but was pretty cool. After Craters of the Moon, we headed to Lake Taupo to do some swimming. We found this giant raft off a beach and all decided to swim out and have wars to see who we could push off. My favorite thing about the water in New Zealand is that you can almost always see the bottom and what you're getting yourself into. That way you can avoid as much kelp as possible! That night we just hung out at the backpackers lodge and got some rest for the next day.

Becca and I at Craters of the Moon.

Me at the top of Mt. Tauhara

Sunday was the day of the BIG HIKE, Mt. Tauhara. It was a difficult trek to the top, but the view from above was absolutely gorgeous. Words can't even describe what it looked like, but I'll add a picture to see if it will help.  You could literally see for miles in each direction from the top. The walk up the mountain wasn't too terrible (other than my falling in a crevasse at the beginning of the hike) but the hike down was hard on my toes and my knees (not to mention, I fell three times on the way down!!!) Don't worry, Mom, I'm okay :)

After we finished the hike, we headed of to watch the release of the Waikato River dam. It was interesting to see the release but it wasn't as epic as I thought it was going to be. After that we headed back to those natural hot springs we found on the Huka Falls trail in order to relax a little bit before heading back to Auckland for school on Monday.


Overall, the trip was excellent!!!! It was nice not to be in the big city for awhile and I got to hang out with and meet some pretty cool people. If you want to see some more pictures check out my facebook.