Lake Taupo & Tongariro National Park, New Zealand

From Rotorua we headed to Lake Taupo. It's famous for sky diving and was trying to scare
Robert by saying that I already booked the course. But it was too windy and too scary to do it Oh, and they had this Superloo thing where you can take a shower, $2.00 for 4 minutes. Apparently it switches off automatically, so we heard some stories of people being left with shampoo all over them and then needing to go to get some more tokens.

We kept on driving towards Tongariro National Park. On the way you could feel the temperature drop with snow on the ground. The scenery changed as well with mountains surrounding us.

We were planning to do the Tongariro Crossing the next day, so we were rushing to get there early so that we could speak to DOC (Department of Conservation) people to get some information. We got there at 5.30pm, but the office was closed.

We tried to call some numbers to arrange the pick up, but people thought that we were mad as all the walks were closed because of the snow. A bit dissappointed we found a spot in DOC campsite and spent a night there.

In the morning, we went to DOC information again and they recommended we take the Lake Tara walk. Tongariro Crossing was definately closed because of the snow. People were waiting outside to go skiing and snowboarding

So we made sandwiches and set of for the walk.

The path was covered in snow and it completely disappeared at some point. We were just following wooden sticks and hoping that we were going to the right direction. We had to cross a stream a couple times and Robert tried not to laugh at me swaying back and forth on the stones. I didn't fall in, but for some reason wearing jeans for 17 km walk didn't look like such a great idea.

The views were amazing as we were surrounded by a volcano and mountains with a 360 degree view.

The first lake had an amazing emerald colour.

After reaching it and taking our pictures we set off to see the second lake. It was a good 45 minute walk and a very steep climb, I thought that I was going to die (pakratysiu kojas - how we Lithuanians like to say).

However, the climb was worth the torture and our sandwiches have never tasted better.

On our way back, the snow had melted and everything looked so different, so I guess we were quite lucky to do this walk with the snow around us.

After finishing our walk, we went to take a shower in one of the campsites. I almost wanted to cry as the first drop of water hit my hair This one lady though wasn't too impressed with me washing my jeans in the sink

All happy and clean we drove to find that nights accomodation. We ended up by the river in the place called Vinegar Hill. We saw two guys camping and we asked one of them if it was safe there. He said that it should be ok, but sometimes local yahoos can be a problem. And he kind of said: by the way you see those marks, this is where they burnt a car.

We stayed the night with Robert cooking amazing dinner as always. But we didn't get too much sleep as we were listening out for those yahoos but ofcourse it was perfectly safe.

Next day, we were convinced that the guy just wanted the place for himself and didn't want to wake up staring at a 'Happy Campers' van in the morning. Swearing about the guy, we shot from Huntreville to Masterton and then Martinborough to some wine tasting! (I must say - I really needed it)