Taupo

After our second night in the comfiest beds ever we were back to muesli for breakfast. We packed up and left Rotorua as we wanted to get to Taupo. It wasn't too far away, around an hours drive, but instead of going straight to the town we stopped off at Huka falls first. The falls were pretty amazing. They didn't fall from a great height but the amount of water that came gushing through one space was rather incredible. We were able to park by the falls, walk over them on a bridge and enjoy a nice hour walk along the Waikato river to a thermal spring. There were some Irish people sitting in the part of the river where the spring meets it when we got there. We stupidly hadn't brought our swimming stuff as it was pretty cold even though the sun was shining. Sitting in the warm water would have been fine though. Instead we walked on by and found the little stream that ran into the river so sat by it and put our hands in. The water was crystal clear and beautifully warm. We were quite amazed. 

On our walk back to the car we took a different route which happened to be the mountain bike track. It wasn't beside the river which made a change. It did take us another hour to get back though so by the time we'd reached the car we were ready for lunch. We sat at a picnic bench and had our sandwiches. I'm still loving these little flavoured tuna tins because I get something different each day. We also both had a delicious kiwi fruit (when in kiwi land) as a little dessert. 

We finally headed into Taupo after lunch and found the YHA. We checked in and stupidly wasted time using the wifi and deliberating whether to do a skydive tomorrow or the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing walk. The walk takes all day but due to the time of year a guide is needed (there's snow so you need axes and stuff). This means that it would cost us $170 so we decided we were only allowed to do either the walk or the skydive. Both completely different and both sound amazing. It helped when I finally went and asked the opinion of the lady at the hostel reception because she said the likelihood of the walk happening tomorrow was slim due to crazy wind. This decided it for us. The skydive it was. We called up and booked it for tomorrow at 11am before walking into town a little bit giddy. 

Even though we weren't doing the walk we still fancy doing some walking in New Zealand so we went to look at walking boots. We found some really good ones on offer for $100 so at least if we need some they're not crazily expensive. We'd also read in the guide book that the Macdonalds in Taupo was pretty cool so we headed over. There was a full sized plane in the kids play area of it which was the only cool part. We were going to take a look at the plane but it was overrun with kids and we would have looked a little weird. Instead we got an ice cream for a dollar (cone with soft scoop) which wasn't bad for its price but I still want to try the real New Zealand stuff.

We headed to the supermarket after our ice cream and got food for our tea. We made a risotto with bacon and onion and peas and green beans. Unfortunately, the bacon wasn't smoked so the whole dish didn't have much flavour. A little disappointing. I'm really starting to miss tasty food. It may seem silly to some but food is such a big part of my life that I feel rather sad when I don't get nice flavoursome stuff. My sadness continued when I found that someone had tried to steal my bed in the dorm room. It made no sense as my stuff was on it so I grumpily moved this persons belongings onto a table. I might be hated now. 

As there was really nothing to do in Taupo we got one of the hostel films and put it on. It was the Notebook which Matt had never seen. It's a sad film but it cheered me up slightly.