The green city

With a very humane departure time (9:30 am, well-rested, yeah!), our bus left the Eggs-Toilet-Sulphur city. We continued on to Taupo. Since both cities are relatively close to each other, we first took a detour to a nearby forest. After all our hikes, you would think that we had seen enough forests, but that was not the case. In fact, every piece of nature has its own charm and always offers something new to discover (even if it doesn't look like it in the photos). Since we were still quite early, Lisa stopped the bus just before Taupo, luckily at Hukafalls. This river contains the highest waterfall used for commercial rafting. But just looking at the flow of this mighty natural spectacle, you had to be really, really crazy, almost daredevil, to participate. But it's definitely fun if you survive. We continued our journey to Taupo in the early afternoon.

Upon arrival, I was overwhelmed. We've already established that Auckland is not the most beautiful city in New Zealand. Also, it should be clear that there are only limited parks and nature to be found there. But on the other hand, I never expected a city to be so green that ducks, swans, and seagulls are piling up on the shore, you don't know where to sit because of all the bees, and rabbits hop around in the city center. But that's exactly what Taupo has to offer. There are seemingly more grassy areas than streets, the trees sway gently in the wind and everything blooms in the New Zealand spring.
It simply didn't feel like we were in a city, but rather in a huge park. Lake Taupo (yes, New Zealanders are rather uncreative when it comes to naming) was right in front of us, so we immediately made our way there. The sun was shining and the view was magnificent. What was fascinating was that despite its beauty, Taupo was not overcrowded. The lakeshore counted less than ten people. But there were so many birds begging for food. When I closed my eyes lying in the grass and opened them again, a duck was staring directly into my face from 20 cm away. Ooookay, you're not pushy at all, huh? But sorry buddy, I don't have any food.

With the evening approaching, we explored the surroundings a bit, with all their natural diversity. So many free-roaming animals in a city, who would have thought. Insane, simply insane. Yes, the city itself was of course not bad, but nature clearly stood out. You can really only find something like this in New Zealand.