The Huka Falls

A car trip lies ahead of us. Since we want to do the Tongariro Crossing tomorrow and have to return the camper the day after tomorrow, challenging days are on the itinerary.

Goal for today: A campground near the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. We still don't know which one.

The drive is mostly uneventful, except for the stunning scenery. However, we make a few stops along the way.

So we take a detour to the Huka Falls near Taupo, where a mighty river becomes a wild waterfall. Pretty impressive. This "detour" was worth it. We continue driving through Taupo, where we check the weather for tomorrow once again in the McDonald's parking lot. The forecast looks good. So off to Turangi, where we want to book the shuttle for the early morning hours. However, a short (swimming) break is taken at Lake Taupo along the way.

Finally arriving at the information center in the city of Turangi, the staff member assures us that we have chosen the perfect day for our hike: sunny and hardly any wind. We book the earliest possible bus that will take us from the parking lot at the end of the trail to the starting point. So we will walk back to our car. This way, we want to avoid the potential stress that could arise if we were bound to fixed bus times.

We spend the night again at the Crepes campground. Unfortunately, without French neighbors this time. After a decent portion of noodles, we set the alarm for 5 am and go to sleep.