Day 22 - The volcano

05.12.16

Because we are in an English-speaking country - well, sometimes the spelling of the Kiwis is so bad that you don't understand a word, although it is their own language - we like to write this daily episode in English. To be correct, the language of the Maori is, of course, the native one, but since the British Empire expanded, it lost its influence and meaning in NZL.

We get up at 7.15 and prepare breakfast as usual. Today's program hasn't been fixed yet, so we have a bit of work to do. After informing ourselves with a travel guide, we know that we would like to see a volcanic region with 3 'active' volcanoes (Mt Tongariro 1967m, Mt Ngauruhoe 2287m & Mt Ruapehu 2797m). But this means that we have to walk or hike for more than 5 hours. We take our seats in the Jucy Space Shuttle - one as the pilot behind the steering wheel and one as co-pilot to navigate the shuttle.

After 45 mins, we reach the landing area where we will start the mission to the volcano. As we start, we are following the weather conditions carefully because last time we were hiking, rain crossed our route surprisingly. Unfortunately, the weather today is unstable again. So we decide to do a shorter route and we won't climb to the summit of one of the volcanoes. To explain: an active volcano means that there is still activity, but you don't see fluid lava. Only some areas with exerting steam are visible.

We return after a 4-hour walk, obviously tired.

Time to get back to a campsite and make dinner. But before that, we find hot springs in Taupo, so we can take a warm (!) bath :-)

Because it started raining, the day ends with a special sunset and exciting cloud shapes.

PS: We added an extra report about our Jucy Car, but it was posted on 03.12.16, so you have to scroll down a bit.

Picture of the Day: Lake Taupo