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After a brief one night stop off in Waitomo on the 17th, where we did nothing at all as we'd been with the girls, it was back on the road again and off to Taupo.
Just before we got into the main town, we stopped off at The Craters Of The Moon. Would love to say how spectacular and amazing this place was, but in reality it was just a small thermal park of which we had seen far better ones in Rotorua, and the 45 minute walk around the site seemed fairly uninspiring to all concerned.
Then it was off to the Huka falls, which looks like a huge foam river cutting through the rock with a small waterfall at the bottom, and the colours are pretty amazing too. After a quick five minute stop here it was off to the local airport to book ourselves onto the 12,000ft freefall skydive the next morning, and then on to our hostel. That evening we were advised by our driver to check out Mulligan's "Irish" pub, where you play paper / scissor / rock with the bar staff and if you win they knock $1 off the price of your drink. Class! Then it was on to the Holy Cow where people are supposed to dance on the tables rather than the floor, but on a Monday night it is pretty dead. They did however have a huge projection screen with a Playstation hooked up, and a few hours were spent as all the guys tried, and failed, to beat Jen at Tekken 4!!
The next morning we were supposed to be doing our skydive, but the weather wouldn't allow us to jump, so we decided on an afternoon of paintball instead. Running and diving through mud and undergrowth seemed the perfect thing to do on a cold day, and with Jen and another Irish girl on our team we were never in any danger of losing that one!!
That night we were heading back to the Holy Cow, but to make it more appealing we thought it only right to indulge in a few festivities before we left the hostel, and by the time we got there everyone was in high spirits. There was free pool all night long and we are actually beginning to get better at it now - either that or everyone else was very drunk!?
On our last day in Taupo we said goodbye to the crew that we had been travelling with recently, and spent the day looking around the shops trying to find some gloves before we freeze in the South Island. We had planned on a quiet evening before we left the next day for the Tongariro National Park, but the hostel was invaded by 45 kids on a school trip with 8 parents who had obviously given up trying to control them and seemed more than happy to let them burn themselves out! This took quite some time, so we headed out for a nice fat steak and proper mash potato for the first time in longer than we care to remember!!
Tomorrow we are getting off the Kiwi Experience bus to spend a few days in the National Park and if the weather is nice, we might attempt the Tongariro Crossing - an 8 hour walk across Mount Tongariro volcano.
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