Tongariro alpine crossing

On Sunday, we met at 10 at school and drove to Taupo in two vans, we made a stop at a fun parc. There were a lot of different activities and we all had fun, but it was hot and I sadly forgot my water bottle.. I had to borrow water a bit from everybody..

There also was a trapez and when I came down of it, on my ahnds 3 big blisters had poped open on the pom of my hand and were bleading, this was pretty painful and I couldn't touch anything.. Now after 2 weeks, they are almost gone finally!

Wanna have a try on the bugee?

on our way to the huka falls!

The hot water spring, hot spa

my crazy people

huka falls!

Everyone going for a swim after the 30 minute walk to the hot spring

Later we had dinner at pizza hut, eating next to the lake taupo

We stayed the night at Mrs. Bird's second house, the girls on the floor in the lounge and the boys in a room together.  I got about 8 mosquito stiches but otherwise everything was fine!

After a rather short night, we got up at 6 and were tidying up the lounge, preparing our bags and eating breakfast. Soon after everything was packed and we drove to the beginning of the crossing. The sun was shining and it looked like a beautiful day. 

It was actually already really hot and everybody was soon walking in their T-Shirts, drinking all the time. 

The nature is really beautiful, you could take pictures all the time. 

The hardest thing was the steps, because there are a lot of steps and you don't really see where they are going.. But when that's done, you are really relieved and all the rest seems so easy!

Emirade Lake

After a while at the top it started hailing and there was a thunder storm coming up and everybody just tried to get down as fast as possible.. 

A girl got a panic attac and didn't want to come down the volcano, Mr. Kitchin had to take her backpack and give her a lot of support. At the end of the walk she couldn't walk anymore so somebody had to carry her.. 

At the bottom of the volcano, it was dry and the sun was shining again. Wow, so that's why we had to take a rain jacket and also on the top of the volcano it was really windy and cold, so the temperature changed really fast. That's why it's good to bring a rainjacket against the cold wind. 

So as  a summary, we walk to the lakes (emarade lake) and then walked back. Most of the 1500 people doing this crossing every day, are walking further and are taking a bus back to the carpark. After the whole walk which took us about 7 hours, we split up. Most of us went home but some went to the hot springs and we went for a swim in the hot water, we could get rid of the dirt a bit and refresh our selves.

These boys are at the very spring, so the water is very, very hot and they still dared to get in!

After the springs, we went to domino's pizza and had dinner take away. We got home at about 9:30. 

That hass been an exhausting but nice trip!