Crossing an active volcano and Canoeing down the Whanganui River

Hey there, after staying in the rainy Taupo for two days we went for the Alpine Crossing (in which the volcano erupted one day afterwards!) and did the Whanganui River Journey for 5 days.

The last rainy weekend house sitting at our wwoofing family's place. Working in the rain enjoying a hot bath tub afterwards...

...and a hearty onion soup with self made Naan bread 

A map of our next travels, guess where we canoed ;)

 The night before doing the Alpine Crossing, it was cold.

Being sad that we used up the last piece of good German quality toilet paper from dm. But we were happy again when we saw this beautiful waterfall.

The active volcano, Mt Tongariro, which erupted the VERY NEXT DAY! The track is still closed.

Thomas entering the snowy altitudes.

 A huge crater lake in 1600 m altitude, just like that.

We could as well have gone skiing =) 

A great plain also in 1600 m. By the way, on the top there is a layer of clouds. 

Pretty cool stone formation. 

On the endless way down, feet hurting, backs aching, legs sore... 

 ... resting on the warm concrete, not speaking for half an hour ^^

 Beautiful sunset, but afterwards it got really cold...

 ...as you could feel during the night and see the next morning on our tent.

The next day's "Great Walk" was pretty unspectacular compared to the day before, but at least the falls were nice. 

That night something really awesome happened. We hitch hiked to Taumaranui with a couple that wasn't allowed to do the Alpine Crossing because the track was closed. We booked the entire Whanganui River Journey (Canoe and Campgrounds) and when we asked the supermarket manager if we could busk to get a place to stay for the night he just invited us in to his house! We had such a fun time that night and also with his son the next morning. He took the right picture ;)

So there we are, canoeing the next day! There were some awesome rapids. We saw someone fall in the water several times ;) 

 Building a maori peace pole and on we went.

On a little extra trip searching for the campground. 

On the way to... 

..the Bridge to Nowhere, a huge concrete bridge in the middle of nowhere (forest without any road access) 

A chill-out day with scenic landscapes. 

What you see on this map is one ride that took us directly to Masterton, our destination for that night. We hadnt even expected to arrive there because it was already 4pm, but God just sent that wonderful German lady who wanted to go exactly the same way.

Now we're staying with Nikki's parents cleaning their windows and enjoying their pool...

...sorting out some things to send back to Auckland. Every gram counts... 

 

They even took us to their beach house, where we saw another seal. By the way, Lina found her hair too long as well. Unfortunately, the color turned out to be a bit bright.

Steaming holes, hot springs and a rainy week WWOOFing

After our birthdays we headed southwards to the tourist capital of NZL Rotorua (enjoying the thermal activity in the area) and afterwards got stuck in Taupo because of a bad weather period. Meanwhile we challenged ourselves to earn the 500$ necessary for the Whanganui River Journey with busking.

Pretty cool story (without picture)! When we were busking in Tauranga a lady stopped with her full shopping trolley, listened for a while and started talking to us about our travels. After two more songs she gave us some of her groceries (toast, lemonade, eggs, cookies and crackers). AMAZING! Otherwise we would have had to buy new groceries that day.

After busking we arrived in Rotorua in the evening:

 Probably the only NZL building that will make it into our blog - government palace

Beautiful evening atmosphere at the lake Rotorua with a lot of bubbling and steaming mud pools

Lina at the lake

That night we camped in the front yard of a really nice and funny Maori family. Packing the tent next morning.

The Kerosine Creek - the water was about 40 C. It was pretty exciting to jump down the water fall since the current was so strong.

 Funny things happen in Rotorua - Thomas' head is even steaming

In another hot pool where a hot and a cold stream met. So you could always choose your temperature.

Since we wanted to camp there that night, we cleaned up the area. Look at our harvest ;) Since some teenagers came to party that night we had to move on and camp somewhere else.

 Amazing thermal activity (you pay 30$/person to get closer than this - we didn't)

The craters of the moon

 A pretty hot day. Would have been perfect for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing - you can see the snowy mountains of the Tongariro National Park in the very back (still on our bucket list).

While busking in Taupo, a nice lady (Linley) told us she had a feeling that we were in need - so she invited us to her place for two days and took us to a really cool church on Sunday. Isn't God amazing?

 

 This is her son Jason we had a lot of fun with. He even gave us 20$ for our journey. Thanks again!

Her husband Richard showed us around - this is the Huka Falls: the only exit for the water coming out of the huge lake Taupo. About 40 cubicMETERS per SECOND

 You can see the bottom of the 8m deep river - wouldn't happen in Germany

A little reminder of home ;) Guess why! 

In that place we've been busking 3 times now. As we knew that bad weather was coming up, we set out a sign saying: We work 4 you for accomodation. After ten minutes Nikki and her little daughter Bella walked up to us to take us as her first WWOOFers.

Bella (left) and Zoe (right) - the two kids of Nikki and Rich

Funny is, that Bella totally reminds Lina of her younger sister Niki when she was little.

We weeded the garden, cleaned windows and painted. 

One afternoon we spent relaxing: First doing some cross word puzzles and then manipulating the front cover

Lake Taupo - the biggest lake in the southern hemisphere

A lot of people had been asking if we could cook a German dish - as we always only made the pear gorgonzola quiche. So we tried the first Apfelstrudel in our lives which turned out to be really yum.

 Jam session with the kids =)

 

The only sunny day was our working day: During the morning we worked for Nikki's parents and busked in the afternoon. We earned 180$ in only 6 hrs =)          - challenge completed

 

 Their beautiful garden - all eager German gardeners just don't look at this picture.