The hostel in Taupo was recommended by the first swiss guy that we have met in New Zealand, which was in Rotorua. Our room mate for that night was from Germany (as the majority of the travelers) and we decided to cook something together. Something delicious, yet affordable. Something crazy, yet familiar: Pasta with tomato sauce. As we prepared our dinner, an old lady discovered that we were talking swiss german. She explained that she was from Switzerland as well and that was the beginning of an awful long monologue. Apparently, she was one of those people who know how to start talking but they don´t know how to stop. She was babbling about everything that she has experienced on her journey and was really annoying us.

On the next day, we walked with Robin (the german guy) to the "Huka Falls". On the way,we stopped to watch people doing a bungee jump. Oscar convinced to do a bungee jump when we are in Queenstown but I am not really sure if I will join him. The Huka Falls were not really special but the water had a crystal blue colour.

In the late afternoon, we hopped into our Ferrari and drove around the Taupo Lake to Turangi. Turangi is close to the "Tongarino National Park" and a good place to stay if you intend to do the "Tongariro Alpine Crossing". Of course we signed up for it because our swiss mentality forces us to climb every mountain in the whole world.

The next morning, we were packed and ready to defeat the evil mountain. Water, rain jacket and a pair of brand new trekking shoes. The shuttle bus picked us up in front of the hostel and brought us to the starting point. 5 other buses were already standing there which dropped off about one hundred inexperienced trekkers (compared to us, of course). We did some step aerobic and some pilates to get warmed up and off we went. The weather was perfect, a bit windy but sunny. A bunch of crazy guys were running past us and we were thinking about joining them but in our eyes it was just a way of showing off. Even tough we were in a perfect physical and mental condition to run up this pansy mountain, we decided to walk so that the other hikers don´t feel slow and untrained.

The view from the top was amazing and the "Mount Doom" was an impressive sight. There was the "Red Crater" was on our right and the three green "Emerald Lakes" were lying a bit below us. My new shoes turned out to be my worst enemy which tried to attack me with painful blisters. The plasters helped a good deal but it was nevertheless uncomfortable. On the way down, the track led through the bush which seemed to go on forever. We finally arrived at the end and if we had been a race, we probably would have came in first place. We decided to stay in Turangi for another day to celebrate.

We travelled further south, along the river road to Wanganui. The scenery from the river road was quite nice but the road itself was not. Windy, narrow and unmounted. We made it out alive even though there was critical moment where some crazy person drove around a corner at an unnecassary high speed and he almost caused an accident. We stayed in Wanganui for one day and continued to Wellington.