Day 3 & 4: Thermal Pools & Mount Doom

        After a long cold night without sleep, I piled back in the bus to continue south. Our first stop of the morning was at a geyser. I can't say for certain whether or not this was my first geyser, but it was definitely the most impressive I've seen. Our bus driver was a bit of a joker and convinced us to take off our shoes, claiming that it was a sacred Maori site. I'm sad to say that I fell for it, but I have to admit it was pretty funny. If I wasn't positive that I had been punked by the fact that we were the only people there with our shoes off, the story about how they discovered the geyser certainly solidified it. As it turns out it was found when convicted criminals were using the water at the surface to wash their dirty laundry and accidentally dropped a bar of soap down into the geyser setting off the eruption. So if it's sacred...it's a sacred laundromat.
         From the geyser we drove on to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Resort where we took a nice walk around tons of thermal pools some reaching temperatures of over 100 degrees Celsius! They were really cool colors as well, greens and reds and yellows that I could hardly believe were natural. Our next stop was Huka Falls which wasn't a very impressive waterfall for its height, but the water in it was extremely fast moving and a beautiful shade of blue. We took a walk along the river after viewing the waterfall and my one regret of the trip is not going for a swim in it because it contained the clearest water I've ever seen. It was stunning and unfortunately I don't have any pictures that really capture its beauty. A few of our group did bungy over the river and after watching them jump we walked into town and to Lake Taupo. This was an adorable little mountain town with beautiful scenery all around. If any place I visited in New Zealand reminded me of Alaska, this was it.
          That night a lot of us upgraded to a hostel and I spent the night with my favorite girls of the trip, all of which happen to be German. Apparently New Zealand is the place to be if you're a German who wants to improve your English. Half the people I met in my travels were from Germany and now I'm sort of having withdrawals. :-P The next day most of the group did a long hike but since they were leaving at 6am and I hadn't had any sleep, I opted out and it was a good decision because I think the rest of my trip would have suffered if I didn't get the rest. They were finished by lunchtime and then I still got to see the mountain they had been hiking on along with the mountain that was used as Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings!! It was a snowy mountain and it was really pretty awesome to see in the middle of summer. Since everyone was dead tired after their 12 mile hike it was a pretty chill day and we drove on a few hours and then were surprised with fish & chips and a hotel upgrade for everyone on the trip provided by Flying Kiwi.
          This night was probably my favorite night of the whole trip. They had a fantastic trampoline that I put in a lot of time on and we all took turns jumping on it for a few hours that night. It definitely provided us with entertainment. It was my last night with most of these people because most of them were continuing south and I was only doing the North Island. We all relaxed by the fire and looked up at the stars, hot chocolate's in hand. All in all it was a fantastic night and I was so sad to have to say goodbye to them the following day. It's crazy how quickly you can become attached to people in these types of settings. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the people, but you can at least see the natural wonders I viewed.