It was 10 of us that decided to go down to Lake Taupo Region and to have heaps of fun together. Although we didn’t meet outward bound due to traffic in Auckland, both cars made it to Turangi – even though in different time. Unfortunately, only one car knew the name of the hostel and its address, and the car that didn’t know the place arrived earlier and couldn’t do anything but wait!!! (since the others didn’t have cell phone reception ... ) Thus we tried to find the hostel by cruising around in town, but that didn’t really get us anywhere … funny as it was, we accidentally met the others! Then both cars knew that we had to look for the Samurai Lodge and separated again … which was not a good idea as we found out soon! Whereas Wulf’s car didn’t have any problems to get there, Christoph’s car spent at least another half an hour to explore every single street in Turangi, but without much success … When we finally managed to follow the instructions we were given via cell phone everybody was a little bit hackled up (… although it was pretty amusing at least for some of us), but relieved at the same time: ultimately the car with all the food arrived! The yummy midnight dinner made forget all incidents that happened before …!

The next day some of us did the Tongariro Crossing whereas the others explored Tonagriro National Park. The evening was rather unusual… no party spirit, no alcohol, but sleepy people hanging around, exhausted from the hike preferring to go to bed early or watch TV (especially Robert and Georg couldn’t get an eye off Rambo J). Sunday started with traditional breakfast: scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese and toast - mhhhh !!! It must have been tasty because none of our sky divers threw up after or before their jump! Later that day we enjoyed the fabulous scenery of Lake Taupo with Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe in the back. It was just great to sit in a restaurant, have an awesome view of the lake, and relax in the sun!!! It is certainly one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand!!!