Christmas in Taupo - english version

Christmas

Christmas Time we spent in Taupo. Unfortunately we wouldn't have any christmas feeling whatsoever. How could we with sun and 20 degrees?! :)

On the December 24th we induldeg ourselfs with a delicous meal: Steak, mashed potatos and beans. As desert we had Chocolate Fondue.

Since Christmas is celebrated in New Zealand on the 25th, the hostel threw a big BBQ for lunch. The whole hostel joined in. The guests made salads and the hostel provided Meat and Burgers for everybody. What a feast! It was nice celebrating Christmas with so many different nationalities. We put the tables together and sat amongst ca. 10 people from Israel – they were fucking hilarious. It's always interessting meeting people from other countries and cultures you don't know much about. I mean everybody has an impression about america, because of their movies, but who knows what's going on in Israel.

For example in Israel everybody has to go to the military service. Girls for two and boys for three years. They also told us, because everybody has to go they grow up much faster than us. They've got numorous funny games like spin the bottle or truth or dare but much harder versions of it. Superfically they seem to be much more relaxed about their conflict with Palastine, even though it's getting really close to them and many have lost family to it. They often would make fun of it and don't understand why other people don't join in. We also learnd some hebrew, but have forgotten it already. Hahahaha.

Huka Falls

We did a little trip to the Huka Falls, which are a cascade of Waterfalls.

Mount Tauhara and Lake Taupo

Together with Mitchell and Olivia from Canada we went up Mount Tauhaura, from which's top  you have the most amazing view over the region, Taupo and Lake Taupo. The lake, which you can only see partially in the background, is a craterlake of a vulcano that collapsed 26.500 years ago – wicked.

Further Infomartion:

• 40 Km long
• 28 Km across
• 193 Km around
• Area of 622 Km2

The last eruption 1800 years ago was so big that the Chinese and the romans saw a colored Sky. Imagine that!

Taupo