Taupo - 23 - 27 December 2008

I already blogged about Christmas Day proper, but there was more to our stay in Taupo than just a nice hike on Christmas Day.

For one thing, I found out two disturbing things that need to be relayed to my friends at Yum!

1. http://www.yumfoodcompany.co.nz belongs to a deli/catering company that shares space with an (outstanding) wine store here.
2. KFC doesn't have biscuits!

I _love_ KFC biscuits, and Jennifer agreed on Christmas Eve that we could eat there.  We went into the store and gave the menu a once-over.  Then a twice-over, and finally a thrice-over.

Rolls, but no biscuits.  We ended up having dinner at McDonald's.  Which, BTW, does not have biscuits on their breakfast menu.  Oh well, add it to the list of food I'll be gorging on come May.

We visited Orakei Korako, a geothermal park well outside of town.  The weather wasn't very cooperative (which will become a theme over the coming days), but we still had a good time.  As usual, sulphurous air led to cries of "get the matches!"

Here are pictures of one of the mud pools and Elephant Rock, both from Orakei Korako:

The day after Christmas we went on the Tongariro Crossing trek.  This is a hike of roughly 18 kms (around 11 miles), and is marketed as the most famous one-day tramp in New Zealand.

I'm sure that it's spectacular when the weather cooperates, but we spent most of the trek in cloud.  Instead of a long, leisurely walk, everyone just went straight through as quickly as possible.

I think this sums it up nicely: