Today, I returned from my trip up north! I went with a few friends to Lake Taupo, a small, pretty lakeside town about 6 hours north of Wellington.

It was my first time staying in a hostel, and I was pleasantly surprised! I enjoyed that there was a lot of cooking and living space, the rooms were comfortable and clean, and I liked meeting really neat people there! I spent some time talking to a few Germans, and learned about the seemingly dysfunctional German education system (except that university is practically free!).  I also met some Israelis, and practiced my Hebrew with them. 

The Lake Taupo area was very nice, although it rained much of the time we were there, causing us to do a lot less stuff than we would have hoped!  However, the trip was absolutely worthwhile because of Mt. Tongariro.

Yesterday morning, we took a shuttle at the ungodly hour of 5:40am to get to Mt. Tongariro.  I remember hearing that this mountain is the second oldest national park in the world, second only to Yellowstone.  It is also rumored to be New Zealand's best one day hike. And it is also where Lord of the Rings was filmed.

The hike was absolutely gorgeous.  Words cannot describe how awe-inspiring the views and landscapes are (pictures to come, hopefully).  Joey found this secluded, beautiful cave with water running from the stream.  He would have been happy to stay there the whole day if he could, and he kept speaking as though he was John Muir reincarnated.

Some of the highlights were seeing the winding stream and vast landscapes at the beginning of the hike.  Also, getting to the top of the mountain, you had views for miles, which were very beautiful.  The mountain is actually an active volcano, so you could notice the rocks that were formed from the lava flow.  A bit further down, there were these pure, turquoise pools of water, and I think they were sulfuric?  They smelled like rotten eggs, but they were great. 

Then, trekking down seemed quite endless.  It was miles and miles of downhill walking.  But at the very last part, we walked through this gorgeous rainforest area with much greenery and bird noises, and another river flowing through.  Again, perhaps only pictures can come close to explaining the beauty of Mt. Tongariro!