Lake Taupo is a huge, and I mean really huge, volcanic lake almost in the middle of the North Island. The town is strung out along the shore, so everyone has a lake-view. I don’t blame them, the view is phenomenal, and when the sun goes down over Mount Ruhapehu on the far shore- wow!It was quite odd to see the town in full Christmas mood – artificial snow in the shop windows, decorations and seasonal music everywhere.
We wanted to have a christmas tree, but that seemed not only impossible but also environmentally naughty. We opted to build our own „tree” out of 3 fronds from a huge bank of ferns growing near to Huka waterfalls. We got a few odd looks putting them into our car, but what the heck, a Christmas tree somewhere was saved, right?At „home”, back at the campsite, a lovely little Kiwi Camper campsite at the top of the town with great facilities, we made our own decorations out of crepe paper we’d bought specially. They probably wouldn’t win any awards, but it was a fun family activity, making them and
hanging them up. We had to raise the whole creation up on a high table to prevent it from attack by Lara – who had just learned to crawl, and was starting to get into everything. There was a barbecue on Christmas Eve and so we got to meet some of our neighbours. They were a nice group. It’s interesting that in New Zealand, everyone tended to assume we were local, maybe a Hungarian expat family now living in Auckland, but on holiday now. Almost everyone 
else was! we hardly met any tourists like ourselves, who had flown all the way there for a holiday. Santa made an appearance at the barbecue and the kids went nuts. Emma followed him all over the campground devouring handfuls of sweets. It was a bit naughty of us, but we just let her enjoy the moment.
Santa must have come to visit again that night because on Christmas morning, our cabin was full of presents. We spent a happy few hours playing with our new stuff, before heading off for an afternoon walk. (We had decided to have Christmas Dinner in the evening time.)
We visited Orakei Korako, a thermal park about an hour’s drive away. It
was very odd, but very nice. The whole complex was reached by crossing a Lake, and then we climbed down into caves and up to lookout points over rainbow coloured rocks, 
evil-looking smokeholes and pools of bubbling mud. On the stroll back to the boat we got talking with a really nice Brazilian family, almost the only other true tourists we ever met!
else was! we hardly met any tourists like ourselves, who had flown all the way there for a holiday. Santa made an appearance at the barbecue and the kids went nuts. Emma followed him all over the campground devouring handfuls of sweets. It was a bit naughty of us, but we just let her enjoy the moment.
Santa must have come to visit again that night because on Christmas morning, our cabin was full of presents. We spent a happy few hours playing with our new stuff, before heading off for an afternoon walk. (We had decided to have Christmas Dinner in the evening time.)We visited Orakei Korako, a thermal park about an hour’s drive away. It
was very odd, but very nice. The whole complex was reached by crossing a Lake, and then we climbed down into caves and up to lookout points over rainbow coloured rocks, 
evil-looking smokeholes and pools of bubbling mud. On the stroll back to the boat we got talking with a really nice Brazilian family, almost the only other true tourists we ever met! It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon, but by 5 o clock, we were all hungry, so we drove home and prepared for our big feed. Dorka had the
unusual idea of having Christmas Dinner as picnic-style by the lakeside. It was a full three-course meal with chicken, vegetables, gravy, sauces and Christmas pudding with brandy butter, so it was not the easiest thing to transport by car, but we managed it and had a lovely meal and a lovely view.On the 27th, I, Andy, had planned something special – a day away mountain walking by myself, as there was a famous walk across nearby Tongariro national Park, which was supposed to be full of Craters,
lakes and lots of other great volcanic sights. it was actually Dorka’s idea, and it really worked out well. The kids were relatively easy to look after at the campsite, so as soon as the weather report looked good, I arranged a lift out to Tongariro National park. I used a sort of mountain shuttle bus, so I could have transport at both ends of the 17km track. The setup was very strict, and I had to start at 6am in order to be down at the lst bus by 4pm. It was a beautiful track, crawling through valleys and passes up to lakes and even passing right across several old craters. 
On the way I made the rather unwise decision to make a detour and climb up Mount Ngauruhoe (2287m) This was possible, but the weather never really cleared enough to show me the famous Mount Doom view (this was the mountain used to represent the Lord of evil in the Lord of the rings films a few years back. All I could see though, even from the summit, was a lot of rock and cloud and more cloud. The extra detour meant that I fell behind time for the bus, so I had to run the rest of the mountain. It was pretty strenuous, but the scenery whenever the clouds cleared for a few moments, was spectacular.Click on the volcanic lake below to see more photos of our lakeside Christmas!
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| Lake Taupo |
