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Send Me Home!
Send Me Home!
We made an early start from Jane and Jo's because it was clearly going to be a beautiful day and we were itching to get started on our exploration of this country. We were heading for Taupo but the drive would not take all day so we decided to detour through Rotorua to get a first look at some of the volcanic activity. We will return to this area to see more of the sites when we come back to the North Island, but we started off by accidentally stumbling across one of the sites we had seen in many brochures and a New Zealand travel video - the Museum. Now that sounds incredibly yawn inducing, and we didn't even go in, but the Museum itself is an amazing colonial style building and it's grounds include the beautifully manicured croquet and bowling lawns and a boiling pool.
Next, we headed south towards Taupo. We soon reached Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland which is a tour around 16 listed (and lots more unlisted) boiling mud pools, thermal pools, volcanic craters and much more.
Most of the walk was scented with rotten eggs (from the sulphur), and it was like walking around on Venus or a Star Trek set, and neither of us had ever seen anything like it before.
It wasn't pretty, but thinking about what was happening underground just a few feet away was awe inspiring, and makes you wonder what would happen if Mother Earth woke up in a bad mood one day!
We continued driving south until we reached Taupo and checked into the Oasis motel which is right on the lake shore. We then drove back north for a few kilometres to Wairakei Park to have a look at Huka Falls on the Waikato River. The Falls are very impressive, both for their power as they thunder through a vertical walled canyon, and also for clarity of the water and its wonderful aquamarine colour.
The day was nicely rounded off as we relaxed in the thermal spa bath and the swimming pool at the motel before dining and retiring for the night.
| Tomorrow |  |
Blowing back into Taupo
We had a wonderfully restful night in Napier - with the exception of having some drunken cowboy bang on our door around 4.00am asking to come in to call a taxi!! After a huge 'Health Breakfast', we set out on our return trip to Taupo. Before leaving Napier we took a few photos which we hope will reflect the Art Deco essence found there.
The weather was slightly overcast, but warm and we had some nice sunny periods throughout the day, but this changed quite dramatically by mid to late afternoon. We are now afraid that autumn has settled in on New Zealand with a vengeance!
Our route today took us through some meandering hills and forests, but it also showed us more drought-stricken territory where we passed fire hazard signs pointing at Extreme! We made a couple of stops for photos which will hopefully show how bad things are in parts of the North Island.
We were in Taupo around lunchtime and set out to inspect a few accommodation options for the night. In the end, we settled on the same place we stayed on our first visit. It has a wonderful view of the lake, which we previously enjoyed. However, with the sudden cooling trend in the weather, our room is now more like a cold storage facility! We've decided to check out other possibilities tomorrow. Who turned out the climatic heat!
Before settling in completely, we set out to see if we could photograph anyone doing the Taupo Bungy. Although we did get some photos, there was no one making a jump at the time! Oh, well! However it did look totally terrifying and we can't figure out what makes some people want to do it!
On our last trip through Taupo, we had noticed that there was thermal Prawn Park nearby, so we made that our next stop, as it was time for lunch! We must admit that we weren't too interested in the park itself, as our appetites were in control! We headed straight for the restaurant and ordered a 'Full Pack' (10 - 14 prawns) for us to share, along with some garlic bread and chilli dip. We were just slightly disappointed by the meal, but enjoyed it just the same.
Our next mission for the day was to find some geysers and this meant a return to Rotorua. The Te Whakarewarewa (pronounced Tay Fahkahraywahraywah) Thermal Reserve is home to the one geyser we had hoped to see on our trip - 'Pohutu' - so we set out to find it. The reserve, along with the New Zealand Maori Arts & Crafts Institute, is located just outside of Rotorua and is a wonderfully fascinating world of steaming holes in the ground, as well as bubbling pools of mud. We did get some pictures of geysers and hope that they will give a good idea of how volatile this planet might be - just below the surface!
We also took in a bit of culture, as we strolled the grounds of the Maori marae and crafts centre. We were even lucky enough to catch some of the rehearsal for a Maori concert. We were hoping to take in a Maori 'hangi' (evening feast) and concert here in Taupo, but the one we spotted is no longer operating. There is still a chance that we may do that farther north.
After filling our lungs with plenty of sulphur-scented steam, we drove back to Taupo. By the time we got back it felt as though the thermometer had toppled 10C and we actually had to change into more substantial clothing. How sad, as we were really counting on the North Island leg of our holiday being the warmest part! Can't do a thing about the weather, though, and we still haven't given up hope that more sun and warmth awaits!
We have just returned from a wonderful meal in the motel dining room and are about to read up on what we can get ourselves into tomorrow.
Twitching in Taupo
We had a couple of potential trips lined up for today, both of which depended on the weather. The first option was to take a scenic flight over Mount Ruapehu, the volcano we drove up on our first visit to Taupo, and the second was to take a cruise around the lake which would include a visit to some of the old rock carvings in the area. However, the day started with strong winds and quite a bit of low cloud so option one was definitely off.
We decided that we wanted to spend our next night in Taupo somewhere a bit warmer, even if it meant going without a lakeside view. So we booked into the Karaka Tree Motel which is only a few hundred yards away from the Oasis, but does not have any rooms looking directly over the lake. However, each room does have its own private mineral spa pool, so we won't complain!
Having booked in at the motel we drove down to the yacht marina, but were told that it was too windy for the lake trips, so we switched to Plan B and went and had a coffee. Plan B usually works, and after coffee we went to have another look at Taupo Bungy, and sure enough the lemmings were throwing themselves off a perfectly good cliff! This was amusing to watch and we have some photos to show just how crazy this pastime is.
It's been a few days since we had a nice walk, so we drove out to Huka Falls and set out on the 2 hour walk towards the dam. Most of the walk was through natural woodland, and we were almost fighting our way through the birds! Progress was very slow, as we just couldn't help stopping when we saw a flutter of wings or heard a different bird call.. As we got near the dam the scenery changed, and the river views were filled with pipes and cables and man-made ugliness. We turned back to head for a delightful lookout over the river we had spotted on the way out where we planned to have lunch.
On the way we had several more very close encounters with fantails. These birds are just too cute for words, and we couldn't resist taking a few more photos as they hopped about on branches just inches away from us. We also had a really clear view of a bellbird which is not particularly striking to look at, something like a greenfinch, but it has the most amazing song.
Shortly before our lunch stop we heard another bird which often imitates a bellbird, among other things. We both thought it was a tui, and after waiting and peering through branches for several minutes, Kathryn eventually spotted the culprit, and sure enough it was a tui. We had seen one at the Mount Bruce National Wildlife Center, but it was a thrill to see one in the wild. We were VERY lucky to spot one other unusual bird on our outing and that was the shining cuckoo. It is often heard rather than seen, but we were treated to a nice glimpse of it before it headed for thicker bush! Despite the rarity of people seeing this bird, we are quite certain of what we saw due to its extremely distinctive colouring and markings.
While having our lunch at the lookout, we had a great view of the Huka Jet jetboat screaming up the river to the Huka Falls. Being old hands at jetboating (from Shotover at Queenstown), we waved the signal for doing a 360 degree turn, and when the driver spotted us, he threw one in much to the delight of his passengers! We caught them again on the way back and were treated to another fine view of this spectacular manoeuvre.
After our walk, we called into Taupo's main geothermal area called Craters of the Moon. You can tire of these sights quite quickly, but this one was interesting because of the amount of steam belching out of the ground. It had the unfortunate result that on many occasions Kathryn turned to Tom with her glasses totally steamed up, and taking photos was very difficult!
Having done a fair bit of walking, we retired to our motel to soak in the mineral pool - and very relaxing it was too. We finished off the evening by fetching a Thai take-away which we have enjoyed with a nice bottle of Chardonnay we purchased in Blenheim.
Today's bit of trivia relates to car number plates. The 'normal' plate has two letters and four numbers but it seems that you can purchase special plates which can have any combination of up to 6 numbers and/or letters. We saw the ultimate today - it was "61 DI 97"! It may be that person's idea of the perfect tribute to Princess Diana, but we both felt it was in extremely bad taste!
P.S. When checking out from the motel in the morning, Tom learnt from the proprietor that the motel has its own 60 foot bore hole which taps into a reservoir of geothermally heated water. This is at a constant 65C and this water is piped directly into the mineral pools without any additional heating or filtering. They also use this to assist in heating the normal hot water supply.
| Tomorrow | |
Send Me Home!