On Friday 19th Oct we braved the open road and took the four-hour trip south to Taupo. Jayne, a friend of Sean’s invited us to come down for the bank holiday weekend. On the way down we stopped in a little town called Tirau for lunch. It’s known for the giant shepherd, sheep and sheepdog made from corrugated roofing that have been built in the town! Both the dog and sheep have shops inside they’re so big!
That evening, in Taupo we met up with Jayne’s boyfriend Mike and a group of their friends who were planning on spending the long weekend on a 3-day hike. That was far too energetic for Jayne, Sean and I, so instead we went for a drive around Taupo on Saturday afternoon. We saw the famous Huka Falls, and started contemplating the correct line to paddle down it, much to Jayne’s disgust! She then took us to the Aratiatia Dam just in time for us to watch a release. The trickle of water downstream became a big full river in a matter of minutes. They release 3/4 times daily from there as well as the several other dams further downstream. We then headed up to see the Wairakei Geothermal Power Project, which consisted of fields of pipes harnessing the naturally created steam to make electricity. You have to be careful driving through as there’s so much steam it can affect visibility! We finally headed home to a BBQ via the pretty Acacia Bay further along Lake Taupo.
On Sunday we got properly introduced to the geothermal nature of the area by first going to the AC Baths to relax in their naturally heated (37 degrees) outdoor pools. I managed to be energetic enough to do 10 lengths of their slightly cooler (27 degrees) normal outdoor swimming pool! Later, we went for the more natural option and we sat ourselves down in a pool in a stream of roasting hot water of about 42 degrees! Quite a lot for the Irish mind to cope with! If it started getting too hot for us it was a quick walk further downstream to the cold river that the stream was running into! Jayne was careful to warn us about the natural streams though as they’re very sulphurous and it’s advised not to put your head under the water as you don’t want the water to get into your ears.
After all the relaxing on Sunday, Jayne decided we needed to be a bit more energetic on Monday (she was off as it was a bank holiday) so we drove to Rotorua. On the way we stopped off to see the Wai-o-tapu Mud Pools, which were amazing and very very smelly! A large area of mud that just kept making plopping sounds as it bubbled up, sometimes sending mud shooting up 6 feet! Rotorua is a strongly geothermal area, nicknamed “Sulphur City” and accordingly has a nasty smell of eggs on the air at all times! Parking in the Government Gardens (with remarkably English styled lawns with their own thermal Blue Baths) we walked to the Sulphur Lake, the Champagne Pools and the Laughing Gas Pool (we were reserved and didn’t try breathing too deeply around there – it was still too sulphurous to try that!). After lunch we drove to see the Green and Blue Lakes – two lakes both seen from one vantage point, one clearly blue and the other clearly green due to the minerals in the water. We also had a quick look at the area of the Buried Village which was covered in an eruption, quite some time ago and Mount Tarawera. On the way home we stopped at Kerosene Creek and would have had a dip in the hot pools there if we had remembered our togs!
The next day, Sean decided we’d better start working on getting fit, so we managed to go for a bit of a run, before sorting out our tired muscles in the hot pools again – not such a bad way to finish a run! In the afternoon we went for a drive all around Lake Taupo.
Wednesday morning we got up early and drove over the mountains to Napier, a town famous for its Art Deco buildings. After seeing around the town, we went to the local museum, which has an interesting section about the earthquake that practically destroyed the town in 1931, though most of the wooden houses survived it.
Jayne and Mike took Thursday off to go skiing, so off we set bright and early, only to find the ski slopes on Mount Turoa and Mount Ruapehu were both shut! It was a great drive though, with fab views of the both of those mountains and Mount Ngauruhoe (known to some of us as Mount Doom) in beautiful weather.
On Saturday the four of us went back to Rotorua. When we were there on Monday we’d been tempted by some of the activities on offer there. So we went straight to Mount Ngongotaha and had a go on the Sky Swing. It involves sitting in a cage like contraption, being hauled backwards up really high and then pulling a string to start your freefall back down again! I’m very good at screaming on those sort of things! After that we had races down the mountain on luge tracks on go-karts! Great craic. Finally, to finish off the day on a high, we went zorbing. It’s basically rolling down a hill inside a big ball filled with nice warm water, but is loads of fun. Sean used his new waterproof camera to video it from the inside, resulting in a chaotic video of arms and legs falling all over the place and a soundtrack of loads of giggles!
On Sunday the four of us went sailing on Lake Taupo. We split up, me going in a boat with Mike and Jayne with Sean. We made it a bit out in the lake and then encountered a little difficulty getting back again – the little wind that there had been disappeared altogether! After contemplating abandoning ship and just swimming back to shore for a while, we finally managed to get back in!
Though we were supposed to leave Taupo on Monday morning, Jayne arrived home that evening to find us in the midst of building a bed for the back of our car! Over the next few days we ripped out the back seat and built a bed for ourselves, and bought our mattresses and all the necessary things for sleeping in the van – now we’re ready to hit the road properly!
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