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Published: January 12th 2007
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The drive from Rotorua to Taupo took about an hour. We went to the look out above the town and got a great view of the Lake and Mt Ruapehu in the distance. We would get a closer look at that mountain in a couple of days time, but for now we were onwards to Hawkes Bay and a trip to Napier. The drive to Napier took about 3 hours, a little longer than normal as I once again got pulled by the Rozers for speeding. Not that the car in front wasn’t speeding too, but the fact that we were in a beat up old Toyota obviously made the difference. Anyway! I won’t say anymore on the matter as I’ll end up saying something I shouldn’t (t*tb*mfa*nyw*llysh*t!!)
The drive from Taupo to Napier was pretty scenic with some great expanses of trees, part of the Kaingaroa forest, which stretched for almost the entire length of the horizon at one point. The scenery then changed to deep canyons and ravines before evening out into the sprawling vineyards and numerous wineries of the Napier region. Once near the coast the long golden beaches spread out beside the road for miles before
the headland stopped at a right angle and jutted out into the sea. This was Napier hill and it was strewn with houses, dotted all the way up to the top.
Napier is the Art Deco capital of New Zealand and the buildings are straight out of the 50s. We stopped for a walk around and a bite to eat before wondering into a carpet shop!! I don’t know why, but we ended up spending the next hour in there speaking with an old retired bloke who had found retirement far too boring and instead started a business importing hand-made carpets from Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Turkey. Apparently the new Borat film has helped business!! Besides the interesting facts about the carpets it was just fascinating listening to the old chap talk. He had visited Devon in earlier years and it was a nice way to while away a lazy afternoon. After our chat we took the car up to the top of the headland, bluff hill to look out above the towns port.
We then decided to take in another high spot a bit further down the coast. The views from Te Mata Peak are spectacular. You can
see the entire Hawkes Bay coast line from north to South.
We returned to Taupo as the sun was setting and managed to find a really nice campsite called Great Lake Holiday Park. The campsite had recently been refurbished and all the communal facilities were top draw. The Bathrooms were all clean and modern, a well equipped kitchen, two lounges with TV’s and internet, and a two triple ringed gas BBQ’s (ripper!). It was BBQ chicken for tea.
The next day started with the long awaited news that there was a new addition to the family J Ness, Jo’s sister had finally given birth to a bouncing baby girl. Her name is Grace Elizabeth and she weighed in at six pounds fourteen ounces. Well done to Ness and Grace and congratulation to the proud dad, Jason. Well done mate you’re well and truly out numbered now!! After mopping up Jo tears we went on our usual tour of the local attractions. First up was Huka Falls, the major waterfall on the Waikato River. By this point in our travels we have seen quite a few waterfalls and although you’ll meet people that say when you’ve seen one you’ve
seen them all, you’ve just got to realise that its not true. Huka Falls is really cool, the water travels down a narrow channel at an intense speed before crashing out into a lake. Well worth a visit.
Craters of the Moon on the other hand is not!! Sounds great, well it did to me!! It sounds so…appealing!! It’s basically a thermal area of boiling mud and steam vents. And although it was on the list of FREE things to do in Taupo, when we got there they were asking $10 to go in!! Well I don’t think so somehow, so off we went. I think you should watch our film to hear what we thought of Craters of the Moon!! (apologies there is a swear word in it so if you are one of those people that may be offend, then don’t play it!)
After the craters of the moon fiasco the Honey Hive was a welcome relief. It was brilliant. Everything you never knew about bees and honey. We chatted to one of the friendly staff about the Bees in the glass hives pictured below and got to sampled the different types of honey. On the
same site we also got to taste a few of the local brews. The New Zealand Fruit Wines company has the largest selection of fruit wines and fruit liqueurs in New Zealand. The boysenberry & honey Mead wine and the honey & brandy liqueur were our favourites, absolutely delicious.
The only big disappointment during our stay in Taupo was that we didn’t get to do a Tandem skydive. Unfortunately I was slightly over the 100kg’s per person limit. Sizist or what? Stop laughing : I Anyway I would get chance to burn a few pounds doing the Tongariro crossing which was up next.
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