Advertisement
Published: March 11th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Had a good day's drive from Wellington to Napier, stopping just south of there for the first night. On the way we called at the Mount Bruce Wildlife Sanctuary where they are trying to save several protected and rare species. It was a lovely visit, with lots to see, birds mainly, but also the feeding of the eels. We had some difficulty spotting some of the birds, because the cages were quite large and the birds well camouflaged. I spent ages looking for the kiwi in the specially darkened cages, but then was told that one was asleep and the other was recovering in hospital!.
Napier was destroyedby an earthquake in the 30's and was rebuilt with a lot of Art Deco style buildings. It has an attractive seafront, but the beach is all pebbles, which was not appealing. We moved from there towards Cape Kidnapper . The attraction there for me, apart from the golf course @ $400 a round, was the gannet colony. To reach them you can walk for 2 hours on the beach, but you have to watch out for the right times because
of the tides. We set off with only a little time to spare and only managed to reach the first of the colonies, but that was good enough. Lys was getting a bit of joint pain, so we hitched a lift back on a tractor and trailer which gives lifts along the beach. A very bumpy ride but worth the cost.
In the aftrernoon we headed for a sandy beach, just a bit further south at Ocean Beach. It as a lovely natural bay,with a very strong sea running, because it was quite windy. We both went in the water ,but only a short way and didn't venture swimming, even though there were life guards on duty. We spent Monday morning in the town on Napier, stocking up on food and then visiting the museum and gallery which features the earthquake. We left when a school party arrived, but we had seen what we wanted.
Late morning on Monday we set off inland for Taupo, stopping for lunch along the way in a small lay-by. There are plenty of these, often with great views. The drive was through another mountain range, but this one was less winding, but
still steep in places. We arrived at Taupo, mid-afternoon and had a wander round. picking up leaflets about what we could do in the area. We also gathered that the wind was going to be strong for several days, gales at times and the possibility of snow on the mountains! 1600m and higher.
We found that the town had an official campsite which was free down by the river in a lovelt spot where people were canoeing in the river alongside our van. On Tuesday we started exploring the area with the Haka Falls a very long waterfall, wityh tons of water going through a narrow gorge every second. Then on to another waterfall where the water is controlled by a dam. We arrived just in times for the gates to be opened and turn what was a dry river valley into seething rapids. 30 mins later they closed the gates and the whole area gardually dried up again, but it took over 30 mins for the water to stop. The waterfalls reminded me of the Strid at Bolton Abbey, but about 5 or 6 times more powerful.
Nearby was a geothermal powerstation which was like a massive
oil refinery with the steam bursting out in lots of places along the pipes. Rather James Bond in appearance. Having exhausted what we wnated to see in Taupo we decided to get a few miles further south towards the Tongariro area for Wednesday. Our trusty guidlebook told us about some thermal pools at the bottom of the lake where we had a walk round boiling mud pools, steaming water pools and then enjoyed relaxing in a private hot water bath with mineral salts and finishing off in the outdoor pool which was like a small swimming pool, but with very warm water. Again we encountered a school party but they were no problem. The lady on the cash deck said we could park outside for the night so we staggered out of the pools, into the van and were soon asleep after a quick meal.
Wednesday is grey and windy. We tried to go towards Tongariro, but is was so windy and cloudy that we turned back. We had an interesting visit to a Trout Farm and are now back in Taupo. We plan to set off later towards Rotarua to see some even bigger hot pools and geysers.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.075s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0363s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb