Taupo & Rotten Eggs

---

From the stables hostel in Napier we drove to Lake Taupo after doing the Art Deco tour. It was pouring with rain so hot water beach was out of the question! Around Taupo we visited the Spa Thermal Park, we had planned to do the Huka Falls Walkway but once we discovered that you could drive up to the falls and not do the 50minute (one way!) walk in the rain then there was no question about it! The Spa Thermal Park was cool, natural hot springs alongside the Waikata River (a new river that has only just been born from Lake Taupo). This is the where I made Dan where his emergency green poncho - he was delighted when he found out I had them :-) There were people bathing in the hot springs, even in the rain!

We drove down the road, over the river and up to the Huka Falls lookout, which is a very fierce river making a dramatic 10m drop into a surging pool. The water was an icy blue and very fast flowing. After the Huka Falls we drove to the Aratiatia Rapids, wasn't up to much at first but around 4pm the siren went...we weren't quite sure what for at first but it was the dam, about to release water....this made the rapids very impressive, was cool to see the water filling up and then spilling over to create the rapids. Right time right place sorta thing.

On arrival in Rotorua it was first things first, find a place to stay the night or else it'll be sleeping in the car! We found a room; (a double! what a treat!) at Cactus Jacks Backpackers, was nice to have our own space after sharing with darth vader and i'm going to leave the door open all night for mossies to come as they please. That evening we had dinner and strolled around the town, found Fat Dog, where 10 years ago when in Auckland visiting Jayn, Rob, Sam & Phil we did a day trip to Rotorua and had a drink in there...I might have ordered a banana split, you'll be please to know mum has dug out these photos.

Was very handy to have the car in Rotorua as you have to drive to the attractions, we headed to Whakarewarew Thermal Village, a living village of 22 families living off the geothermal natural springs. Had a guided tour round and was interesting that 'whaka' is pronounced 'faka'......was a really good tour. Walked around the village and were shown how they cooked their food, where they bathed (water from the hot pools, a natural spa, how nice!) etc. Shame it was pissing it down but was still good, and watched the cultural maori show which I vaguely remember from last time. And saw the legendary Haka! That was cool to see. We had some Hangi (the only genuine Hangi in town,) which is food cooked in the pools, we had some lovely buttery sweetcorn pulled straight out of the hottest mineral pool.....it is believed to be bottomless, they have had scientists in and even with 50ft rods cannot find the bottom. They use this pool to cook all their vegetables, was really interesting. I was jealous when she said they could cook a chicken in 45 minutes by leaving it covered over one of the hot springs. Too easy!

After the village we drove to Kuirau Park, had lunch in the car...due to no fridge and counting the pennies i think it was something like bread and butter and the rest of yesterdays nachos with warm dip! nice! Kuirau Park gave us the opportunity to dip into some of the natural hot springs, so nice could have sat there all day....luckily the rain had stopped. The water is really soft in the hot pools, good for travellers feet!!!! Saw more pools and boiling mud and then hit the road to Hamilton....another story!

---

Photos

Spa Thermal Park
1st glimpse of the natural hot springs

Whakarewarewa Thermal Village
45 minutes to cook a whole chicken, no oven required!