Lake Taupo

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11.11.05
Today we drove to Taupo. First stop, unfortunately for Andy, was the dentist. His tooth was and still is sore when he eats. We had a walk around the town, a really nice town.
Taupo lake is the biggest lake in New Zealand, it is massive! The colour of it is blue and turquoise. They are trying to get it classed as an inland sea. In the distance you can see the mountains, Tongariro, Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe.
Andy had a go on the hole in one. This is an island in the lake with 2 holes, if you get a hole in one you win $5000. Never seen such bad shots in my life! The cars were more in danger of getting hit behind us!
That night we went to see Saw 2, with some of my birthday money,. It was good. Then went for a drink.

12.11.05
We went to Craters of the moon (geothermal area). This is a free park full of steaming holes and bubbling mud. It was good, took 45 mins. to walk around. Next stop was Huka Falls on the Waikato river. The water, again, is a beautiful turquoise.
Next stop on this touristy day was the Volcanic Activity Centre (which I, Mel, was very excited about!) We watched a couple of videos about the volcanoes in New Zealand, never realised it was such an active country there is a fault line running strainght through the middle causing regular earthquakes and all this geothermal activity.
The last time Mt Ruapehu errupted was 1995. We played on the displays and had a very educational time.

From here we went to see my (mel's) cousin who we have never met! Very scarey. We only intended on staying an hour but 6 hours later, we left. We met Helen, Graham her husband and the kids (Fraser and Issac). They were really nice and asked us to stay for a BBQ. So we met their 2 English friends, Gary and Shelly and their daughter Tui. (also the name of a beer!) They had only been over here a year. We had a lovely dinner, lots of wine and a great cheese cake! We really had an excellent time, didn't want to leave.

13.11.05
We went to an internet cafe before we had our lunch by the lake and then said goodbye to Taupo, we would have liked to stay longer, and headed to Whakapapa.

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