Lake Taupo and the rain...

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Wednesday morning once again I was awake bright and early and the rain had once again set in for the day. Our original intention had been to take a walk by the Lake and also to go up to the local waterfalls however after a quick visit to the lake where you couldn't see much of the scenery and a wander around the time a return to the hostel to dry off and warm up was necessary.

Wednesday afternoon we jumped into the car and drove up to the waterfalls. Steve and I were joined by Zoe from London for the afternoon, she was travelling alone and staying in our dorm. In hindsight it isn't a surprise she has spent most of her last months traveling alone given the number of expletives that came out of her mouth every sentence!

Our original plan had been to walk to the Haka falls however the rain put us off. Having wandered around the falls Steve and I were both underwhelmed and agreed that the falls in Whangerai were a lot more impressive.

After the falls we headed along the road and found a honey factory/shop so called in and sampled the various types of honey on offer the best being peanut honey (i.e peanut butter but with honey rather than butter) the worst was a healthy one that tasted of vicks vapour rub! We drove along the road and came to a prawn farm but in the rain it wasn't a pleasant prospect to go prawn fishing.

A short drive further and we came to the “craters of the moon” which is an area of geysers. Having driven into the car park we found that they wanted to charge to enter the park and so both Steve and I pulled up our noses and refused to pay to go and look at some geysers given we had seen our fair share in Rotorua. Further down the road we came across another park and this time the cafe owner wanted to charge us to buy a map and do the walk so we duly left him behind with both Steve and I deriding him for trying to charge us to walk in a National Park. I think Zoe was disappointed that she didn't get to go and see the geysers but having seen my fair share of geysers in Rotorua I wasn't too fussed nor was I too upset on Zoes behalf given she didn't even say thanks for the lift or make an offer to contribute towards petrol...!

Wednesday night after dinner we were sat around and so I suggested a game of shithead. We had been joined by Zoe and a Canadian couple and so after running through how to play and a couple of practise games we were in full flow. By the end of the night we had been joined by a few more people and so a second pack of cards were brought out and we had a game of shithead with 10 people. It was funny as you could tell the people who could play in comparison to those who were still learning because the ones that could play finished first.

Thursday morning and the weather was a lot brighter and no rain in sight so after a quick drive to the lakeside for a photo opportunity we started our scenic drive to Wanganui.

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