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Published: June 13th 2011
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A mud pool overlook
Craters of the Moon A seven-hour drive to Wellington faced us today. We didn't have reservations and were kind of winging it on our last two nights on the North Island. There were a couple of spots we had hoped to see so we had modified the drive to accommodate them. This wasn't going to add too much time on to the drive.
We pulled away from Woodlyn Park, the name of our quirky lodge. No animals on the roof but kids playing on the deck of the ship and signs of life coming from the airplane. We had actually seen our first wild mammal the night before - a bunny scampering across the driveway.
Our drive today was going to take us east toward Taupo and then we would head pretty much due south on State Highway 1 which would eventually hit the west coast as it approached Wellington.
The first diversion was scheduled about an hour in. The Pureora Forest Park was noted as having one of the best rain forest hikes on the island. We followed some signage which led us through some recently logged forests and generally uninspiring land. The visitor center was closed. This was either a
Craters of the Moon
Walking through the steam seasonal or Sunday closing, but there were a couple of maps posted. We tried to make them out as we drove on the gravel forestry roads. This was the second time that the guidebooks had seriously misled us. There really didn't seem to be a worthwhile reason to continue and we didn't want to get too far off the main road so we turned around and continued our drive toward Taupo.
About a half an hour later we saw signage for the "Craters of the Moon" hike. This hike is an hour loop through hot mud pools and steam holes created by the relative closeness to the earth's magma at this point. The same type of features can be seen on a larger scale at Yellowstone. This was a worthy stop and thankfully the air was not too sulfuric.
We made another brief stop at Huka Falls, about 10 minutes up the road. Huka Falls is less than a kilometer from Lake Taupo and is about a quarter mile stretch where the deep blue water of the river running from the Lake is suddenly squeezed through a narrow steep chasm. Here the water speed is dramatic with whitewater
that would cause the most aggressive enthusiast pause. The water pours through to a pool at a rate of 200,000 liters per second and then resumes to a more normal looking river. A absolutely amazing display of aquatic force.
After the short hike around Huka Falls we ended up walking around Taupo in search of some food. Four of us decided on an Indian restaurant and Geddy went off with some NZ$ to fend for himself. The lunch was very tasty and Geddy made it back to scavenge for some of the leftover Naan.
Our drive took us around some of the shore of Lake Taupo, an amazingly beautiful and immense lake (the largest in the country). The Sunday afternoon's activity around the lake was certainly inviting. We saw numerous people walking, jogging and biking on the sidewalk that followed the lake's edge as far as we could see in both directions. There were also people riding Segways and even engaged in a "hole in one contest" hitting golf balls from the shore on to a floating platform. Looked like a decent 9-iron distance. We were even tempted to stop and check out a SuperLoo, to compare and
contrast it to the ExeLoo. With another 5 hours of driving ahead of us, we deferred to the road.
The road wound through the beauty of the lakeshore and after about 30 kilometers gave way to a vast brown flat landscape. This was a stark contrast to all of the rest of our driving in which everything had been so green. Maybe this was a result of the three snowcapped peaks to the west. One of these mountains was almost pure white from the covering of snow. We weren't sure whether it was this one or the third peak shrouded in clouds that was featured as Muldoor in the Lord of the Rings movies filmed in the country.
After another 50 kilometers or so, the topography grew into a more familiar mix of lush hilly pasture land mixed with green forests. As part of the Kiwi Cultural Show with Billy Black, he described the laborious task of clearing the land and then planting the grass which now covers a huge portion of the country. None of this grass was native now it feeds the 40 million sheep in the country. With 4 million residents, the sheep outnumber people
10-1.
We pulled over next to a motel and bought some internet time to search for an apartment for the next two nights. We found a nice one within walking distance to most of the sites in downtown Wellington. The sounds of the street seven floors below are echoing between the tall buildings. The city is bigger than we pictured and we're looking forward to checking out the national museum tomorrow.
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