Sail Fearless, pirate style!

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I'm booked on a sailing trip on lake Taupo to take a look at some Maori rock carvings this afternoon so after doing a few chores at the hostel (clothes washing, food sorting, bags sorting) I set out to explore Taupo and maybe find a few geocaches until it's time for my sail. I soon find out that the two caches I'd thought I might look for are not really my kind of thing - a war memorial with replica machine guns and a McDonalds (incorporating an actual areoplane hence the geocache). So instead I wander along the lake shore. Compared to lovely Rotorua Taupo is a bit more Yarmouth style so I quickly tire of this and head towards the harbour area to make sure I can actually find Sail Fearless, the boat I'll be sailing on. Berth found I go back to a nearby little harbour cafe to get some lunch and people watch.

A big group of Chinese people come to order coffee after they get off their boat. After a bit of language confusion they eventually get the straws they were after and proceed to drink their take away coffees through straws pushed through the holes in lids of their coffee cups!

Soon it's time for my trip and I join the handful of other people waiting. Captain Dave welcomes us on board. His old crew member of two years is back for a visit with her parents who she's brought with her for a nostalgic sail with her old buddy. On board we have bean bags to relax on and as we motor out of the harbour get to know each other. There's a couple of fun Mexican girls, one of whom loves my jewellery! Sat next to me is a lovely older lady from Austria who I find out is a retired teacher but now exhibits her own art work. She is visiting her son who works for an IT company who chooses a different exotic location for its staff to meet each year. This year New Zealand, last year Java! Nice. It turns out one of the Mexican girls spent a whole year living in Austria and is delighted when the Austrian lady has heard of the place she used to live, usually she just gets blank looks when she mentions the place name. There's also a young couple from the UK who are in New Zealand for his brother's wedding. They explain that it took place over about five days as it was a traditional Indian wedding. Indians really know how to celebrate from the sounds of all the descriptions they gave us. That just leaves a couple of young guys, one from Boston (that's all I found out about him as he kept himself to himself) and one from London who it turns out is staying at the same hostel as me. He is on a three month trip taking in New Zealand, then Australia and lastly Canada - not bad considering he'd only saved up three weeks holiday and when his boss found out where he was going immediately offered him a sabbatical, just like that.

As we get out of the harbour we approach a stretch of the lake called Acacia Bay where there are loads of holidays homes, most of which are empty for most of the year bar eight weeks in the summer. The wind is strong enough for the sails to come out now and the engine to go off. Despite the dodgy forecast the sun is shining and it's blissful lying back on the bean bags and enjoying the views of mount Tauhara behind Taupo, now in the distance.

Captain Dave hears a light aircraft overhead and tells us where to watch out for the tandem parachutists who land over the other side of the lake from where we are. I spot a couple of them falling from the plane. Free fall seems to last way too long and makes me feel sick just watching them. Dave reckons it's brilliant and recommends 15,000 rather than the 12,000 feet option.Think I'll take the 'stay well away from the aeroplane full stop' option!

The engine has to go on again or we'll not reach the rock carvings before midnight otherwise. We pass some more posh houses up in the tree festooned hillside and find out that these are the ultra luxurious holiday homes in a gated community for the rich and famous only. Tossers!

We find out the lake is 46km long or, as Dave puts it, the same area as Singapore or the area contained by the M25. I know where I'd rather be.

We round the point and slowly approach the area where the Maori rock carvings are. They aren't ancient carvings as you might expect but only 40 years old, carved as a tribute to the Maori people of the region. The main carving is on a flat area of rock and is the face of high priest and navigator Ngatoroirangi. It has loads of swirling patterns that are a copy of his actual facial tattoos depicting either men or women depending on which direction they swirl. There is also a double mouth, but I didn't quite catch what that signified, something to do with battles I think. There are other carvings on the rocks surrounding the main carving, of a lizard, a mermaid, a naked woman and many others. They are really quite beautiful.

There are three people swimming in the water near the carvings, floating on a big, green, blow-up tortoise, who move away so we can take photos. We see them again later, one of the guys about to jump off a rock. We encourage him up higher and, after he gets his friends to check for hidden rocks, he braves the big jump accompanied by cheers from us. As a reward our Captain offers them a tow on their tortoise behind Sail Fearless. He finds it very funny. Apparently this is a first. We drop them off further down the coast where they'd swum from and wave our goodbyes.

We also see the Earnest Kemp steam boat, the most popular trip out to the carvings on Lake Taupo. We hear the passengers being told, over an intercom system, all about the history of Sail Fearless, our boat, which includes a couple of sinkings and raisings before being retired to Taupo for tourist trips. That saved Captain Dave a job.

We are then offered either beer, wine or a soft drink as we head back under sail to Taupo. The wind has really picked up and we are proper listing over to one side, exciting. A few people have a go at sailing (steering) the boat and this is where the pirate theme kicks in as they have to don a pirate hat! We also get a selection of pirate folk music and sing along to the ones we recognise. The Mexican girls absolutely LOVE me teaching them the words to the pirate song 'I jumped aboard a pirate ship and the captain said to me - we're going this way that way forwards and backwards over the Irish sea, a bottle of rum to fill up me tum, it's a pirate's life for me'. We also get 'frigging in the rigging' which Captain Dave finds hilarious when he realises I actually know the words.

What a really great trip. Far exceeded expectations and the group was a perfect mix of interesting and fun people.

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