Blogs from Taupo, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

August 8th-14th. Some people love cows, I mean really, really love them. Hindus venerate cows as gods. As a child I used to enjoy many hours in our bottom field trying to get Arthur's herd (our neighbouring farmer) to talk to me. Sadly, my persistence was futile, Daisy and co. never saw fit to pass the time of day or tell me stories as I hoped they might but all the same, I felt I was among friends. I do also recall coaxing one more bold beast to lick my hand only to be thoroughly disturbed by how rough its tongue was, turns out they were used a hair brushes in past time, however despite the infinite tattiness of my hair, I have never been tempted to try this! Some years later, well about 32 but ... read more

Hi All, We woke up this morning freezing! The temperature has definitely dropped to single degrees and it makes it worse when you go from a powered site with heat blasting in all night to nothing. We had planned to have a walk around Taupo Centre today; they have shops and loads of restaurants, all on the edge of the huge Lake. Neil nearly won $10,000 dollars on a golf hole in one on the beachfront, he hit the flag but it didn’t stay on so he was so close!!! (That money would have been nice) We had also planned to see what the weather was like to decide whether or not to do that sky dive that got cancelled the other day. By 11am, the weather was perfect: sunny with a little cloud. We decided ... read more

We are working our way to the south of North Island - avoided another cyclone - just caught the tail winds. It has not stopped us doing anything just delayed us going on the Huka Falls Jet. It was AMAZING - would love to go on it again. We moved from Rotoru yesterday. I was glad to leave there because of the constant small of sulphur from the thermal and volcanic land. I think if we lived here we would get used to it. We went to a wonderful Maori evening - wonderful evening. We are off to Napier tomorrow for one night and then off to Wellungton for three nights and will be catching up with family I have not seen for many years.... read more

Geo: -38.6866, 176.07From Waitomo caves we made our way south-east to Rotorua. Rotorua is known for it's volcanic activity and thermal villages. We arrived around midday and took a tour at Whakarewarewa Thermal Village. Here we got a great perspective of how local people lived and live by using the natural environment around them.After the tour we treated ourselves to a private pool in the towns Polynesian baths. It was so relaxing and it was a perfect day to enjoy the views and escape the bus loads of South Korean tourists.That evening we had decided to travel up to the coast to a small town called Muteka. There wasn't any reason for visiting but we were sleeping there and it was a nice little coastal town with a relaxing feel.The following morning we thought that Tauranga ... read more

After leaving Rotorua we drove to Haku Falls, a gorge where the river narrows and 200,000 litres of water run over the falls per second. The water was an incredible light blue colour with white water rapids in places. After getting some nice pictures we headed for Lake Taupo (pronounced Toe-Paw by the locals). Once we had checked in we went for a walk with Vicky, Tayla, Leanne, Shantelle and Billie. We all ended up getting KFC then bought mixers from the supermarket and started drinking quite early at 5pm. At one point we had 17 people in our 8 bed dorm all sat in a circle playing ring of fire. Tim was the last to put his hand down on the floor for thumb master and denied it, gave us a demonstration of what he ... read more