Blogs from Taupo, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 54

If I told you that one of the highlights of our day today was watching a dam open, you might think that it doesn't sound very exciting at all - but I'm here to tell you otherwise! We rolled up to the car park just before noon and quickly jostled for a place on the bridge overlooking the tiny little Aratiatia dam. A flock of tour buses had obviously had the same idea so it was a bit busy but once we made it through the crowds we were ready for quite a unique display of mother nature's power. At midday a siren went off, the signal that the dam was about to be opened. Then, just as we were thinking nothing was actually going to happen, the first of the two floodgates was cracked open ... read more

Had an OK nights sleep but both feeling a little tired after yesterdays walk. We drove down to Acacia Bay a beautiful little suburb full of expensive houses and swish boats. Spent a little while watching a cute black swan feeding in the lake, upside down with its bum in the air - real amusing! Wandered down to town to check out the information centre, grabbed a coffee and then went to 'the craters of the moon'. Its a geothermally active area which came into being when a local power station was built; water levels and pressures changed and this steaming bubbling park was made - just goes to show you need to be careful around here! The site is a walk past some geysers, fumeroles and bubbling mud pools. All throughout the site there is ... read more

After extending our stay in Rotorua for a couple of days, today it was time to move on again. Our bus to Taupo didn't leave until lunchtime and the journey didn't take too long - it's only 80km - so we arrived just over an hour later, albeit about 30 minutes late. We are staying at the Rainbow Lodge and they very kindly popped by the bus station in their little minibus to give us a lift to the hostel even though it is actually only about a 5 minute walk. Our room is nice and big but for some reason we have no storage space. There's plenty of floor space but no wardrobe, desk or cabinet which really is a bit of a pain as we'll be staying a while. We spent the remainder of ... read more

I next travelled to Taupo from Rotorua. Taupo is a really nice town overlooking a lake ( the largest lake in the southern hemisphere I think or something like that) There is lots to do in Taupo adventure capital of the north island, although I was really running out of energy at this point. Nevertheless after a few relaxing days or just random explorations I decided to do a kayak trip down the Waikato river. Although it wasn't extreme as there where only small rapids it was fun and with the scenery it made it a great day. I also went to check out some of the free activities on offer. Such as the natural spa pools which were extremely hot but once in they were a natural remedy for relaxing. Ah. Also I went on ... read more

we have spent the last 2 days (in the lovely sunny and hot weather) doing some silly and very scary (but also very fun) outdoor things. the 1st one yesterday, involved going up and down rapids in a jetboat! this was really good fun, especially as the trip goes out just after they open up the dam in the river, so there's plenty of rapids. the jetboat basically bounces over the waves, causing us lot on board to be lifted up from our seats and generally thrown about a bit. a lot of 180degree turns were also involved which was also incredibly fun!! todays one was alot more scary, and one that i tried to back out of alot, but Jack (quite rightly) wouldn't let me. we went skydiving! we fell 12,000 feet out of a ... read more