New Zealand - North Island


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Oceania » New Zealand » North Island
March 25th 2015
Published: March 25th 2015
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Hi everyone, well it's been all waterfalls, hot thermal pools and character's today !!! Decided to drive a couple of hours to Lake Taupo along the Highway 5, inland. A local guy from Napier told us to go to some places which were free and we would see beautiful scenery, so on our way we stopped at a trucker's cafe and spoke to the lady there, she was a bit of a character, definitely into her trucks, photo's of them all over the place, said she takes photos of 'just the big one's'. Stu said there is a big one outside now, she looked outside, said, no that was small. Believe me it wasn't, it had those big 'cat' tractors on it, it was massive. Anyhow, she also told us some places to go to which was the same information the local guy here in Napier gave us. So the first stop was a double set of waterfalls up this dirt track, really very lovely, they were called 'Waipunga Falls '. We then ended up in a geothermal power station which uses the hot thermals underground to power it. That's the only way I can explain it, it looked impressive but was a bit boring, there was all this steam coming up, Stu thought it was quite amazing, I think it was a 'man thing' !!! From there we arrived in the sticks to this cafe, there were peacocks, chickens and grouse running around. We went in and must have met the 'Joker' of New Zealand. First he showed me two boxes on the wall of tarantulas and said he found those in England !! He then passed me over a small brown envelope and said 'have a look in there, you're be surprised, there tiny spider eggs', so I opened it and a spring flew out, well I screamed and he thought it was hilarious, NOT !! He then said you can see the hot thermals in my back yard, where he had designed a 30 minute walk for 10 dollars each. Well why not, the map was laminated !! What a professional !! NOT !!! He said to me, if you get lost ? We waited for his answer, he said 'Don't panic'. Then he laughed, we didn't !! Right, after the comedy club act, me and Stu just walked off after he shouted out, I've made the walkways a good width, so you can hold hands !! I said, 'thanks for that'. He even said he would show me some more spider eggs when we got back !!! What a joker, REALLY NOT !! He must have been cracked up laughing, thinking SUCKERS !!! they've just given me 10 dollars to walk round my back yard !! When we eventually sauntered off for our 'hot thermal walk', Stu said 'Can't believe you fell for that old trick with the spring' !! Ehhhh actually I couldn't either, but you meet one everywhere !! So we went on this 30 minute walk and it was actually quite good, saw plenty of geo thermal springs with plenty of steam coming out, the ground was so hot, well we were on an active volcano! the scenery was beautiful as well. 'Joker's' map was a bit a vague and we did get lost. I told 'Joker' this when we got back and he just laughed, but then informed us where we could swim in hot thermals for free and see the Dam open up which was quite spectacular, it was called Aratiatia Rapids, believe it or not he gave us another map, but it was a printed one. The hot springs at The Spa Thermal Park was pretty amazing, it was freezing when you got in them but as you got around to the little waterfall it was really hot, very nice indeed and you're skin felt a lot better afterwards. We then drove down to see Lake Taupo which is the largest in New Zealand, that too was amazing, but the sun had gone down so didn't really get very good photos of it.

Well tomorrow were leaving 'kiddie Packers', we will miss the 'kids' !!! Stu and I overheard one of the lads say that he couldn't go to work today (they live here whilst doing the fruit picking), as he had only been getting 5 - 6 hours kip, so today he slept 10 hours. Stu's like 'what planet is he on', I said 'the same one, when you were his age !!!


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