Holiday: Day 13 – Time for Taupo!

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6.15am: Morning all! 👍. Well, that was a first – RAIN – and significant amounts of it! Luckily for us, it was overnight, but it was certainly hammered it down, waking us up in the early hours as it danced on the roof! ☔☔

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A couple of short videos feature in this Post today!!
Enjoy!!!! 👍

Day 13 – Where are we?
(Monday, 11th November)

8.45am: Today, we left Hamilton after breakfast and headed for Taupō (about 2 hours away by car – 200km/125 miles). In between, we’ve plenty of sights to enjoy before we finally check-in to our next Motel for the night.

Arapuni Suspension Bridge

First on our list and about an hour away was Arapuni Suspension Bridge. It is located just downstream from the Arapuni Power Station and was built in the mid-1920s to allow workers from the village of Arapuni to access the power station construction site where it was the FIRST Government-built hydro-electric station. According to a local Guide we bumped into, it’s still operates today.

10.05am: A very enjoyable visit! My thanks to my good mate, Ian, who reminded me that this was worth the slight diversion en-route to our final destination. Cheers Ian! 👍

Next stop? Heading east to Rotorua. See you there! 👍

Rotorua Town

10.55am: An easy drive on the rather excellent roads and here we are in Rotorua. The town is famous for its geothermal activity and Maori culture. With a population approaching 80000, it is also home to a living Māori village and the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute. Today, by way of sightseeing, for us it was to be Kuirau Park first, followed by the Victorian Government Gardens.

Kuirau Park
Kuirau Park is the only FREE Geothermic Park in New Zealand as there’s a tendency in this area to capitalise (literally) on this natural feature of the island and spin it into all manner of so-called ‘experiences’.

We’ve seen Thermal Springs like this before (in Iceland) but it all felt a rather surreal experience in the middle of a lush green Park on a warm Spring day! It’s clearly a popular location (although it was quite quiet during our visit) and we’d say it’s worth the experience! Beware though, if you’re not a fan of the smell of sulphur (bad eggs?) you might want to hold your breath! 😤

Government Gardens
11.50am: The Government Gardens features a Tudor-style spa bath house and an ornate Mediterranean-style public swimming pool, oh, and the obligatory geothermal pools! 😉. It was a slightly longer walk to here from the Park, than we thought, so allow yourself around 20-25 minutes walking time (or better still, move the car from the car-park in the Park as there’s plenty of spaces nearby). 👍👍

In truth, we probably didn’t do the location justice today. Although the parts we saw were immaculate, other parts were in a state of renovation and/or replanting/rebuilding. Next stop? Lunch!

You know us, we always try to go ‘classy’ when we can – and there are a lot of places to choose from in this town. It’s clearly affluent given the range of posh shops – from clothing to eateries. In the end, for convenience, for eating, it was a straight choice between the GastroPub: ‘Fainting Goat’ or the Café: ‘Fat Dog‘ next door! In the end, the Dog won it by a whisker! 😆. Still classy after all these years, ehh?!?!? 😲

TODAY’S TRIVIA: The Lord of the Rings movies contributed approximately $200 million to the New Zealand economy.

From there we took SH5 (that’s ‘State Highway 5’ – often called an ‘Expressway’ out here) to our final destination and accommodation – Taupō on the edge of the lake, helpfully named Lake Taupō (the largest lake in New Zealand formed inside an extinct crater). It was another very scenic drive, especially providing you’re favourite colour is green and you like rolling countryside. The town has a population of around 26000, and is a favourite destination for fishing and skiing. 🥱🥱. We had a bit of time to kill before we could check-in, so by way of a slight diversion, we decided to visit Huka Falls on the way to our next Motel.

Although this area is famous for scenes from The Hobbit, we didn’t see ANYTHING that promoted the fact. I thought they would have maxed-out on this opportunity.

Huka Falls

1.56pm: Huka Falls is the most-visited natural attraction in New Zealand. If you’re expecting something akin to Niagara Falls, then you’ll be disappointed – but the view IS jaw-dropping in a different way. The volume of water flowing through often approaches 220 cubic metres per second, making it one of the highest-flowing waterways in the world.

Sleepover in Taupo

3.01pm: Phew! It’s been quite a day! We’re now at Ashbrook Motel in Taupō just a quarter of a mile from Lake Taupō.

Hello ‘Unit 7’…

4.35pm: Now we’re all checked-in, we took a walk down to the Lake.

Scenes from around Lake Taupō

The day had warmed-up considerably!

It’s easy to forget, this is a LAKE not the SEA! 😲. Wow!

Driving in New Zealand today – The SH1 & SH5 from Hamilton to Taupo

Road Name: SH1 & SH5
Condition: All good. Smooth as a baby’s bottom
Lanes: Two-lanes, sometimes single with occasional passing places
Terrain: Again, quite straight and flat, interrupted by steep twisty climbs and descents
Scenery: Agricultural. Mostly cows, sometimes sheep. Haven’t seen any pigs yet, but did see plenty of Deer
Filling Stations: 5
Roadworks: 1
Driver Courtesy: Everyone seemed to obey the speed limit and no-one was in a hurry
Speed Limits: 60 through to 110kph, but mostly 80/100kph
Speed cameras: Just the one
Police Patrols: 3
Total distance driven today: 207 kilometres

Tomorrow, we’re driving to Napier – a long drive, some two hours in the car (90 miles). Nighty-night! Sleep well – see you tomorrow💤💤