Thursday 2nd December. It is still a challenge for us to accept that it is December, Christmas is being talked about and yet we are spending a lot of our time in shorts and t-shirts. We have been kept updated on the UK weather where there is apparently about a foot of snow in the Crawley/Horsham area and considerably more in Yorkshire. I suspect the usual chaos that snow brings will be the order of the day.
We were away by about nine and headed off on the short distance to Taupo, a pretty and lively town overlooking Acacia Bay on the lake itself. We had a look around before heading out on Highway Five to the Aratiatia Dam where the there are boat rides to view the dam and the Huka Falls. Unfortunately the next (first?) of these was at 12.30 and it was only just 10.00, so we abandoned that idea. The dam sluices are opened to allow power generation several times a day and they had just been opened creating spectacular rapids below the dam.
The sluices were closed just after 10.30 and the water steadily subsided (taking a surprising amount of time) until it left quite a tranquil flow.
Next we headed off on a circular route back to Huka Falls, though this entailed an unplanned re-visit of Taupo so we popped in for coffee in a ‘creative cafe’ where you could paint pottery and buy beads..... we stuck with the coffee.
The Huka Falls are on the Waikato River and here it narrows to 15m wide and is 10m deep. The volume and colour of the turbulent water is impressive and any ‘fallers’ would not survive long.
Then it was off up Highway 1 turning right along an unclassified road (with a surface this time!) where we found a tranquil lunch spot before heading on to the ‘Hidden Valley’ thermal area at Orakei Korako. This necessitated a short boat crossing across the Waikato River (which they also confusingly describe as ‘the lake’!) and then a wonderful walk (including about 1000 steps) to teh sound of large cricket type insects, through active geysers, sulphur formations, mud pools and hot springs.
The day was already hotting up and the added heat of the steaming springs and geysers contributed further to the sauna effect.
The formation of some of the earliest scarps are dated back to 131 AD, and while these look like volcanic lava flow they are formed from the emerging sulphur which can also be seen running down to the river’s edge.
After an hour and a quarter wander around the well formed board walks and paths (dire warnings not to deviate as the crust is very thin in places) it was time for the return ferry crossing which coincided with the landing of a local sea plane on the river; then it was ice cream time.
Next we headed on via Rotorua (visiting tomorrow) to Papamoa Beach near Tauranga.
In the evening we met with an ex-student and subsequent colleague (my first TCS Associate for those in the know), David Croft. We had not seen each other for some eight or nine years and he is now resident in New Zealand, married to a local and has a (nearly) one year old daughter. We had a great evening in a local restaurant, catching up and generally chatting. We plan to meet up again on Saturday for a walk round Mount Maunganui when we will also meet his girls, Geri & Leila.
Friday
Laundry on the line by 0830, sun shining again, surf’s up!
We had a circular tour today, heading out for Rotorua via Tauranga and cutting through the minor roads through Oropi down to Te Pu and joining Lake Rotorua at its northern point before following the banks down to the town itself. As we approached Rotorua we saw rising steam to our right so turned in to a parking area – we had stumble across Kuirau Park, an open area of mud pools, hot springs and steam vents. We explored this before enjoying soaking our feet in a thermally heated (ie naturally thermally heated) foot pool.
We lunched here and then wandered into the city where we managed to get a little lost! Fortunately we had noted a large clothing shop so we could ask for directions back to the campervan before heading out of town along the east side of the lake and picking up Highway 30 which follows the shores of series of lakes making a very scenic drive.
Along this road we came across ‘Hell’s Gate’, another thermal area, this one being the only one owned by the Maoari. We enjoyed wandering around here and took the opportunity of bathing our feet in the mud pools – the mud is very fine and it is not like getting muddy feet in the garden, not least because it is at about 40 C!
The bubbling mud pools here were quite dramatic, and as we had found previously, the hot day coupled with the rising steam made for warm walk! The area also included a hot waterfall (40 C) and a mud volcano that erupts from time to time.
On departure we were rapidly on the lookout for iced coffees and found a suitable cafe a short way up the road – they were most welcome....
We then carried on heading east, skirting Kawerau and turning north to join the coast at Matata. It was then back along Kohioawa Beach, through Otamarakau and Te Puke and back to camp via the supermarket.
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