Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We left Waitomo at approximately 10am today which was a reasonable departure time compared to some recent ones! The first thing we did was get the bus down to Ruakuri reserve to do the walk that a few of us on the bus had done the day before but it was an enjoyable walk so we were more than happy to do it again, especially as most of the people on the bus hadn't done it! We had about 40 minutes wandering around the reserve before we all piled back on the bus, which was again driven by Ma, so it was my second day on the bus, and he was his usual self although I would admit he was improving as time went on, as he managed to finish what he was describing to us rather than stopping mid sentence and also seemed to have his bearings about him today!
The next stop was only just down the road where we stopped at Angora rabbit shearing centre! It was the most random activity I think we have done, basically we witnessed these huge white, extra fluffy rabbits being sheared of their fur which was then used to make clothing products that they could sell! The rabbits were placed in what seemed like a spit roast as they had their front and back paws placed in these bits of rope which caused them to be stretched right out, this prevented them from moving whilst being sheared so prevented damage! Although it sounds cruel the rabbits need to be sheared of their fur 4 times as year as otherwise it gets too long and they overheat, so they need to be sheared so that they stay alive and the owners then make money out of the products the fur is turned into! The rabbit did look really calm I have to say, but the woman said as they are sheared four times a year they are so used to the experience that it doesn't faze them! The woman then got this big shaving device and started removing the fur from the rabbits belly then when she had finished doing one part of the rabbit she would twizzle it round and it would spin about and then she would shear another section, it looked exactly like a rabbit spit roast, but the rabbit was relaxed and the amount of hair that was sheared from the animal was remarkable! Once the woman had finished shearing the rabbit we were given to the opportunity to go and stroke it to feel how soft it was, and it really was so smooth, but looked really odd as this rabbit that was full of fur a few minutes early was now bald effectively! We were then allowed to go and view a few more rabbits in their pens which were next in line to be sheared before we were back on the bus to continue our journey to Taupo, where we passed through the town Te Kuiti en route!
As we got closer to Taupo, the adventure capital of the north, the Tongariro National Park came into view in the distance, the cone shaped mountain Ngauruhoe as used in the filming of 'Lord of the Rings', and is recognisable as Mount Doom! Before arrival in Taupo we stopped for a short walk at Huka Falls which is close by, the Huka (foam) Falls are situated on the Waikato River, two kilometres north of Lake Taupo. The falls are 11 metres (35 feet) high. It appears as though it is a blasted out channel but it is actually all completely natural and is actually formed by an earthquake!
From Huka Falls we were taken to a lookout point over the whole of Taupo and its lake! Lake Taupo is 616 square kilometres and is the largest lake in Australasia and is big enough to fit the island of Singapore in it! Scientists state that the lake was the scene of one of the world's largest known volcanic explosions at around 186AD. Ancient Chinese and Roman records tell of dark red skies that brought climatic changes to the area probably linked to the Taupo eruption! Today Lake Taupo is well known for trout fishing. Trout were introduced to the area in the 1860's when brown trout eggs were brought from Tasmania. Taupo was first settled in 1869 when an armed constabulary post was established during the Maori Land Wars. The full name is 'Taupo-nui-a-Tia' meaning great cloak of Tia. It was named after Chief Tia who laid his cloak on the ground thus forming the lake. Apart from the geothermal features of this area it is fast becoming known as the adventure capital of the north, and offers the cheapest and one of the best skydives in the whole of New Zealand, as it offers views over Lake Taupo and Tongariro National Park. Many people that were on my bus decided to do a skydive here, something I wasn't brave enough to do but after seeing their videos and photos it made me jealous especially as they said it was the best thing they had done in their lives!
We arrived at the BASE hostel (yes another one), where we were staying in Taupo at about 3.30pm, I checked in for 2 nights even though I was staying for 4 because they couldn't guarantee me a bed for the other nights as they have to keep beds free for the other Kiwi buses they were to be arriving over the forthcoming days, so they told me to see if they were any spare beds when I checked out after my 2 nights stay, after checking in I got my stuff sorted out in my dorm, before I went to the I-site to find out what Taupo and to offer and to check out all the activities on offer, after which I went to the supermarket to buy some food to get me through my first couple of days in Taupo! Once back at the hostel, I had my usual dinner of pasta and sauce and then went on my net book and had a shave, as my bum fluff had grown very long and was getting damn right annoying, before it was time for bed!
The next day, Friday, I had a lie in and so it was getting on for 11am by the time I had eaten breakfast and was showered and had got ready for the day, as I was eating breakfast I met some people from my bus and we discussed what we were going to do for the day and they said there were a big group of people going out for the day to explore Taupo, so I decided to join them in their exploration of Taupo and we all waited in reception as we kept bumping into more people from the bus that wanted to come out for the day with us, so we were waiting until about midday until everyone was ready to get on with the day! We had all dressed in our swimming gear as we knew we were heading to the hot springs! On our way to the hot springs we walked past the place where they do bungee jumps from in Taupo so we decided to watch a few people chuck themselves head first towards the water, looking down where they did it made me petrified just thinking about it, so a bungee jump is something that really does not interest me in the slightest! From here we continued our walk and arrived at the hot springs at about 1pm, there were quite a few people in there already, as it was a glorious day! So after stripping down to my swim shorts I got in along with everyone else in our group, and it was the weirdest, most surreal feeling in the world, because half of your body is in cold water and the other half is in hot water! The water flows down the mountainside from a volcano so the water is heated by volcanic activity and if you get in the springs by the small water fall then it is like getting in a bath with no cold water, it is just so hot that no one can stand in the water for any length of time, the water remains boiling hot for a good few metres away from the falls, when all of a sudden the water just turns freezing as the water from the volcanic activity merges with the cold lake water! So I found myself constantly changing from bathing in the hot water to bathing in the cold water as you were never at the right temperature so needed to move to a different part of the springs to either warm up or cool down! It was strange as your feet would be freezing cold yet your legs would be boiling hot if you were on the border line where the two water temperatures merged! We spent 2 hours in the hot springs before we got out and dried off and decided to walk to Huka Falls as although I and a few others in the group had already been, there were some that were doing a skydive when we went to see the Falls so they didn't get to see them, so we all walked up to Huka Falls so the rest of the crew could see them, we arrived here at about 4pm and all brought an ice cream from the small shop as it was such a hot day, I got a chocolate magnum biscuit, it is new and it's like an ordinary magnum except instead of having a stick you hold the ice cream by biscuit on either side which you then eat and it was so damn tasty! After this we then started to head back to the hostel and eventually got back at about 6pm, it was Easter Friday which meant all the shops were shut as we were going to buy some food to have a BBQ, so instead we decided that we would meet at the front of the hostel at 7.30pm and go out for dinner! So we all got showered and dressed up for out night out, and went to this restaurant round the corner from the hostel, it was called pub'n'grub, they must have been delighted to see us walk in as there were about 20 of us! We set up a few tables so that we could all fit around, and then we all had a look at the menu to see what we fancied, I went for a beef and bacon burger with chips and a pint, which came to a mighty NZ$25.80, this included a surcharge that they added because they were open and working on Easter Friday! The food was out pretty swiftly considering how many of us there were, except from one bloke's fish and chips which were forgotten about and he only got them when he complained! The meal was lovely though, it was good to eat a good wholesome meal that filled me up! From here we went back to the hostel, by which time it was about 10pm, and we went into the hostel bar, the people we were with when a competition the night before as it was a toga night and they were the best dressed so they won a bar tab, and got us all a drink for free which was good, and we chilled out in the bar until the early hours, I also met Charlotte and Tom again this night as they had caught me up from when I left them in Rotorua, so we had a catch up to see how we all were, by which time I decided to go to bed!
The next day, was Easter Saturday, meaning it was absolute chaos in the town, everyone was off of school and work and it seemed as though people from all around the country had come to Taupo for the weekend, the roads were heaving with cars, and it was another sunny day to match! But for me I had to check out by 10am as I only had two nights booked at the hostel, and I went down to ask them if I could check back in later on in the day for another 2 nights, but they told me that they were fully booked so they let me keep my luggage in the hostel while I went in search of some alternative accommodation, I went into another 2 hostels both of which were full and then went back to BASE to explain the situation and the woman behind the desk was really helpful as she rang every hostel in the local area, only to find that everywhere was fully booked because it was Easter weekend, so she resorted to ringing a hostel right on the edge of town called Sunset Lodge and I got their last bed and the only bed left in Taupo, so I was very grateful to the receptionist for doing all this phoning around, she then told me to collect my stuff and wait in the lounge as the hostel were coming to pick me up at 11.30am.....and now I know why, because it was a 45 minute walk away out of town!
This old woman came to collect me in this rather old and dated jeep; I chucked my backpack in the boot and jumped in the front as she was not picking anyone else up! It was about a 10 to 15 minute drive from BASE which is in the heart of Taupo to Sunset Lodge! Once there I checked in and was given a room off of the kitchen, the hostel was very small and it was in somebody's house, so they lived in the same living quarters as the backpackers! I was shown around the limited facilities and then given the key to my room, upon entry I walked in on three lads from Chile catching up on some sleep as they had only just arrived earlier that morning! I sorted my stuff out then left the hostel and walked back to the town centre, it took a good 45 minutes, but that's where all the amenities were, as Sunset Lodge was basically in the middle of a housing estate right on the very edge of town! It wasn't the best location and I'm glad I was only there a night as there was a very strange vibe about the place; the people staying there were a little weird and not the same type of people that you would find on the Kiwi bus which is what I was used to! After the 45 minute walk along Lake Taupo I made it back to BASE where I enquired about the likelihood of getting a bed there the following night, and the woman told me that I was on a waitlist, but there was a very good chance that I would get a bed, so I also went to the hostel opposite BASE called Go Global and managed to guarantee myself a bed there for the next night but this was my backup if I was left with no other option as I didn't have to make a deposit! After this I went to the supermarket as I needed to do some shopping to stock up on supplies, then I walked back to the hostel, the same route that I came, after putting my shopping away on the shelves and in the fridge, I was back out of the hostel to go to the Botanical Gardens of Taupo which were about a 15 minute walk from the hostel, I spent about 45 minutes taking in the views of Lake Taupo and the surrounding area from the hilltop location and grabbed a bite to eat, then left the Gardens which were quite small, and they were like a ghost town as there was literally nobody there, after this I made my way back to the hostel to get some laundry done, it was about 4pm by this stage! Once my laundry was on the go I went up to the TV room to watch a bit of tele and chill out on my netbook before putting my washing into the drier and getting it dry by which stage I got all my clothes packed up again in my backpack, and I went to make my dinner for the evening which was pasta and sauce, the guy next to me however, who was working at the hostel long term, had been down to the freshwater lake and caught six crayfish, and he had them in a pan of water next to my pasta, wriggling about as they were still alive, he was about to cook them and have them for his dinner! After dinner I was back on my netbook as there was very little to do at the hostel so I just had a very relaxed evening and managed to get a good night's sleep, which is very hard to come by when staying in a BASE hostel as they all have a bar blasting out music every night until at least 3am, causing the beds to be vibrating until that time, so this hostel was good in the sense I could catch up on some sleep!
The next day it was Easter Sunday, and I had to make sure I was checked out from the hostel and get on the free shuttle that took people from Sunset Lodge and into town every morning at 9.30am! The shuttle was in a very similar old and battered jeep like the one that I was brought to the hostel in! We were dropped off outside the I-site in the town centre at about 9.45am, so I made the short walk across the road to BASE to discover if I had a bed there for the night or not, I was in luck as the woman had reserved me a place, this meant I could stay here with the people that I would be getting on the kiwi bus with in the morning rather than having to stay across the road in Go Global, which didn't look too good! I checked in but wasn't allowed to go to my room until 1pm at the earliest so I put my backpack in the luggage storage and put my food in the fridge and on the shelves and had my breakfast! I also bumped into Charlotte and Tom again, so asked them what their plans were for the day; they were pretty similar to mine, so I said that I would wait for them down in reception while they got ready! I was watching TV and on my netbook whilst waiting for them and about an hour later they were ready to leave, it was about 11.30am by this stage! Firstly we called into Woolworths which is a supermarket here, as they had to get a few bits and then we made our way to the hot springs again as Charlotte and Tom hadn't been and they both wanted to check in hot, I sat by the edge while they went and had a dip and about 30 minutes later we were on our way towards Craters of the moon, to get here we had to pass Huka Falls for my third time, but it's so nice I really didn't mind, then craters of the moon was an additional hours walk from here, we followed the track and made it to this main road which was really busy and took about 5 minutes to cross as we had to wait until there were no cars coming as there was no pedestrian crossing so we just pegged it when there was a gap in traffic.....quite risky I have to admit!
From this main road we had to walk up this really steep hill for about 30 minutes before we reached the entrance of craters of the moon at about 2.30pm, it was a NZ$6 admission fee! Craters of the moon is basically a place with lots of geothermal activity, there's loads of steam coming out of the ground and the ground is all really hot, there was also many mud craters which were bubbling up and a walk up the hills to get a Birdseye view over the whole place, we were here until about 4.30pm, then we had the long walk back down the hill, and we made our way to this Honey Hive place where we were meant to get to sample honey for free and watch it being made in the bees nest and things like that but it was shutting just as we arrived as it was 5pm! So we made our way back to Taupo instead, this meant walking back through Huka Falls and in doing so realised that people were just about to Kayak down the falls! We thought they were stupid and didn't believe they had a chance of doing it as the falls were so powerful and looked so fierce, but after about 10 minutes of waiting, one after the other ten people kayaked down the falls without capsizing once, a couple of people tipped over slightly but they were able to recover their balance and continue! Once there were all down they were buzzing and high fiving each other, and everyone watching clapped, but Tom, Charlotte and I were just astounded that they actually managed to do that without hurting themselves, as it looked as though there was a possibility of death! From here we continued our walk back to Taupo, through the forests, where it was starting to get a little dark, then past the hot springs once more which people were in despite it being pitch black, then it was about a half hour walk back to the hostel, we called off at the supermarket again as they wanted to get some more stuff, then we eventually arrived back at the hostel at 8pm after being out for about 8 and a half hours, it was a long day but a really good day which went so quickly! So after collecting my bags from the luggage storage I went to my dorm, and dropped them off before heading into the kitchen to make my dinner for the night and sat down and ate it with Charlotte and Tom, who gave me a couple of classes of L&P, the original New Zealand soft drink! After that I got my bags ready as I was on the move out of Taupo the next morning, and went and watched TV in Charlotte and Tom's room as they were in a private and got a TV as one of the many luxuries, and then I was off to bed at about 11pm!
I spent 4 nights in Taupo and had a thoroughly enjoyable time there even if there was a lot of moving between hostels because of the Easter weekend!
Missing everyone back home!
Love Toby xxx
- comments