Taupo

Last weekend we drove to the centre of North Island to stay in Taupo, a town on the edge of the lake of the same name. Lake Taupo is beautiful and vast, being about 160km around. Apparently there is an annual cycle race around the lake, with some competitors going around several times - mad or what? We stayed in a very nice bed and breakfast, next door to a pub called the mole and chicken, which did excellent meals - another bad weekend for the diet!

The weather on Saturday was iffy, but we managed to visit the Huka falls, the craters of the moon - an area of bubbling mud pools and steaming geothermal landscape - and had a dip in the thermal baths between showers. Sunday was a much better day and we went on a fishing trip on the lake with our B&B host. Lake Taupo is only stocked with trout, both brown and rainbow, and Andy and I managed to catch 8 rainbows between us. We were very pleased with our efforts. We put all the fish back, mainly because trout is a pretty dismal fish to eat, but a good day, we enjoyed it very much. On the way home we got some lovely views of Mount Tongariro (I think, could be Mount Ngauruhoe) with snow on the peak.

We think we will stay around Wanganui next weekend, as the following week we are going to the pacific island of Vanuatu for a little holiday!

Huka Falls

Lake Taupo 

A snow-covered peak!