20.02.2014 - Rotorua - Taupo

This morning I left stinky city and arrived after an hour drive in Taupo. First thing I checked out was the
Huka Falls, I mean it's pretty easy to catch me with everything water related but this was fucking amazing.
I think I could have spent hours just staring into the water rushing by. So much detail, so many shapes,
so many colours. Incredibly beautiful! I did a one hour walk in that area and than headed off to the Aratiatia
Rapids, where I wanted to see the opening of the gates of a dam. I wanted to make it there in time for the
12pm gate opening and see how the water rushes through the narrow gorge there. Parts of what’s happing
there was also used in the Hobbit 2. To be honest I expected something more spectacular, don't get me
wrong it was still really beautiful but I was expecting MORE. Got spoiled by this country, ordinary beautiful
is suddenly not enough anymore. ;)
After I watched the water for a while I left and drove to another thermal area. They named it pretty spectacular
to catch as many tourist driving by on the SH1: 'The Craters of the Moon'. Well it was a nice 45min walk in the
sun, the weather meant it really good with me today and pleased me with temperatures around 28 degrees.
So with the sun above, no shade and the thermal heat from below it was a pretty sweaty walk. It was basically
a large field with some craters with bubbling boiling mud and holes with steam coming out.
Luckily it was not as smelly as in Rotorua!

Time to check into my motel, the last one on this trip and what can I say, I think it's the best one on my tour
battling for gold with the motel in Coromandel. If I would be able to split myself into multiple persons I could
sit on the toilet, sit in the spa and lie on the bed with having eye contact. They built some sort of pass-through
between the bathroom and the bedroom. Funky! Well, that feature was wasted on me. Still having a spa and
a shower is really cool. Not like in Rotorua where I had to shower in the spa which is not really practical and
let to some weird postures while showering.

Anyway, I just booked a boat tour on Lake Taupo which will last two hours and starts at 5pm. Till then I'm just
gonna sit here at the beach in the shade and enjoy the beautiful view over the lake with the mountain range
in the back. More when I'm back from the cruise.

Well the cruise was really nice, as usual I loved cruising on the water. The colour of the water was a clear
deep blue and green and looked very tempting to take a refreshing swim in it. We were told some stuff about
the surrounding area and the city of Taupo and of course the lakes history. If I remember it correct there are
5 still active craters on the bottom of the lake heating up the water down there to 45 degrees. The lake is
pretty massive with the size of Singapore. Not hard to imagine that this lake was formed by the last super
volcanic explosion that happened on earth by now. Luckily that happened a while ago, not really keen in
experiencing such an event.

If would like to do some relaxing vacation here on the North Island Taupo and Coromandel would be the
places to go. Good weather, nice temperatures and water, lot’s of water.