Taupo

Lake Taupo

1/6/08: Ahhh another bus. This time to Lake Taupo. I heard some people compare it to Lake Tahoe, and while Taupo is cool, it's no Tahoe. On the bus ride a met Kathy, and older family women who was kind enough to offer me a place to stay. Though I never did make it back to North Island to take her up on the offer, it was a nice gesture. I got a room at a local backpackers and hung out there for the evening.



1/7/08: Today I planned to go mountian biking, but I never made it. Instead I booked fishing, my canoe trip, retrieved the camera my sister had sent me, and went to a movie. (I am Legend)

1/8/08: Tonight a group of us from the backpacker went to the hotpools. Unlike the ones in Rotorua, these are public. At the top of the pools there is a 3 meter high waterfall, which is also HOT. It's a natural hot shower and it was awsome. Then there are pools, and finally the hot spring runs into the river, where you can straddle hot and cold water to get the right temperature for your body. It was one of the best things I've done so far.


The River

1/9/08: Lake Taupo has allot of trout. Unfortunatly most people troll for them. And so did I. We got 6 in about 2 hours, not a bad day, and it was fun cruising about the lake, but every real fisherman knows that trolling doesn't approach real fishing. But I'll take my catch, 2 keepers, one I had smoked so that I could travel with it, and one I ate that night. It was really, really tasty.


There he is - heading for my fat belly

1/10/08: Finally I got to go biking around the river, the falls, by the dam and back down. I got to test out the new camera today, so far so good. I was having a great time pedaling around, that is until the chain on my bike snapped. I wasn't far from my return to the falls, and it was downhill, so I coasted most of the way, locked the bike to the gate, and hitched a ride back to the rental place. It was a newly wed Canadian/New Zealand couple that gave me a ride. Nice people. The rental place refunded my money and went to pick up the bike. I made myself a ham, sundried tomato and blue cheese sandwich. Yummy. While I did that I was talking to this guy from England, Oli. His trip is basically 100% fishing. Obviously this made me wonder if thats what I should have done as well. Hmmm.

Tomorrow I catch a bus to National Park Village.

Oh and a Bishops Collar = A perfect head on a pint of Guiness. Who knew?


Huka Falls