Twynham At Kinloch Taupo

... Huka translated from Mori to English means FOAM and you can see why from the photos. We left here and headed for the Jet boating area on the river. Morgan and I signed up for the 2:30 PM ride and as it was only 1:00 PM we all went in the Prawn fishing and nature walk park. This was brilliant fun and Morgan caught the first prawn of the day, in total we caught 8 and a lady who only caught 1 gave us hers as well, so its prawns on the BBQ tomorrow (out for a meal to ...

... I was jumping with a German fellow I met in Dunedin, Johannis, and Martin was doing the honours of driving us up there. This was also the day clocks went forward for daylight-saving time. Martin was staying with a friend of his and we had no way of contacting him to let him know. He was bound to miss the news about the time change but we got ready for Nine 'O' Clock regardless and when, finally, at Ten thirty he arrived to pick us up we were in something of a panic ...

... dinner. It should be great! Something Mike has been looking forward to since we got here. (Yes, he is VERY hairy! I think we are both looking forward to him shaving...) We plan to try Auckland again tomorrow before heading back down south on Friday. Hope you are all tolerating the heat okay! We don't have any new photos to add as we've been laying around the condo and driving around in the rain... take care!

... ready to explore a little of Wellington. I didn't see much of the city but it did seem compact and I enjoyed walking around the central area and had tea at Starbucks along Lamberts Quay which seemed to be Wellington's equivalent Oxford Street (London!) I didn't have time to go up on the Gondola as I needed to get on te road for the long drive ahead. I just managed to beat the rush hour traffic out of the city but the drive out of the city was extremely busy ...

... has this funny habit of half listening when you say something and then the second you pause to catch breath she will insert "Ya, but I..." Lisa *takes picture* "Ooh. Nice mountain." Nicole: "Ya, but I have a picture without clouds" Lisa: "Clouds are cool." Nicole: "Ya, but a picture without clouds makes the mountain less... boring." She is fussy, and never keeps anything to herself, but I begin to feel a strange affection towards her. Her rude unselfconsciousness is sort of appealing.

... was terrific. Just terrific. Now we're most likely off to have dinner with James and Karla, the Brits we met kayaking. They caught up to us because we had to stay an extra day. Unfortunately we had to switch to a seedier hostel, but it's much cheaper, so I'm happy. Quiz night is on at Mulligan's at 9:00 pm. I intend to win...though I'm worried it'll all be Commonwealth trivia. Unlikely though ...

... removed the pillow case while you were asleep. It aint the best! It was also extremely hot in Taupo, we're talking close to 30 degrees celsius, and we had no air-con or even a fan so we kind of just melted into couch we had in the cabin. Aside from these fairly minor complaints it was all good at the camp site and we were there for 2 nights. Our first afternoon in Taupo was just spent having a quick wander about the shops, re-familiarising ourselves with ...

... En revanche, il y avait énormément de brume, ça c'était un peu flippant... Car ce trek est tracé dans un paysage volcanique, sans végétation, sans vie... Imaginez un paysage désertique, inhospitalier, un paysage lunaire... avec un brouillard qui vous enveloppe comme pour vous conseiller de rebrousser chemin... Mais je n'étais pas seule !! Facilement une centaine de randonneurs ont dû faire ce trek ce jour-là (comme tous les ...

... heat to incubate their eggs so they don't have to bother. Having left the main area, we called briefly at the Mud Pools on the way back out, which was basically a lake of boiling mud like a giant spa mud bath (although this would probably cook you rather than relax you!) Here we bumped into the same couple from our stay at the lake the night before (who turned out to be Dutch and Belgian). Small world... Moving on, we pressed south, heading for Taupo and arrived at ...

... hahah. SO I figure I'm all set to go, payed my moola, I'm doing this! So i look out in front of me and jump! There is nothing more scary/exciting than the feeling when your feet leave the platform. You just hurl towards the water and wait for the snap back up. It was actually like a trampoline bounce upwards. That's the best description I think. Next time, I hope to take a plunge into the water!