Catelli's of Taupo

... and nothing in America compares.<br><br><br>So here we are - our final resting spot for the next few months. <br>That's exactly what the jet lag doctor ordered....REST. We made it and relatively unscathed. Kids did amazingly well. But now a little rest for SB &amp; I and we will be on track - hope for a few good nights for the kids.<br><br>Now the fun begins.......will keep you all posted!<br><br><br>

... with snow on them and I got abit excited! Little did we know the trouble it was about to cause. <br>Hitting some hill tops we hit the snow, light at first then it got heavier and heavier. Jon drove the car really carefully up and down the mountain hills and at one point we were at a speed of 15kph. It was really scary and horrible but Jon did a great job in getting the car to the point where all the cars in front of us had stopped. We had ...

... through here in the next few days to explore the caves and thermal hot springs.  Seems to be a big fishing spot...a little town a few KM south claims to be the trout fishing capital of the world.  With the sun setting behind the hills, we pushed on to Rotorua, another 20km up the motorway.

... In the mean time, Kristen had already managed to make it up over the Red Crater ridge (the highest point of the track itself) and down to the Emerald Lakes. They are beautiful lakes that smell like.... you guessed it.... sulphur. This whole Island smells like sulphur. They call it the "Winterless North." It's really the "smelly north." The wind just kept blowing. I was slow going up the red ...

... of course, lots of cafes and restaurants. Our camp-site was about a 5 minute drive out of the town centre and it turned out to be quite a nice wee site. We again had a cabin with all the neccessities and we had our own picnic bench outside the cabin that we could use to sit in the sun. The cabin however had one major failing...... the pillows! Until now I had no idea that you could actually buy plastic bed-pillows. I mean you kind of expect a plastic sheet to be ...

... lendemain, et tout ce que j'ai pu lire au sujet de cette rando m'a fait flipper. Donc je préfère partir bien équipée (cotton kills). Puis je me ballade le long de la rivière Waikato jusqu'aux Huka Falls, qui n'ont vraiment rien d'exceptionnel (je m'attendais à une fabuleuse cascade, et en fait ce n'est qu'une zone plus étroite de la rivière ce qui implique que le courant y est beaucoup plus fort). Cependant le petit chemin (1h aller ...

... pretty town overlooking the largest lake in New Zealand just in time for lunch. After calling at the i-Site to book ourselves on the Tongariro Crossing the next day, we parked by the shore. There we beat a determined-lookin elderly couple (who arrived a few moments after us) to the only bench and ate a pleasant lunch in the sun before calling down at the beach for a quick walk. We'd read that the beaches of the lake were littered with incredibly light pumice stone from the ...

Huka Falls After this we headed off to drive to Huka falls. The river actually is forced in a small enclave and hence becomes extra powerful in this area. big amounts of water gushing through, and apparently being used to turn turbines to generate electricity. Didn't see any sight of engines, but the sight of the falls was quite amazing. Stonegrill by Lake Taupo We headed down Lake Taupo, and it was ...

... Champ with a big punch. <br><br> <br><br>We grabbed a very nice pizza on the way home (from a charmingly named establishment as you can see above!), and took it back to our hostel. <br><br>When she shut her eyes Katie's eyes wouldn't stop watering due to the sulphur/mud that I mentioned earlier, but ...

... found out 2 minutes later that a camera shop would have written it off for me then and there without me having to send it home... grrrr damn them - stupid insurance people and forms.... Saturday 10th This was just a boring wander around town day again, we walked to the lake and saw this golf thingy where you had to hit a ball on to a platform out in the water and you won money... but that was about it. On the evening, we went out for drinks ...