Flag Rsrt Wairakei Resort Taupo

Left Camp site around 12:00 PM aiming to go to Cape Kidnappers to see Gannet Colony only to find that this place is private property, so again we couldn't get in!! So instead headed off towards Taupo via Napier; There are some seriously steep hills coming over the Maungaharuru and ...

... for some reason I just didn't get as anxious as I was expecting to. I think years of looking forward to doing this overtook the more natural desire for self-preservation. This was going to be fun! Wasn't it? The girl behind the desk mentioned that I may need a change of clothes as it got pretty cold up there. “Clothes?” I said “change of pants is what I'm going to need!” and I laughed and laughed and laughed and then realised she had walked ...

... spas and use the water for their heating. I developed a very nasty eye infection and had to see a local doctor, I look as if I have been punched in the eye! Most annoying. Its very cold here, and was minus one this Thursday morning, I have felt the cold here far more than in South Island! Today we went to Rotorua, stopping at hot springs on the way, its fascinating to see the steam rising and the mud bubbling away. After a look around the town of Rotorua and ...

... the plains and Lake Taupo on the other side. I made it to the Ketetahi hut half way down the other side. Here I was intending to continue down to the ccar park and try and blag a lift with the buses back to Whakapapa village. As it was such a great day I decided to walk back over the crossing. One thing about this walk is that everybody walks in the same direction to get picked up on the other ...

... my fist through a wall. BUT, we made the best of a less than ideal situation. We had on all of our hiking gear, our boots, our camelbaks, the hiking sticks. We looked ridiculous by NZ standards where apparently all anyone ever needs is "trainers" and it's "ok to look the part," but certainly not necessary. Yeah...whatever. So we heard that you could hike up Mt. Tuahara outside of town. It was about a 2 hour round trip from the trail head ...

... town and later on took a great hike to Huka Falls, which was a raging section of the Waikato river. The next morning we decided to try out Taupo Bungy. Since you get a discount if you jump before 11am, we were there bright and early at 9am, and were going to be the first to jump that day. I went first while Jaime was ...

29th December 2009 - Biggest Lake in NZ So with aching limbs after the previous days walk, we headed off nice and early to Lake Taupo, NZ's biggest lake. It was a great way to see it as we came from the far side of the lake heading for the town of Taupo so we got to drive all around one side of the lake. The views were pretty impressive, although there was some drizzle in the air which was not ideal. We ...

... by an earthquake in 1930. The town was completely rebuilt in the following 3 years, mostly using Art Deco designs. We stopped here for the night and did the 'Lonely Planet' walk around the pick of the bunch. Next stop was Rotorua, the worst smelling town i've ever been to! This is because it is one of the most thermally active places in the world, the amount of sulphur in the air makes the whole town smell of rotten eggs. Here i did a grade 5 white water ...

... a gorge at a phenomenal rate and volume (in 2 seconds enough water passes through the falls to fill and Olympic sized swimming pool!) I was totally awestruck and got very excited by it - I felt I could have watched it for days - so powerful and magnificant. It's a nice day in Taupo today, which means... skydiving! We pulled up at Skydive Taupo and 8 (out of 12) of us decided to jump out of a plane 12,000ft in the air! I also decided that if I was going to do it, I ...

... gezegd dat ik stevige schoenen aan moest doen, dus had ik mijn wandelschoenen aangedaan. Maar volgens Volker waren deze veels te zwaar, naast de kans dat er een touwtje van de parachute aan een van de haakjes vast kon komen zitten. Dat werd dus springen met blote voeten. Hihi, volgens mij kon dat nog best wel eens grappig zijn... Goed, overal aan, harnas aan, een korte instructie (ik moest een bananenhouding aannemen als we sprongen; voeten naar achteren omhoog en mijn ...