Chelmswood Manor Taupo

... front suspension like a child with a new toy and because I am easily amused, like a child it was SO MUCH FUN!
Bong bong bong!
I cycled out to a old viaduct which was impressive, I also saw two trains on the new viaduct within about 10mins which is about as rare as seeing two people in grass skirts on a bus in central London discussing chaos theory. When people ask how often a train runs here they mean a week.
Anyway the bike was ...

We woke up to an overcast day down on lake rotorua so we decided to pack camp away and head for Taupo.

On driving out of Rotorua the heavens opened and down came the rain. Knowing our heater doesnt work in the car we had to keep wiping the windscreen to see out of it when driving. By the time we had reached Taupo, Jon was sick to death of the rain cos it made the car steam up!

Anyway we parked up and went for a wander round. We ...

... I joint a tour focused on Maori history and culture.
A couple of hours before dusk I set off for a quick walk in the Whakarewarewa forest. The trail wasn't signed perfectly though, couple of times I had to guess the right direction, but successfully completed the circuit. There wasn't much to see apart from a nice city view. Other, mostly longer, tracks, are much better I suppose. In the evening I moved to ...

... out in plumes from the prickly nettle carpeting. (Manuka, Ming Ming. Umbrella Fern- which apparently can only grow because the steam is so warm)... As you walk by steam comes up in puffs that blow about for a few feet then seem to dissipate back into the field. It reminds me of children playing kick the can, running from one spot to another... or maybe that the earth here has a certain opinion of you walking on it and isn't shy to let you know. We come up to craters of foamy ...

... 30, and it takes about an hour and a half from Taupo to get there. Also, there are sidetracks, such as the one up Mount Ngauruhoe, Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings Trilogy's "Mount Doom" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Nga uruhoe). They take time, so time is of the essence. But the bus did come. The ride was pleasant enough for Kristen, she threw in her ipod headphones and slept... I sat ...

... chips and tomato sauce! Going back to the car we were plagued by bees who were really quite determined, but we managed to get into the car and off. We found the Top Ten site in Taupo, which was quite large but not very busy. Yes - it had a jumping pillow (always a hit with Steven) and it was bigger than the one in Christchurch! As we arrived we felt an imminent tent challenge coming on as it was very windy. We surveyed the other tents on ...

... away to myself, New Zealand is a beautiful country to drive through. I didn't spend a lot of time in Lake Taupo as the weather was not conducive to hanging around. I did look for the mountain as I had been reliably informed that I should see a rather large volcano there, I'm putting it down to cloud cover and not a lack of observation skills. Lake Taupo was beautiful, and given more time, I would have loved to go ...

... up to our chests (neck if you are one of the short Burnetts). The need for the jumping practice outside becomes clear as we have to jump off several ledges into underground pools. There are glow worms all along the cave roofs. At one point we emerge from a side channel into the main stream, climb onto our tubes and form an 'eel' (one behind the other floating with your feet held by the caver in front). Young German woman says to Andrew: "I must take your ankles now" which he ...

... This was a great experience and a brill laugh. After drying off, we jumped back on the bus to head to Taupo. We stopped off on the way at Waiotapu (which means sacred water) to see the boiling mud caused by the geothermal activity. At one point there was a really large blow out and the mud hit me from about 10 metres away!! It was bloody hot, but no damage done. We then stopped off at Huka Falls - not Hooker ...

... punch thrown out of pure frustration.

Eventually in the 10th round Mayweather hit him with a sweet left hook, which threw Ricky into the corner of the ring, and you knew this was it. Hatton got up looking like me at the end of the first night of my Estonian stag party! He was a mess, and sure ...