Lake Taupo
Trip Start
Nov 12, 2007
1
18
40
Trip End
Aug 01, 2008
Lake Taupo,
New Zealand
Thursday, January 31, 2008
As this is NZ you can't just enjoy a stroll alongside the lake - there are advertisements for all the adrenalin options available to you during your stay. As we ambled along, we came across the 'hole in one golf challenge'. This involved hitting a golf ball from the elevated shoreline to a floating target 110 yards out on the water. If you got a hole in one then you won $5000 dollars. Cue Rob........but no hole in one. Even if anyone had been able to hit the target, it was hard to imagine the ball staying on the surface and not bouncing straight off into the lake again, but apparently it has been done.
As Rob had failed to claim the life assurance after our kayaking trip, he decided to get me on the water again. this time in a jet boat. To be honest, I was a little apprehensive but when I saw two under 10s getting on with us, I had to up my game.
We chose the Huka Falls jet. The jet boat takes you, at speed, to the Aratiatia Dam then back the other way to the Huka Falls.
Champagne Lake
When I say at speed, it travels about 50mph but not in a straight line. The drivers swerve round trees and branches in the water and what feels dangerously close to the vegetation and cliffs alongside the river. It feels like there is only millimetres to spare. If that wasn't enough, straight after breakfast, they then do 360 degree spins. The spins were ok, the hardest thing was having the wind rushing at your face the whole time. However, the Huka falls were impressive and we got up fairly It wasn't as frightening as I expected and although, they gave us spray coats, we didn't get too wet either.After a hurried lunch back at the motel, we headed down to the boat harbour for a more relaxed water experience. We took a lake cruise for two and a half hours round to see some modern maori rock carvings on the lakeside that aren't accessible by land. We chose to go on a boat called the Barbary which was a motor and sailing boat. There were only 6 passengers on board so it was a very quiet outing. The wind was strong so it was a bit choppy going out, so they had to use the motor, but on the way back they hoisted the sails and turned off the engine and we quietly cruised back down the lake. Neither Rob or I have ever been on a sailing boat before. As all the passengers were new to sailing, the skipper kept it fairly tame so that he wouldn't put us all off. The boat was once owned by Errol Flynn who won it in a card game. It had raced all over the world and when it was badly damaged in the 1970s, after losing its moorings in an Auckland storm, it was salvaged, repaired and now sails on Lake Taupo. A very civilised way to spend an afternoon.
For our final day in Lake Taupo, we drove to the 'Hidden Valley"Orakei Korako which is another geothermal reserve, but you have to take a very short boat trip across the river to get to it. It is much smaller and quieter than Wai-O-Tapu in Rotorua. It was ok but as it had been very dry here, alot of the natural attractions were not at their best.
In the afternoon, we drove back to the dam to watch the gates open and see the river thunder down stream before heading back to the Huka Falls to do a walk along the river bank of the Waikato River. This is the longest river in NZ. The stretch we walked was beautiful, the water was a crystal clear turquoise in the sunshine.
We finished the day with a meal on the waterfront then watched the sun set over the Mountain peaks and lake - this is why I came to NZ.
