Taupo

So after the excitement of the skydive we were able to take In the lovely town that is taupo :) taupo is home to the biggest lake in New Zealand "lake taupo!" And also a lot of Maori culture and history.

The town itself is quite small but bigger then rotorua and has a lovely selection of shops, cafés, bakeries, a cinema etc and is was nice just to take a stroll around town. We had to make a stop at the post office it had to send some cards home  and was also sending copies of our pics home on a dvd We had had made so hoped they would arrive safe and sound :) then we could free up some memory card space:) 

Our first stop was huka falls- a set of waterfalls on the Waikato river that drains lake taupo, it was beautiful ......

Anyway our days here were spent relaxing by the big lake taupo with some lunch, wondering around town, playing crazy golf and exploring. We had a lovely ensuite double room in base hostel with a lovely view of the lake :) but unfortunately being so close to a Lake we had hundreds of visitors of the insect kind in our room daily :( and also the hostel had a loud bar underneath it and we had a night club right next door to our room :( so it was at times overly noisy :( 

One of our days here we rented a car "Honda fit!" Which Luke drove and he reported it to be a good little car ! On this day we went to craters of the moon for a 45 minute walk around these craters that basically blew up steam from deep underground it was quite something....

 

 

....next stop was huka bee hive ! It was a Big shop that sold honey things and also showed you how the bees made it and you could also watch, it was very educational for us! ...

......our next stop would be a dam! Aratiatia dam!! The dam opens at certain times of the day for a few minutes and releases some water from the Waikato river which runs to turn a dry gorge into a beautiful waterfall before your eyes! It was well worth it :) ....

 

 

....this  and the last pic are the same place before and after!

Next stop was a free thermal spa! We loved a free activitie! We drove to the park, and set off for a short walk downhill to a small natural thermal area that ran into the river, it was screaming hot, Luke dipped his finger in! It was so weird to see a running little waterfall and pools of hot water in such a natural place that ran into the river! ...

....we decided that we wouldn't go In it was super busy, and we wanted to explore more! We had a bit of a playin the park!.....the grown ups that we are!....

....we drove to a look out point over the same river and it was simply stunning:) ....

We decided that after a bit more driving around exploring we would call it a night!

The next day we decided we would play a spot of golf! Crazy golf that is! It was such fun, I bought a dress that morning as it was super cheap, and got so hot half way round I decided it would be a good idea for me to change Into it! .....

Our verdict of taupo was......it was pretty good:) apart from our room being next to a club! We really enjoyed the layed back life of this little town, everything in this town cost quite a lot of money, so our budget didn't stretch to everything we wanted to do but we had a good time and loved our little car we hired from "rent a dent " a honda fit! It was a. Lovely little car :) we were excited to get to our next destination river valley :))

...our car :)

Also forgot to mention the great mc Donald's they had here it had a airplane that was Infact a kids play area! It has been voted the best mcdonalds In the world! .....

 !!!!!