Lake Taupo

We said goodbye to Waiheke Island on Friday morning. It really is beautiful and if you’re ever in NZ it’s worth a day trip to see the sights, or if you have the time, a longer stay to explore the beaches. Be warned, the car ferry isn’t cheap and you need to reserve ahead.

Our first stop after getting off the ferry in Auckland was to take a look at a 12V electric cooler. I found a place with them on sale and as we’re absolutely not eating out everyday so being able to keep food cold as we travel is kind of a must. We ended up buying one, with a backup battery. We can plug it into the car, run it off the external battery, or plug it into mains power. We plan to take it back to Canada and use it in our Westfalia instead of relying on the built in fridge.

The drive from Auckland to Taupo is easy. State Highway 1, the main link in NZ, has been expanded and now gets you past Hamilton to Cambridge, so a little over 100km south of Auckland or nearly half way to Taupo. As you get further south, the landscape begins to change to rolling green hills and it’s really a beautiful drive. NZ is strict on speed limits so no adding a bit more to the posted speed! The current government raised the speed limits on the smaller roads back to 100kph that had been reduced by the last government to 80. I will say that doing 100 is pretty optimistic on some of the smaller roads. One more thing about driving here, when they post a warning sign to slow down for an upcoming corner, they mean it!

We booked for 2 nights in Taupo to give us some time to explore. Cathy found a 90 minute boat trip on the lake to see some rock carvings done by a local artist. Good price and it turned out to be a great trip. The Ernest Kemp is a replica of a 1918 coastal ship that was built in 1980 and originally used further north in the Bay of Islands. It only did a couple of years there until it was brought down to Lake Taupo. The cruise was absolutely worth it. It was cool on the lake but a stunning sunny day.

After lunch, we headed out to a trail to the Huka Falls. The trail ran through a Redwood forest and was stunning. Redwoods were first introduced in the mid 1800’s but initial large scale results were not great. It’s only since smaller private growers have got involved has there been som success with sustainable growth.

The Huka Falls are the largest falls on the Waikato River. The Waikato is the longest river in NZ and with a number of hydro electric dams it provides a significant part of New Zealands electricity needs.

Next stop Palmerston North to spend Christmas and New Years with friends.