After zonking out surprisingly early last night, I ended up waking before my alarm which was a good thing as I could sort out a few things throughout the morning. With a 7.45 departure this morning I ended up being ready much earlier than expected, so to kill time went outside and took one last walk round the sights of Wellington. The bus arrived bang on time this morning, although when finally leaving the bus was half empty. I think it has well and truly got into low season now, although a lot of people finished in Christchurch.
As we were driving the same way we came down to our overnight stop in Taupo, it was a pretty relaxing day planned. Driving along the Kapiti Coast we got cracking views of the island and when looking we could also just about make the south island! Further along the route we passed through the town of Levin where our driver told us about some old lady who refused to move when the highway was built, and sat in her porch with a shotgun. That explained the little kink in the road!
Our first stop of the day was in the small town of Bulls once again, somewhere we stopped on the way down. The names on the all the buildings still get me, which all take the mick out of the town. Even the welcome sign described the place as a town like no udder! We spent about half an hour here in the end before continuing on to our next stop in Waiouru for a toilet stop. More commonly known as a NZ military base, we only stopped here briefly for a quick toilet break.
Our drive then took us back through the central plateau and past the Tongariro National Park. We got cracking views of the imposing snow capped Mt Ruapehu, and also the one I climbed, Mt Ngaurahoe. Being about 1200m above sea level along the road, the flatlands surrounding us were used in the lord of the rings film. To make the scenes more realistic they invited the military to take part and use real violence. Apparently there were more injuries during this filming, compared to the NZ military in WW2, although I doubt this is true.
After pulling up for a photo stop en route for the mountains, we sharply dropped down to the great lake Taupo, one of the five super volcanoes in the world before beginning our drive around the mass of water larger than Singapore. We arrived into Taupo just after 2 in the end and after checking into the hostel, this time urban retreat, I headed straight out to look round the decent town. First stop was the local i site to get a little information as my plan for the afternoon was to go to the natural hotpools.
When finally working out which way to go I walked up the appropriately named Spa road before turning off into the park passed the bungy site. When finally reaching the hot pools I soon realised that hot meant warmer than cold as they really weren't bubbling like I expected. It was a nice walk round the surroundings area through the forested park. After a short walk round the area I headed down to the lakefront to watch the sunset as time was getting on by now, getting there just in time for a cracking sunset.
It was then back to the hostel where I had dinner which today was chilli con carne with tortillas. When checking in I was given the option of paying extra to have a catered dinner, which when thinking about was probably cheaper than me buying a tin of chilli! And I got proper beef mince in this one. After dinner I went out to find a few geocaches, without much success although I found 5 after walking round the marina area.
Come evening I settled down in burger king, passing the mcdonalds plane which I love! Using the free WiFi I was in here for a while with my refill cup. After eventually finishing up in here it was straight back to the hostel, although I quickly checked out the hole in one challenge on the lakefront where people were hitting balls into the lake trying to get a hole in one! When finally getting back to the hostel, most of my room were asleep, probably because most of them were doing the crossing tomorrow.
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