Lake Taupo and around

As it was very hot, on Sunday the weather changed completely and gotcold (around 10-12degrees) and rainy over night. We were wonderingwhat to do but still went on the planned lake-tour to the modern Maorirock carvings (partially in the rain, but on a lovely replica of a1920-steam-boat ). The carvings on a rock around Lake Taupo (the biggest lake in the Northern Island, with 60km length and 42 kmwidth), accessible only by water, were worth it:-)

A rabbit camping with us:)

Trying to escape the cloudy weather we drove to Napier (known as an art-deco town on the East coast). Nico was very happy as this region is famous with its wineries (he made wine-tasting in 2 places), myself enjoyed the fruit orchards and had juicy New Zealand apples, yummy apricots, sweet cherries, fresh avocados.

I saw an avocado tree:))

On Tuesday, being eager to see some more nature beauty we decided to give it a second chance and go for a scenic flight over the 3 sacred mounta ins 100 km south of Taupo. The three still active (and nowadays supervised by scientists) volcanoes Mt Ruapehu, Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngaruhoe rising up to 2797 m are famous for the great view of their peaks and the alpine lakes in between, they have been also used as a scenery for the movie "The Lord of the rings". Unfortunately when we got to the tiny airport next to the mountains the weather was sooo foggy and rainy, the sky completely cloudy and all peaks were invisible, so no at all a time for flying:( Indeed I start to believe that one can have all 4 seasons in one day here (as the locals tend to describe the unpredictable and changing weather of the islands).

Comparing this green country with Australia we have to say that we were (negatively) suprised that people are less friendly and relaxed than down under (of course we met some really nice people, but in general they are rare). On the road one can experience a mix of Dutch ignorance of rules and Italian craziness, not to best thing to have on mostly turning roads with road works every 5 km ( and especially when you drive a 5,30 m long x 2,70 high box on wheels)...

Mud, geysers and sulfur

The Saturday was sooo hoooooooooot day-not sure if the weather got warmer or just the soil really heated up because of the fact that we arrived in the geothermal heart of the Northern Island! The Rotorua-Taupo region (Taupo Volcanic Zone) lies on the Pacific "Ring of fire", which marks in NZ the boundary between the Pacific and the India/Australia tectonic plates. In non-scientific words once around Rotorua (or afterwards on the thermal highway to the lake of Taupo) it smells like sulphur everywhere, one can see the rocks smoke and from time to time some geysers go up...

We visited the youngest geothermal area in the world (as they claimed it here), Waimangu. It was a 10-km-walk within a fern-rainforest sighting some impressive white silica terraces, bubling green-orange pools and steaming rocks. On the way to Lake Taupo we stopped in the Honey Factory "Bee Hive" where a delicious honey tasting took place, now we have 2 pots of New Zealand honey in the camper :)

The cicada above sings lovely and one can hear it almost everywhere in the forests in NZ.

The day before in Rotorua we were lucky to see the eruption of the Hoputu-geyser (after almost one hour wait). Half of day was spent in Te Puia, a Maori place in the middle of a geothermal area next to the city, incl. live Maori weaving and wood carving. We finally met the famous kiwi (the bird), which looks very cute, but can not fly. A nice stroll in the afternoon in the Government Garden in front of the BathHouse of Rotorua (looking for some shady place). The sun is (I do believe it now!) even worse than in Australia. Even if it gets fresh in the night, once the sun is out, its like burning and hitting at the same time. I never experienced sunshine that feels like a burn at 7.30 pm!

The Maori carver above is especially for Robert + Denise:)a pic from a real local...