Lake Taupo

Lance Here:

Our weekend in Taupo on February 21st was the epitome of making lemonade out of lemons.  As some of you know, I’m on a job that takes place in Hamilton, so I’m down in Hammy Town quite often.  For those of you who don’t know a lot about Hamilton, I can tell you that it’s the Dairy Capitol of the World. Enough said.  It’s essentially rural Wisconsin.  It’s located a little bit north of the middle of the North Island, and as a result, we figured it would be a good jumping off point for a weekend trip a little further south.  Maggie and I heard Taupo was worth a trip and I wanted to make the most of being down in Ham Town.  As a result, Maggie and James joined me on Thursday down in Hamilton and stayed overnight until I was done with work on Friday.

Side note by Maggie:  I was so proud of myself for being prepared to take in the sights of Hamilton before I left Auckland.  I had my list of things to do in Hamilton and time on my hands while Lance was working.  But by the end of my stay my list was useless, my time sapped, and I had nothing to show for it.  Being the genius that I am, I decided I didn't need to bring the pack n' play down with me because the bach we rented in Taupo provided one and we could suck it up and have James sleep with us for the one night in Hamilton.  What I didn't think about was nap time.  A small hotel room and cranky baby with nowhere to confine him was a nightmare.  I spent three hours trying to get Crankster McGee down for a nap, and by the time that was over with, half of the locations on my list were closed because apparently no one wants to do anything in Hamilton, NZ after 3 pm.  Museum- closed.  Chocolate shop- closed.  Meat pie shop (yes it was on my list)- closed.  Botanic Gardens- most gardens closed for a festival (except the large field the woman at the ticket booth showed me, trying to be helpful).  City park- fenced off for Cricket World Cup.
Day number two wasn't much better, especially since I didn't have anywhere to go now that we were checked out of the hotel.  I spent most of my day at Hamilton Lake, which was actually a great walking track with a rockin' playground.  I think we watched the ducks swarm hapless children who dared to bring loaves of bread for about 30 minutes.  And I also ran away from some rather aggressive pukeko that chased me down the path, legs going so fast they looked like cartoon windmills.  Hamilton won't be going down in the books as a successful trip for me.

Back to Lance.  On Friday we headed south to Taupo.  When we got into Taupo the weather was beautiful and we took in a little scenery downtown, taking James out to eat along the water.

The next morning we woke up early to try and do a long hike along the lake.  We decided to do a nice path along some of the cliffs from Kinloch to Kawakawa Bay.  Overall, the hike was about 20 km and we ended up at the bay, but since the weather wasn't the greatest and the hike was mostly forest, we weren't afforded the best views.  We made our way back to the house after the long hike and let James crawl around as he had desired to do all day.  We again went out to eat on the water and enjoyed the shelter overhead as the rain came through.

 

We then decided to rest up from the hike at some hotsprings.  A company made a quasi-water park out of the natural hot springs that dot the area, complete with a waterslide.  I forgot to mention that Lake Taupo was formed many years ago whem the volcano under Taupo blew up with an explosion far greater than any volcano in modern day.  On Wikipedia it’s labelled as a super volcano.  James had a blast in the hot springs and got some great swimming experiences alongside mom and dad.  The hot springs were a great relaxing break after a day of hiking.

The next day James got up early so I took him for a run along Lake Taupo and admired the clear views of Tongariro National Park on the other side of the lake.  After coming back and waking up Maggie we went on a boat cruise across the lake and took in the Maori art carvings on the other side of the lake.  They look old, but they were actually carved in the 70s.  We took in the beautiful views of the lake and the nice carvings and then headed to Huka Falls.

To me, this was one of the nicest aspects of Lake Taupo.  The Huka Falls are located a few miles north of the lake and form a canyon where the lake water flows into the Waikato River (NZ’s largest River).  Because of the canyon effect and the narrowing of the river, the water gushes forth in a violent jet stream into the river levels below.  It was a unique site as these falls happen in a horizontal manner compared to the vertical nature of most waterfalls.  After taking in the falls it started to rain again and we made our way back to Auckland.