As we left Rotorua we decided to make one more stop to experience the geothermal activity which had amazed us so much. We had heard about a place called Kerosene Creek where the river is so warm it feels like your in a bath. We made it there after a bumpy 2km dive on a rough gravel track and were pleased to see it didn’t look that busy. We got changed into our swimmers and made our way down to the waters edge, the moment of testing the water temperature had arrived and to our surprise it was not luke warm but almost too hot just like a freshly run bath. We swam around, took some photo’s and enjoyed the hot waterfall for about an hour. It was only after leaving Kerosene Creek that we realised we smelled faintly of sulphur, but it was a small price to pay and was easily fixed with a hot shower and lots of shower gel later.

We carried on making our way down to the north point of Lake Taupo and stopped for some lunch at a scenic lookout overlooking the lake. This gave us our first glimpse of Mt Doom (Mt Ngauruhoe) and a snow capped peaks of Mount Tongariro and Mount Ruapehu. This made the view all the more breathtaking and was a perfect spot for lunch in the sunshine.

Having taken some pictures and finished our lunch we continued on our way and stopped off at Huka falls, a section of the Waikato river which empties out of Lake Taupo. At this particular spot the river is squeezed between two rock faces, funneling it into a powerful raging torrent of rapids and finally over Huka falls. A height of 9 meters may not sound that impressive but 220,000 cubic litres of water every second does sound impressive. Just to give you an idea thats enough to fill seven olympic sized swimming pools in 1 minute. After seeing the falls we took a stroll up river, at which point Simon thought it would be a good idea to go down the bank and into the river for a better photo. This is when he fell into the water, hilarious. Once, a now soaking wet, Simon had extracted himself from the river we carried on up the river and marvelled at how crystal clear the water was. You could see the bottom two meters down!

On our way once again we found our accommodation and then headed straight back out again to get a closer look at the lake. We found a nice spot of grass just above the small sandy beach and plonked ourselves down to read for a bit in the afternoon sun with an ice cream. We were going to go for a swim in the lake however, the water didn’t look the cleanest and was very cold so we decided a little paddle would suffice.

 

The next day we caught up on some personal admin and then headed to the other side of the holiday park to the Taupo DeBretts Thermal Spa where we spent the next three hours enjoying the various different mineral pools, Jacuzzi baths and Simon’s favourite the hydro slides. The water park was made up of different temperature mineral pools the hottests being 40 degree C the lowest being at 28 degree C we elected not to stay in the 40 degree pool for very long it was just too hot. For the most part we had all three water slides to ourselves until later on when a Korean tour group of about 50 turned up and took over the place. At this point we decide to leave. We had a very relaxing afternoon and the best bit of it was that we got the tickets through Bookme.co.nz which made the entry very cheap.

After our very relaxing afternoon we headed back down to Lake Taupo to have a walk and see if we fancied any of the restaurants for dinner. We haven’t been eating out often, choosing to cook in the camper or in the holiday park kitchens instead, but when we really like a place we like to have a meal there. We found a place called The Lakehouse, which had a perfect view over the lake and out to the Tongariro mountains. Also, they offered stone cooked meats, which my Mum and Dad had suggested we tried. I ordered a 300g steak. Yummy! It was the best steak I ever had! It comes out on a piping hot rock pretty much raw and you have to cut it up and cook it however you like it. Medium rare for me! It was like butter it just melted in your mouth. Simon had a really tasty burger as well and we were both very happy. After our meal we went for a walk along the river and lake, took some photos and just enjoyed the evening. Taupo is the first place that we felt we could have spent a little bit longer, but unfortunately we had more places to visit.

The next day we were heading out for some White Water Rafting. Again, we had found this experience on bookme.co.nz which offers activities at around a 30-50% discount. We would be rafting down the Tongariro River, which was a grade 3. Having never rafted before, we decided to not go for a higher grade, but in hindsight I know I could have managed it, feeling like this was a little tame at times. Our guide told us about a place south of Christchurch which he would recommend if we would like to go again. We will keep our eyes out for some more good deals! The whole experience was great fun. We got dressed up in an impressive number of layers (it was raining) and had our safety briefing.

Unfortunately, this is when we found out that the Tongariro Alpine Crossing that we had planned for the next day was going to be cancelled due to the weather. Boo!!! It was one of the top activities I wanted to complete on the North Island so I was pretty gutted. Simon I think was a little relieved that he wouldn’t have to be walking 19.4km on his Saturday morning. The worst part of it was that it was also cancelled for the day after that which meant we definitely wouldn’t be able to do it as we had a deadline to catch the ferry. We decided that after rafting we would need to formulate a new plan for the next few days, but were pretty annoyed that we wouldn’t be getting up close and personal with Mount Doom.

We headed off for 2 hours on the water of bumpy and wet fun! We learnt quickly and the guide said that Simon and I were naturals, easily being able to manage the higher graded rapids. No-one in our group fell in luckily, but it was funny to watch the other raft get stuck a few times. Our guides told us a lot about the river on the way down and we got to see one of New Zealands rarest birds, the blue duck. There are only 2500 left in the wild and we saw a group of 4 whilst on the river. We stopped at one point for a cliff jump, which Simon and I both did. The water was BALTIC at around 8 degrees C. We had a really brilliant time and would love to have another go on the South Island so watch out for that.

It was time to reassess! We had originally planned to stay in Turangi the night before the Tongariro crossing, then stay midpoint on the way to Wellington somewhere. The weather was awful and our disappointment in now not even being able to see the volcanoes meant we wanted to leave the area. Where though? We spoke to our rafting guide and he recommended either heading West to New Plymouth or East to Napier. Napier won for 2 reasons. 1) It was the only place on the map that had sun forecasted for the next day 2) It was a little over 2 hours away whereas New Plymouth was about 4. I do feel a little bad that I didn’t go and visit the Plymouth of New Zealand, but that will have to be saved for when we come back to do the Tongariro crossing. We left for Napier a little unsure what to expect… More to follow…