We woke up this morning to heavy rain, unfortunately one of us had experienced the wetness first hand in the early hours of the morning, when our roof vent started to leak on her head – poor Tracy!
We set off heading inland from Napier along the Thermal Explorer Highway, a scenic drive that would take us into the heart of the infamous geothermal heartland of NZ. It was a misty and wet drive, with undulating hills to crawl up and roll down.
A couple of wet hours later we checked into a cabin at the Great Lake Holiday Park in Taupo, and after settling into our cosy cabin we took a trip out on the lake. We boarded the Ernest Kemp, a replica steam ship that ran 2 hour scenic trips out onto the lake.
We met our skipper Errol and started out along Acacia Bay, passing some stunning properties, including Rod Stewart's old pad!
Next stop was the famous Maori Rock Carvings at Mine Bay, an impressive collection of unique carvings.
The carvings were completed over 4 summers in the late 1970s by master carver Matahi Whatataka-Brightwell. The large carving top left is the likeness of Ngatoroirangi, the visionary Maori navigator who guided the Tuwharetoa and Te Arawa tribes to the Taupo area over a thousand years ago.
In recognition of the multi cultural nature of NZ, Matahi also carved 2 smaller figures of Celtic design, which depict the south wind and a mermaid.
As we turned back towards the township we were taken across the centre of the lake – Australasia’s largest lake.
The lake was formed by a massive volcanic eruption some 26,500 years ago, the bang blew a 660-square-kilometre hole in the earth and sent ash flying all over the world, even China felt the blast. Now the crater is the huge Lake Taupo, and famous for it’s population of trout.
We travelled along the hot water beach, where you could see steam venting from the sand, and then back to the marina.
As we had the campsite to ourselves we made the most of it and took over the communal kitchen and TV lounge for the night.
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