Taupo

We've had a great couple of days since we left Ohakune. We arrived in Taupo and found a nice campsite where we rented a caravan for 2 nights. Taupo is a lovely lakeside town with nearby thermal springs, bungy jumps and jet boat rides. We passed on the bungy and after watching a couple of people doing it it cemented in my mind that it's not for me! Taupo has the highest water-touch bungy in NZ apparently. The water that comes from Lake Taupo is completely clean and is an almost unbelievable blue-green colour. The water flowing into it runs through pumice which cleans it and stops any mud getting through which is why it is so clear. We watched the Aratiatia dam being opened and flooding the valley below and then went further downstream and got a jet boat ride which was fantastic fun! We roared up and down the river and through rapids for 40 minutes and also went through the set of a Warner Bros Yogi bear film. Later in the day we found a thermal stream which was SO hot and walked down the river to the Huka Falls. The weather has been very good which has made all our activities even more enjoyable. The mornings usually start off coldish and then by lunchtime it's hot and sunny with temperatures in the mid 20's but no humidity. This morning we left Taupo and on the way to Roterua we stopped off in Craters of the Moon which is a 40 min walk through constantly steaming craters and boiling mud pools. The smell of sulphur was sometimes a bit pongy but it was fascinating to see as I desperately tried to remember all my geography on how these things occur. We made it to Roterua this evening and are staying in another Top Ten campsite which is a chain of holiday parks/campsites that run through NZ. We have a lovely spacious cabin here with 2 rooms. The campsite has a pool and playground and all the usual things like laundry/TV room/kitchen/barbeques etc.

The campsites are great because they're quite quiet this time of year. They're all very clean and even though they're not cheap to stay in it's not like hotel prices.The one thing that none of us can really get excited about is Christmas because it just doesn’t feel like Christmas when you’re in t shirts and shorts. There are some Christmas decorations up but it doesn’t get dark till 9 so we don’t usually get to see Christmas lights because we’re often back in the campsite by then. Matthew and Emma are getting on very well together despite having to spend so much time with each other but have both said that they are missing their friends from home. School work is going fine but it’s strange to be talking about the hardships of Ireland in the 1950’s with Emma when the sun is splitting the stones outside and the swimming pool is calling.Tomorrow we will do the Luge here in Roterua and then head up towards Coromandel.
To explain, the 2 photos of the river are at the dam and there are 5 minutes between the first and second. The house one is the cabin where we stayed in Roterua and the car we bought. the one of the jet boat is actually us. We're across the second row. We were the tourist mugs who bought the CD with all the photos.