A lot of water at Lake Taupo

We continued our trip to Lake Taupo. On the way, we stopped on the thermal baths of Takaanu. The water was naturally hot, but the surrounding was artificially made, which destroyed the atmosphere a little. Anyway, it was amazing to see the vapour of the hot water swinging in the wind. The weather was not really nice, what was actually good for the bath: it made the water feel even warmer. Sadly, the weather was still cloudy and grey, when we arrived at the Lake Taupo, so we could not see anything.

We had found a nice Hostel – the Rainbow Lodge, very much recommended. The staff was nice and helpful, everything was clean, most importantly the kitchen, beds and bathroom, and the atmosphere was very friendly and relaxed. Soon, we found a nice group of people to have a good time. Some of them were staying for longer times and worked there, some were just travelling as us, but we got along very well with everyone.

The next day, the weather still didn’t clear up. So, we followed the secret tip of our hotel to some hot pools. You have to walk for a short time to get there and then you will find some very natural hot pools. It is really just a small river with a waterfall, which caved a small pool. The water was naturally hot from the thermal activity there. It was very relaxing and we stayed there for some time. In the afternoon, we had booked a Jetboat tour. I had never heard about that before, but here it is very popular. These are some boats, which so fast that they are only a few centimetres deep in water. That makes it possible to go to extremely shallow water and to steer fast. It takes a long time to learn how to use these boats and is actually very dangerous, of you don’t be careful. The drivers do crazy stuff, to impress you and make it an adventurous experience: they will go fast, do 360 degree spins and drift very close to cliffs. It is a funny experience! The trip lead us to the famous Hukafalls, the falls with the most water running in very short time: 220. 000 litres per second. If that is not impressing, I don’t know what is! The guide told us just to imagine that 220 elephants jump down the 11 metres, to have a better idea how much mass this really is. You have to wear some ridiculous rain coats and security jackets, everyone looks similarily stupid with it.

In the evening, we did a bit slower and booked a sailing tour on the huge Taupo lake. The lake actually was created when the ancient super volcano erupted 2000 years ago, and so shaped the big and deep crater for the Taupo lake, which over the many years was filled by rain water. The lake has about the same size as Singapore: 616 square metres. The sailing trip was on a sailing boat with a local guide, who told us many stories about this region and brought us to the famous Maori Rock Carving: giant carvings in a rock on the lake side. Until today, they wonder how the Maori made them. On our way back, we saw one of the most beautiful sundowns over the lake. In total, it was a perfect day!

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