Solly & Jude & The World: From Rotorua to Napier

Saturday February 27th

Got up bright and early despite the fact that Dave had gone out late doing star photos in the low light pollution sky near the Blue Lake. We had breakfast and left the campsite for Te Puia, one of the local geothermal centres. Deciding against the guided tour, we used the enormous map to take ourselves round all the bubbling mud pools, dormant craters, boiling water and geysers. We waited around to see the Pohutu geyser do it's rather impressive thing with jets of steam at least 15m high for a good few minutes. Nice.

The Pohutu Geyser

The cafe was closed and we bypassed the main local craft and cultural areas in order to be on our way, having decided to drop into whatever took our fancy next along the road.

Weirdly, the next place that did, just a short drive down the highway was Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland. We grabbed a bite (and Dave tried the Spearmint milkshake) and headed out for the 30 minute (shortest) walk round. it was most impressive; some similar mud pools and steamy areas as Te Puia, but a few delightfully colourful pools and one massively stunning area of multi-coloured pools/edges/terraces with a beautiful turquoise pool off to the side with a vivid orange/terracotta edging. The whole place was a bit whiffy after a while, but amazing and very photogenic, as was the brightly sulphur yellow Devil's Bath at the end of the path.

The Artist's Palette

The Champagne Pool

The Devil's Bath

We left Wai-O-Tapu and headed towards Taupo and yet another Top10 holiday park. A quick and easy drive, we stopped briefly on the way to check out Huka Falls where there are walks and opportunities to both cruise and jetboat, though we did none of those on this visit.

Huka Falls

We arrived in Taupo just after 2pm and decided to walk into town to see what was good to do. Bad decision; it was hot and a really long way an we were both struggling badly by the time we reached the river. We were able to book ourselves onto a cruise on Lake Taupo on a replica steamboat for 5pm and sat around watching the lake and the local ducks, black swans, and grebes.

The cruise was lovely with free booze (in seemingly unlimited supply judging by some of our fellow travellers' efforts) and plenty of pizza and then antipasti. The weather wasn't great, though more dull and drizzly than cold and wet, so not great for photos, and the lake itself is rather too big for scenic shots and charming vistas from on-board. The cruise was out to some Maori carvings, although these were strictly traditional only in design, having been done in the 1970s. There was a wonderful massive centrepiece surrounded by smaller symbolic pieces. The actual site was quite out of the way and only reachable by boat, but nearby was a big cliff which was obviously a draw for the local brave kids who were climbing to a range of heights and throwing themselves into the lake.

Apparently one of the stone-workers included an image of his naked girlfriend in this section.

Locals having fun at Lake Taupo

On return to town, we looked for somewhere to eat; our guidebook indicated something a bit special about the local McDonalds but we were saving that for breakfast. We chose a restaurant with space on an outside table (bearing in mind it was 7pm on Saturday) and sadly it started to rain. Luckily we were under a very protective canopy so stayed put. I chose prime beef on a hot stone - the first time I've had a meal delivered with cooking and eating instructions! The idea is that the stone is red hot, the beef is in one piece and you cut bits off and cook them as you want them. It was gorgeous and seemed fitting on our day of geothermal splendour.

We were tired, and in the persisting rain, decided to get a taxi back to the campsite. I for one was showing a few signs of insufficient suncream application, so an early night was had.

Sunday February 28th

Neither of us was overly-impressed with Taupo as a destination, aside from the lake area - which is very focussed on activities and backpackers, there didn't seem to be a huge amount on offer. We headed out to have breakfast in the quirkiest McCafes around - one with an actual DC10 parked on one side.

We had a lovely meal (such as you can at McD's - Dave) and used their wi-fi, and then watched a bit of the junior section of the Iron-Man competition which had a few of the roads closed and lots of the locals out early. We didn't see any adult competitors, presumably they'd come later.

Junior Ironmen

We managed to navigate our way out of town and along the lakeside for a few kilometres, but the lake was about 100km all round, so we decide to head back towards our planned destination for today - Napier. We stopped off at a sailing club to take some photos of the lake from somewhere other than the town.

Lake Taupo. As seen from somewhere other than the town.

We reached Napier around 1:30pm and found parking on the seafront. We walked into town, and it was just lovely, truly the Art Deco centre I had been led to believe. The tops of almost all the shops, as well as most of the town centre's important buildings - the cinema/theatre, public office, Daily Telegraph building - were all immaculate if understated Art Deco style. Throughout the town there were a few nice statues and sculptures and some lovely lettering on signs as well as embossed/tiled on pavements; altogether a real treat, with lots of photographs taken (see bottom of page).

Napier

We had a lovely late lunch, stopping in a cafe called Ujaz for salad and a falafel wrap. It was pushing 30 degrees, a bit too hot for us really, so we walked back to the van, stuck the A/C on and drove off towards Masterton (more than half way to our next major stop, Wellington). As we passed though miles and miles of vineyards, we checked the brochures and picked a DOC site which seemed a good option for an overnight stay. We only needed power to recharge the main battery every other night, and only the microwave and power points would be unavailable, so it wasn't exactly going to be slumming it! There was no reception, just an honesty box for the $12 charge, so we parked up, had tea, took a walk along the river at one end of the site, and settled in for the night surrounded by the Tararua Forest and its noisy bugs.

With no light pollution, the sky was really dark after a beautiful sunset, but during the night the wind really began to get up and we had a good couple of hours of being shaken about enough to keep us both awake.

An Aside : Birds we have seen so far.

The first few days were weird; all we saw were birds we commonly see at home - sparrows, pigeons, gulls, mallards - but after a few days we started to see some native birds as well as some we were familiar with from our trip to Australia.

Tui - biggish black birds also known as parson birds for the white sacs they have round their throats
Myna - brown and black birds with white wing stripes and a comical walk. not to be mistaken for the 'talking' mynah birds
Bell birds - like larger versions of greenfinches but with one song which sounds like R2D2
Australian harriers - lots of these big brown hawks soaring over the roads and fields
Butcher birds - big crow-like birds but with the stunning black and white colour patches of our magpies
Flycatchers - saw at least one at on a telegraph wire in Northland
Black swans - swans. But black.
Little grebes, maybe - in the estuary at Taupo
Lots of different types of shags and cormorants
Loads of herons, smaller than our grey herons
Kiwi - it might seem like a cheat, but for a rare nocturnal bird, the only realistic chance of seeing one is in captivity. At Te Puia they had a lovely night-house with two of them; they're bigger than I expected, look furry rather than feathery, are quite quick on their feet and were busy actively rooting around in the bark floor in the infra-red lit enclosure with their massive long beaks (unless you're a QI fan!)
Weka - probably, near Russell, with it's chicken-like legs and brown feathers
Pukako - or swamphens are a bit like much bigger moorhens but a mixture of black and blue with a bright red beak. My favourites.
Oystercatchers - specifically these are called 'variable' oystercatchers which is odd as they are totally black apart from their red beaks and eyes.
Pied stilts - a pair seen wading near the sailing club we stopped at outside Taupo
Gannets - during the Bay of Islands cruise, along with Dave's Blue Penguin sighting