New Zealand Days 2-3: Taupo

The majority of day 2 was spent driving from Wellington to Taupo. It's about a 5 hour drive, but we took our time and stopped as often as we wanted to. The scenery must have changed 5 or 6 times from coastal backdrops, to forests, to grassy rolling hills. All of it was fabulous.

Sheep grazing. They looked very sweet.


A person in the picture in case you don't like them without.

I drove on the left-hand side of the road! It doesn't matter that I didn't have to make any turns, and it was only for about 20 minutes. I did it!

We stopped for lunch at a little place called the Brown Sugar Cafe and had yummy paninis. We ate in the garden, basking in the sun and enjoying the peace and quiet. Unfortunately, we have no picture.

Our hotel in Taupo. The people who ran the place were very nice. If you ever go to NZ, we highly recommend it.

This airplane was part of the McDonald's playland. There was a staircase up to it so the kids could actually play inside. We took a picture for the boys, but did not eat there.

Instead, we ate at the Waterside restaurant. It was delicious and we sat at a table by the window so we could see the water until it got dark. Afterward, we headed over to Kaffee Eis (pronounced "Cafe Ice", by the way). I wish we'd gotten a picture of that place too!

The Big Jump
The scenery looks innocent enough

The more daring of the two of us took a dive at Taupo Bungy (that's how they spell bungee). It was a gorgeous view!

Prepping himself -- he was pretty scared!

Getting all hooked up...

One last "yeah!" for the camera...

And he's off!

It was VERY high - over 150 feet!

After a quick stop at the hotel for some dry clothes, we hiked to Huka Falls. The trail wound through wooded areas, and hugged a cliff that overlooked the river. The weather was perfect. Am I going overboard in my descriptions? If I'm making it sound like a dream, that's because it was.

Aww, he's so cute.

We were pretty much starving by the time we hiked back to our car. It was around 3:00 and we'd hardly eaten all day. We came upon this prawn fishing place (it turned out to be the "Prawn Fishing Capital of the World"), and decided to see if they had a restaurant. We hit the jackpot, dining on scrumptious shrimp curry while enjoying the view of the river. When we go back with the kids, we plan on taking them fishing there.

After lunch, we rushed over to see the dam open. It opens up three times a day here:

Fills up here...

and gushes out on the other side of the bridge we were standing on. Don't you love the color of the water? We were trying to decide why they chose to regulate the water this way, instead of letting a little bit out constantly. Any ideas? Dad?

Next we headed over to the geo-thermal park to "Craters of the Moon". We got there just in time to walk the whole park before it closed. There was steam coming out of craters in the ground, and in some places, boiling mud. I loved the warm, steamy air.

A nice young man, who I'm fairly certain was from ___________, took our picture. His clothes were completely normal.