We had booked a Jetboat ride on the Waikato river. Jane was a little nervous about this after seeing the videos. But I managed to convince her and we made out way back up to Taupō. Again signage was lacking and Google was taking us deep into the hinterland.
The Waikato is New Zealand’s longest river and the only river to drain out of lake Taupō. The jet boat operator, “Rapids Jet”, was right where it was supposed to been and spent the next 40 minutes zooming up and down the river with lots of spins.
Simon, our driver was excellent with a dry sense of humour. He pointed out at Hobbit filming location along the way. Seems like Peter Jackson used the whole of New Zealand as his canvas. It was a thrilling ride in beautiful surroundings. Jane loved it!
We went back into the town of Taupō and explored the Otumuheke Stream. The stream is geothermally heated and flows into the Waikato. We found several locals bathing in the warm pools. Jane and I had a short dip. The stream was the starting point for the Huka Falls trail. 5 km return walk seemed like a good idea. A trail along a river, how hard would that be? Quite hard for us unfit people it turns out. It took us 3 hours with many steep ups and downs. The river and forest banks were stunning though and the Huka Falls at the end were impressive. On the way back, the thing that kept me going was the promise of an ice cream. When we finally completed it, to my dismay, the kiosk had a sign informing us: “No Ice Cream Today”.
We had a late lunch at Waterside in the Taupō foreshore where there was indeed “Fush and Chups” on the menu. Still sooking about missing out on my ice cream, I made up for it with a large local lager. We drove back to Turangi after a tiring but fulfilling day.
We decided to have a rest day seeing the weather forecast said it was supposed to rain all day. We did some laundry, some photo editing and writing. I got my drone in the air and took some quick snaps of the resort. There are “No Drones” signs everywhere in New Zealand. Such a pity because there is so much opportunity for stunning aerial shots. I wasn’t even sure I was allowed to fly it over the lodge.
We got a little stir crazy by the afternoon and noticed it hadn’t been raining much at all. We ventured out to see the hot pools quite close the town centre, These were like those in Rotorua, only less volatile. They were indeed hot though. We googled a place for dinner overlooking the lake and found Oreti Restaurant. It did have nice views of the lake. The food was just ok.
Day eight was a day for chasing waterfalls. As mentioned before Jane and I are not hikers, so we looked for an easy walk. Taranki Falls in the Tongariro National Park was a 6 km round trip graded “easy”. That looked good to us. On the way we could visit Ketetahi Falls. As we turned off the highway we were greeted by a gruff road official, oddly with a guitar around his neck. He asked us where we are going, I said down to see the waterfall. He said there are no waterfalls down that track. He seemed offended when I questioned him – I’d done my research ok, buddy. Anyway, he didn’t allow us down the road, so we pressed onto Taranaki.
We found the track’s start point but had to go back to park the car. I was thinking “hmm, I think this is adding another 600m to the trek. That could be significant.” I also scanned for ice cream outlets. None.
Nonetheless, we pushed on with the 3km hike to the falls. It was quite an easy walk with plains with light scrub, descending down into river valleys with lush jungle vegetation. The ups and downs weren’t challenging with wooden steps installed. We reached the falls in quite good time and spent 15 minutes taking photos. We were jealous of the people that had enough foresight to bring a packed lunch. The falls were quite high and impressive. The trip back was a bit more tiring and seemed to take longer, plus it was drizzling with rain. But we managed it! Even the extra bit to the car park was achieved. Time for lunch though. We fund a pub, Schnapps Bar in a town called “National Park”. I’d seen signs for National Park, and I knew we were in a National Park (Tongariro) so it was mildly confusing. The beer and fish and chips went down a treat. That was enough waterfall adventure for us, so we headed back to Turangi.
Day nine was our last full day on the North Island. We had to deliver the car to Wellington the next day before our flight to Queenstown. We left Turangi early. It was a four-hour drive to Wellington and we wanted to spend as much time as we could in the capital. The drive out of Turangi was wet and misty. I knew we were passing some pretty big volcanoes, but with the fog and rain they were invisible. An hour later the weather cleared, and we were driving though some beautiful farmland. Through steep rolling hills and nice little towns. We stopped in Shannon for a coffee and pancakes.
The road into Wellington is quite spectacular through the mountains. We had to traverse out way through the centre on the city to get to our AirBnB on the other side of the airport. We skirted the Basin Reserve where Australia will be playing New Zealand in the first cricket test in a few day’s time. Unfortunately, I was going to miss it.
The weather in Wellington was sunny making the city quite picturesque. We found our AirBnB digs and unloaded our gear. We then thought it was a good idea to drive back into the city. We wanted take the cable car to take some photos from up high. Finding a car park was a challenge. We found one and ending up spending $25 for 3 hours. Seemed like we got ripped off. In hindsight we should have caught an Uber. The cable car was cute and interesting and we got some great views of the city. We went for a walk around the water front and looked for Cuba Street, Jane had read that Cuba street was the restaurant and bar hub and a good place to grab lunch. When we got there it was pretty dead though. Perhaps it comes alive at night. We ended up getting a chicken curry at a pub on the way back to the carpark. Back around the Basin Reserve to our accommodation.
Our accommodation in Wellington was Alex’s place in Miramar. We chose that location because of it’s proximity to the airport. We had a 8.30 am flight, but we needed to return the car at the international terminal before checking in to the domestic terminal. I wanted to allow lots of time not knowing where the car drop off point is. So we left the AirBnB around 6 am. Alex’s place was small but had everything we needed, especially super fast (around 190mbs) internet. It was separate from the main house, but didn’t stop Alex’s big labradoodle greeting us with a scary bark. He and Alex were friendly enough though. Early start the next day, dropping the car off and flying South.
Vehicle Information
Local Contact Vehicle#/Lic# QHF178
Payment Description: 23 FOCUS ST X H
HQ Fuel: UNLEADED
Fuel level Out/In: FULL FULL
Odometer In: 11205
Odometer Out: 10108
Total Kms Driven: 1097
Vehicle Condition:
In: OK
Out: OK
JellyfishKing Travel 