On The Road To Taupo

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The road to Taupo is like so many of New Zealand's roads, twisty, slow going, perched on the edges of cliffs, and narrow.  This leg of the journey was a true meander with me consulting the "free stuff book" and Mark and I ignoring its information.  We did however stop at Taihape to see the Big Gumboot.  According to the book it is a part of something called "Gumboot Lane" and represents the annual Gumboot Throwing competition. "The record for chucking one of these rubber boots is 38.66m for men and 24.92m for women."

Having seen a gumboot throwing contest during a neighborhood get together, I have come to understand just how corny and Kiwi this is.  So where is the big Gumboot? Not west off Hautapu St. into Weka St., next to Gumboot Lane, but on the highway next to the entrance to the Mt. Stewart Scenic Reserve.  It's worth the stop and the picture it creates is charming.

From there it was petrol time and where better to stop than at the petrol station with an old WWII airplane-as-a-restaurant .  This plane is a DC3 used first by the military, then by the airlines, and now gracing the carpark of this obscure station. Covered with paintings of Cookie Time cookies (the chocolate chip ones of course) and the Cookie Time monster, it was once a restaurant serving the best in cabinet food (sammys, tea, pies, and toasties). It sits unused but explorable.  Mark enjoyed a bit of time in the cockpit and I checked out the kitchen, the dining area, and the signage.  On the sign, note the creative use of hyphenation.

Our short stay in Taupo gave us just enough time to take an extensive walk around the city on our first night, enjoying the lovely park downtown and a beer at one of the establishments that does stay open beyond 6:00.  Note that all over New Zealand, places of business close promptly at 5:00 and open yet again at say 10:00.  Except bars that go until 5:00AM.

The next day we started out early to the Spa Park to Huka Falls track.  Near the beginning of the track along the Waikato River is a place where very hot water spills into the river.  We took our togs and had a leisurely dip.  Well as leisurely as skin-scalding hot water allows for.  While there we met a young American man who had been traveling around New Zealand for several weeks on his bike and was seriously thinking about moving here.  He was a triathlete as well as geothermal engineer (and probably some kind of superhero in his downtime) and loved the rough and ready lifestyle that NZ could provide.

The track to the falls is a steady climb though not particularly steep, but a decent pair of hiking shoes does help. It follows the river rising above it and providing beautiful views below.  The swirling water, the kayakers and roar of the falls in the distance.  And us forgetting to use our camera. 

Huka Falls are used to generate electricity in some elaborate scheme involving the dam another hour up the track.  I skimmed the info provided and just enjoyed the view and remarkable color of the falls. Here we did employ our camera, but as with most of our pictures, they are crap enough to warrant a dope slap from a real photographer.

What's next?  Craters of the Moon according to the sign, plunging us into a track next to the main road, hidden by the bush.  This track is also shared by mountain bikes.  Emerging from the track we found a tourist helicopter business but no craters of the moon.  But then the rains came.  Ducking into the cafe that is part of the helicopter place we had lunch and tried to wait out the rain, as did a lot of other travelers.  The rain continued, we caught a tourist shuttle back to town and walked around looking for some kind of rain ponchos to add to our kit.

We decided to take in a movie after dinner to escape the hostility of our hostel.  A bit of dessert and then a film.  Lake Taupo deserves a lot more than 1 1/2 days and I hope to return to explore much more of what it has to offer.