nz day 4: taupo

Read:

- 'NZ Day 1' here
- 'NZ Day 2' here, here and here
- 'NZ Day 3' here
- 'NZ Day 4 Part 1' here

We set off on a four hour drive up north to Lake Taupo, the largest fresh water lake in Australasia created by the world's largest volcanic eruption in the past 5,000 years - so claimed on their official website. I was told that there was a saying that went around years ago that the Lake is bigger than Singapore, but you can never be sure now as Singapore has been continually doing land reclamation on her surrounding waters. So I did a wiki search (assuming the information there is updated) and found that the Lake has a surface area of 616sqm while Singapore's is 699sqm today up from 581sqm in the 1960s.

We did a quick pit stop somewhere along a stretch of road on State Highway 1 called the Desert Road, the only road that bisects the Rangipo Desert. It was a beautiful sunny day and we could see the snow-capped Mount Ruapehu clearly from the road. That view stirred up feelings of desire to go skiing for a couple of us.


A stylo Van walking out of the car towards the desert.


There were very few cars on the highway.


These power poles run along the entire State Highway 1 along the length of both the main islands of New Zealand.


Left: Tank tracks. It was only after we ventured by foot off the main highway to get a better view of Mount Ruapehu and back to the car that we saw and read the sign that warned drivers not to leave the car or road as that was an army exercise area.
Right: I was standing right next to and under these.


Striking poses with a mountain scene behind.


Mount Ruapehu, home to some awesome skiing and snowboarding terrain. We didn't have time to include skiing in our itinerary so I guess I'll have to try again next winter.

Our first touristy stop when we arrived in Taupo was to check out Huka Falls. There is so much to explore and do here such as walks to the Aratiatia Rapids and jet boat rides to the base of the falls but being the lazy and budget conscious tourists we were, we opted for the 1min walk to the viewpoint, snapped a few pics and left to continue our drive to the hotel.





We put up at the Wairakei Resort Hotel that has really awesome indoor hot tubs, big spacious rooms, and serves an excellent buffet dinner. We went to check out both the private and public hot springs at DeBrett's Spa Resort that was just a short drive from our hotel, where we smuggled a bottle of French Viognier in to enjoy while constantly reminding ourselves not to lower our heads into the spring to prevent meningitis before returning to our resort to attack the sumptuous buffet.


We checked into the Wairakei Resort Hotel just as the sun was setting.


The central courtyard within the resort. Every one of the rooms has a second internal door that opens up onto the courtyard. Because we seemed like the only occupants there, it would have been nice to laze around on the deck chairs in the morning to enjoy a slow leisurely breakfast in the courtyard, if only we had the luxury of time.


The two queen sized beds in our room.


We were dead tired upon arrival.

I slipped into slumberland after gorging on a few helpings of roast at the buffet with Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen playing on the TV in the room.