nz day 5: craters of the moon

Read:

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

On our last day in NZ (we were due to fly out before sunrise the next morning), we took some time to explore the main town of Taupo. It was surprisingly huge with many interesting shops. I was initially half expecting it to be like another Wagga Wagga but it turned out to be a lot more hip! Breakfast was heavenly at the Bodyfuel Cafe on Tongariro St. I had something really interesting - a baked tuna risotto patty and two poached eggs in a homemade hollandaise sauce. And coffee was so good I slurped down two in a row.

Somehow we found ourselves in a Pumpkin Patch shop where we spent at least an hour in. For the ignorant, it's actually a chain carrying premium kids clothing. It all started with Van wanting to get some baby clothes for her newborn niece in Singapore until we spotted a teens section. That was when we promptly forgot about the baby and went about tending to our own retail cravings as a matter of priority. There was a mega up to 60% sale going on and I got myself a colourful striped jersey, a purple long knit cardigan and a pair of hot pink tights for like fifty bucks. Below, you'll see us all decked out in our new garb, colour coordinated, as we went on to our next destination the Honey Hive where we spent at least two hours browsing through and purchasing Manuka honey, royal jelly, honey skin products and more. It felt like one of those trips I used to go on with Mum, Granny and Aunts where the focus of the holiday was to purchase as much local specialty foodstuff as possible.


Left: My cool new long cardi has two very convenient pockets for emergencies like storing half-eaten apples.
Right: The purple puff girls rawk!

Due to the lack of time, we had to can our plans to drive up further north to Rotorua and end our Taupo exploration at Craters of the Moon before embarking on the long drive down south. We did the full 45min thermal walk where we fully immersed ourselves in the sulphuric fumes spewing out of the ground, gawked at the ugly craters and shivered at the sinister boiling mud pools.


We were quite excited at the start of the walk as neither Van nor I had been in such a geothermally active area before.


We saw a lot of warning signs. It was towards the end of the day when we entered so we were quite eager to complete the walk soonest possible to avoid being trapped in!


Still quite chirpy and energetic at this stage, a far cry from our exhausted panting selves towards the end of the 45min walk. We are such unfit lazy bums.


A huge smoking crater.


A section of the footpath.


An enclosed lookout platform that allows you to look down into a deep smoking crater.


Mud pools... scary... what do you think will happen if you fall into one?


The final stretch...

We had a late homecooked dinner back in Otaki courtesy of the boy's mum before driving the last stretch back into Wellington to rest our final night at the Holdens' again. We woke before sunrise the next morning to catch our return flight to Sydney where Van and I got upgraded to business class again!

All in all, even though we passed on all the adrenaline inducing stuff we could have engaged in due to budget and time, I enjoyed myself thoroughly. There were many first time experiences for me. It would be very presumptuous of me to say I've experienced NZ or Wellington or all the areas we've visited as they were really more like touch and go affairs. As with all countries I travel to, I hope I get chances in future to really immerse myself in the local culture and way of life in NZ and to get to see more of the beautiful country.

The hospitality we received from all the accommodation, transport and meal sponsors was overwhelmingly heartwarming that I felt a bit embarrassed to be receiving so much. I hope there will be a time for me to return the welcome to our very lovely hosts in NZ if and when they ever head my way.