December 18th-31st

Greg Says….As I am writing this after Xmas, I hope everyone had a nice one! We all did, a bit unusual to what we are used to but nice all the same. I have to say I was homesick thinking of Ben and Harry, Mum, Sally and Tony, and all the rest of our family. We are used to seeing them all at this time.

Anyway, hopefully we have also worked out how to post pictures, so should be a bit more interesting than reading my drivel! (not that we took any festive pictures to show you!-L) . You should see a picture of our van, and of Alistair blowing his candles out on his bithday!

Anyway…..

Mon 18th…Today was special because it was Alistair’s 10th Birthday and we also met some great people, Thomas, Gila and Lisa, in the pool. They are from Speier near Heidleburg in Germany. After a pleasant introduction, and each promising to catch up later we went to Taupo. It was tipping with rain, and as we had promised to go for a Pizza. We found ourselves in Pizza Hut! After PH we went back to campsite, but couldn’t do much as the rain kept falling……so it was all in front of the telly to watch one of our many video’s. Star Wars….brilliant! Alistair had wanted to take out a go-kart at the campsite, but rain stopped play! Still I think the film made up for it a little. (We have been having trouble with the fridge, it isn’t cooling down, so took it to a garage and an hour or so later were not the wiser just a few dollars worst off, spoke to Mike in Auckland the man we bought the van from and he suggested another place, but It seemed a bit unfair to make Alistair sit in garages for all of his birthday so we will try again tomorrow-L)

Tues 19th…. Still Tipping with Rain….stayed at campsite doing Xmas Decs! (made a Christmas tree with glitter and green card, a rather travelsick Santa with a green face and put up some tinsel-it looks very nice in here—L)didn’t go anywhere due to the weather. (Also went to the other place about the fridge, firstly needed 2 new in house batteries and then were advised that as the fridge wasn’t cooling down we would probably need a new cooling unit which would cost lots and couldn’t be done until the New Year—decided to sleep on it….!!-L)

Wed 20th - Alistair finally got his wish and went on the go-kart. However he made the mistake of letting his sister, Rowena, drive, and yes you have guessed it they crashed! (For the first time in his life he has huge grazes on his knees one of the quite deep.-L) Women Drivers!!! It was still raining, so she has an excuse! Later in spite of the rain we decided to go for a walk anyway. I think someone above must have been listening because the weather changed. We walked to the Huka Falls which is where a river 100meters across and 4m deep, is compressed into a gap 2O Meters wide and 10m deep. It causes a pretty impressive water show with white water everywhere. It’s quite difficult to explain but suffice to say it’s impressive. The water in the river is very clear, and often you see right down under the surface. (on the way back from the Falls Greg, Rowena, Thomas & Lisa had a quick dip in a hot stream, which was flowing across the path, a bit too hot for Rowena—L)

Thurs 21st – By this time we had spent two nice evenings with our German friends, so we decided to the Tongariro National Park together. This is where there are three volcano’s in a row, two which are still active, they are Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro. The last eruption was in 1996 from Ruapehu.
We parked in the Whakapapa (pronounced Fokapappa) car park and started our wet walk to the Silicon Falls (4 hours round trip) with Thomas, Gila, and Lisa. After continuing through forest for about an hour the landscape changed to be a bit boggy, if you have seen the last Lord of The Rings film it’s a bit like when Froddo gets through the place where the bodies were lying in pools, on the way to his final destination. Further on it started to snow! Pretty cool as it’s summer! The Silica Falls are ledges formed by the silica in the water which seeps out of the mountain over periods of hundreds of years.(If someone had told me that I would be in NZ having a white Christmas….!!! L)

After a lovely walk, we stayed at the Discovery Lodge, We decided to have dinner at the restaurant at the campground with T,G&L. We also had brilliant views of all three volcanoes, which all snow on the top. One of which, Mount Ruapehu, was Mount Doom in Lord of The Rings.
(This weather is unseasonal- we had been hoping to do the Tongariro Northern Circuit which I did many years ago, but the weather wasn’t suitable- I have done it once in the rain don’t need to do it again. So we will have another look at it after Christmas to see if the weather improves-L)

Fri 22nd - We woke today to find a beautiful day! Strange considering not 12 hours previously there had been snow. We took a walk to the Taranaki Falls (3 hours round trip) with Thomas and family. The falls are lovely in that they drop about 40-50 meters into clear mountain water, it’s gorgeous. We said farewell to Thomas, Gila and Lisa on the mountain, hoping to meet them again in the South Island in February.
That night we stayed at the Discovery Lodge, but it didn’t fell the same. (FOR A START I HAD TO COOK DINNER THIS TIME!!!-L)

Sat 23rd – We headed back to Taupo to the De Bretts Thermal Spa Campsite. We had booked into a Cabin for 4 nights over Christmas. On the way we visited the National Trout Centre, 3 km south of Turangi. This was very interesting as we could see how big the trout can grow. We also saw an Irish Chapie pulling one out of the river. It got Alistair all excited, as he was hoping to catch one for tea, but unfortunately it’s not that easy, as it’s a different type of fishing to what we were used to, and we don’t have the right gear.
We spent that night in a proper bed for the first time since 19th November….luxury!!

Sun 24th - Got up eventually from a comfortable nights sleep, and made our way into Taupo for some last Minute Shopping. Incredible we did this quite quickly, so we went up to the Volcanic Centre to find out more about Volcano’s so that the children could write about them in one of their projects. All very complicated for me, so good luck Alistair and Rowena!
We then went to the Prawn Farm, as Alistair had heard that he could fish there…..bad luck son we got there to late to even go in, although they did let us into the café! This was nice as it was right next to the Huka Falls Jet Boat centre, so we could watch all their punters getting in and off their boats, and also see some of the stunts the drivers performed.
We came back to Taupo, where Lucy dropped me off by the Golf Challenge (they have a challenge where they have a platform on the lake with a golf hole on it. You can you shoot a ball out towards it, and if you get a hole in one you win a car or something. I haven’t had a go because I don’t want to embarrass myself with my golfing ineptitude!). I was dropped there because I wanted to start running again, so this seemed like a nice place to do this, and it was! I ran for about 3km’s along the shore, and then 2 km’s along the side of the road to the campsite.
That evening Lucy and I sat down to wrap up presents, which is more time consuming than you think! I managed to stay awake long enough to see the Xmas day begin (13 hours before you lot!), but had to endure the service from somewhere near Manchester, I was waiting for ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, but it never came! (the children had to leave their stockings in the van as they had both written to F/C to say that we were travelling in a van with a red stripe down the side!-L)

Mon 25th – (Why do they do it? Any day that you want the children to wake up early they don’t, 6.30am……Christmas day -L). After a leisurely breakfast we went to the Craters of Moon. This is a recently formed geothermal area near Taupo, When they built a new geothermal power station the water table changed and this area appeared, we thought that on Christmas day it would be nice & quiet and we would have it to ourselves.. Oh Yeah. The world and his wife were there. Anyway we had a wander around through all the hydrogen sulphide fumes and boiling mud pools, it is amazing that there are still a lot of plants that grow in this type of environment, admittedly mainly moss & algae.
When we got back to the site we went and soaked ourselves in the hot spa pools next to it. This hot spa thing is getting a bit old hat now- (oh not another spa for us to go in!!-L) Christmas Dinner was a BBQ of Venison burgers, and Lamb Chops…..very nice, after which we had to endure the Pirates of the Caribbean, at the children’s insistence.

Tues 26th – We went into Taupo (again!!) to look for a cheap Bike, as I was complaining of lack of exercise. After a fruitless search at the Warehouse (where everyone get’s a bargain – Obviously not all the time!) we found a second hand trader. There we found a bike for Adults and one for children at a very modest price. The chap we bargained with was an ex professional footballer, who played in goal for Ferecvaros (Budapest, Hungary). His name was Mike Simon, he said he had to retire early at the age of 27, due to injury, but before that he played in the European Cup! Anyway, on our way out of the shop he stopped us and offered us a trout caught from Lake Taupo. In NZ you can’t buy trout, you only eat it if you catch it or are given one. So we were given quite a prize! It was about 45 cm long, so quite a big one! As you will see later in the blog, we ate it at a BBQ with some Kiwi’s. Anyway as we now had bikes we had to use them!
We couldn’t do that today though, as we had to walk up a volcano. We drove out of Taupo and tramped up Mount Tauhara. It took us two hours to climb up through dense bush, but it was worth it once at the top, because you could see over Lake Taupo to the volcanoes in Tongariro with snow on the top….it was beautiful. Then the other way you could see all the way to Mount Edgemont, the landscape was flat until about 100 km’s north Edgemont appeared. Alistair and Rowena performed admirably, and didn’t complain, well not too much! We returned to Taupo to collapse into out beds!

Wed 27th – With our new, well old, bicycles Alistair and I rode into Taupo for a coffee. We met Lucy and Rowena at the bicycle shop, where Lucy stopped me spending too much money on cycle gear!
After this we went for a flat white, which is a strong coffee (very nice), where we met one of our fellow campers - Dave and Andrew. After our story about the trout we were invited to a BBQ at Dave’s friend Les. Les explained that they could cook the fish for us, which turned out to be a good option.
Before we went to the BBQ, Rowena (who took over from Alistair) and I rode out to Spa Park to endeavour on a cycle to the Huka Falls. I thought it would be easy, but it turned out to be a technical Mountain Biking Trail! Still we made it round. After the Huka Falls we cycled further to the Hub Café, which is where the Helicopters take off for scenic flights. Here there is a cycle tunnel under the main highway, which we wanted to try. I went through it twice, as both Alistair and Rowena wanted to go through, and Lucy wasn’t keen!
That evening we went to the BBQ at Les’, where his wife Raewyn cooked out fish. She did it in vinegar and topped it with cheese, sounds a bit funny, but tasted very nice!
Had a great time, so thanks to all those nice Kiwi’s for a nice evening.
Les is a collector of cars, and had 3 Ford Falcon’s in the garage from the 70’s, all very collectable. He also had a Mercedes SL500 Coupe which has a hard and soft top…very nice!

Thursday 28th - After a nice swim in the Top 10 hot swimming pool (lovely) we spent the driving to Wairoa…about 120 miles….200km. Nice trip through the mountains, and by the Pacific for a while, which was a beautiful blue Turquoise colour. The temperature was a lot hotter than Taupo.

Friday 29th -We left Wairoa on the road to to Lake Waikaremoana, which is a large lake in the mountains. It looks like Lake Garda when you first see it, and is a lovely blue colour when the sun is shining. The water is as clear as anything, and looks very inviting, although when you get in it it’s blooming cold! (met the sand flys again-L)
We prepared for our walk the next day by getting an early night.

Saturday 30th - We went to the Doc Office in Aniwaniwa, where we were to pick up the key’s to our craft. The trek we were going on meant we would have to walk with heavy packs up hill for an hour to another lake- Lake Waikareiti. Then go by rowing boat (rowed by ourselves) for another hour or two to our hut. If we didn’t use the boat then it would take another 3 hours walk.
We made it to the top of the hill, where we surveyed the situation. The wind was blowing hard, and we were unsure of our rowing ability. The other option was the walk with heavy packs, so we decided to try the rowing and would turn back if a problem.
Once out of the bay it was difficult rowing, but we kept going. A number of arguments about who was oaring at the right time and who was not,(Greg kept doing it wrong-!!—L) we arrived at a beautiful sandy bay with the hut front of us. The water as crystal clear, and when we got to the hut it was empty, we had found our desolation that we both wanted. Half an hour later a couple of other boats turned up with another 5 people, which was good because we met some more lovely Kiwi folk. The evening was spent trying to catch fish from the boat, after which we used our new fast boil camping stove to make our dinner.
As darkness fell a fire was lit and the children enjoyed collecting the wood to keep it going, only straying from their job to chase the rats and the possum’s away.
You can really notice the stars when you are so far way from civilisation, and time was spent looking up at them before bed.

December 31st - Up the next morning and it was the same trip but in reverse. It was sad to leave as some of the other residents were staying, and you felt like you had been voted off of Celebrity Love Island or something!
On the way back in the boat Alistair caught a Rainbow Trout, which made the trip too! Another free dinner! (We all contributed to Alistair’s success, because he caught it, I killed, Lucy and Rowena cleaned, gutted and cooked it….what a team!)
Once back at the Doc car park, we had to then travel for 75km’s on an unsealed gravel road….not very nice. We made it though after about 3 hours driving, and found a DOC campsite, which was free next to a waterfall and river.
This was New Years Eve, but we couldn’t celebrate as we normally do due to heavy rain. Heavy rain which went on and on! We were all in bed by 9.15 pm hoping that we wouldn’t be swept away! Still we had had a really good time on our latest adventure.

Postscript- I have wanted to walk around Lake Waikariomona since my aborted attempt in 1994 due to the lack of cars travelling along the unsealed road. However after reading about L.Waikariete in a mag. this sounded a less ambitious option. And I have to say that after waking up the hill to the hut with a pack with only 2dyas rations in it was a good choice. Rowena complained her pack was too heavy almost immediately but was happy once I took out her fleece and cup. Although we had told them that we were going to stay in a hut I didn’t dawn on them until we got there what it meant. Rowena was so excited and even more so when she found that the bunks were in 3 tiers .(Guess where they both wanted to sleep) I kept waking in the night and putting on the torch expecting them to be almost falling out of them.
It was a lovely spot and the next morning the lake was as flat as a mill pond, not a ripple. I really wished that we had booked to stay 2 nights.
Still never mind we still have Tongariro to try in the N. Island if the weather ever settles.
Happy New Year to one and all - Lucy