Taupo, Hukafalls and Mt. Ruapehu

Monday, October 19, 2015
Taupo, North Island, New Zealand
After the geothermal park we head off to Hukafalls to take on the jet boat challenge, our driver was Jeremy and quite lovely, actually gotta say, the Kiwi girls have rather nice blokes, lucky girls. 

After finding out about the 11 passengers and telling us Aussies we were from New Zealand's small west coast island he proceeded to teach us some phrases . 'Sweet as', not sweet ass like the Americans say, joining words like 'cheers' and 'brother', so when approaching a big Maori man with his arms crossed we should look him in the eye and say 'chebro' and hopefully the response is 'oh chebro'.  

Safety explained and now time for action, photos will speak for themselves but let's just say, it was Twin V8 sucking in 600 litres of water per minute, great 360s, fast, cold, wet and awesome! Lovely chicken curry with mulled wine in the restaurant and we are good to go. 

Nice drive to Taupo and after some shopping drove to the lake, very large lake and a bit blowy so looked more like a choppy ocean. Kelly cooking again tonight, hotpot she is calling Taupo surprise!  

Don't like to dwell on negatives but Taupo Top 10 was dissappointing on a few fronts, especially when all the other Top 10 Parks had been great. Taupo cost more, not many tourists..OK that's good right? Kel and I head for the hot pool which adjoins the normal temp pool, nice setup but the maintenance guys are burning off in an old cement mixer which the wind catches and deposits ash into the pool, nice one guys!  

So we head back to see how Tez is going setting up and note the outdoor timber outdoor table and bench seat is on a lean, yep my drink can't handle that, major fail guys, and so we look around and find many other vacant van sites all with lovely level timber tables....trip advisor entry!   

We set off from Taupo Tuesday, very scenic with first view of snow atop of Mt. Ruapehu and our first 'washout' on the road. For those who haven't been to NZ yet this is where half the road disappears down the mountain, roads are incredibly winding, and you shit yourself driving past praying to the gods.  Very slow trip so we are happy to arrive in Wanganui for a crisp white by th
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Comments

Elaine
2015-10-20

We loved Taupo when we visited but only did a slow boat up huka falls, slow boat far old farts lol, hope you enjoyed your Taupo stew

kazkeltel
2015-10-23

Hey, we passed that slow boat, quite a few times lol, jet boat was a hoot.

2025-02-10

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