It took us just over five hours to drive to Taupo through some wicked scenery but we (and the car) made it in one piece. The lake here is HUUUUGE and apparently you could fit the whole of Singapore into it and still have room to spare for a Nissan Sunny, oh no we still need it for now so Auckland harbour will have to do. Seriously though this part of the world is stunning and we both have totally fallen in love with Taupo. All the locals are really friendly and chatty which is such a refreshing change. Plus, the biggest shock is the amount of places which do gluten free food for Em! Just on the start of the main road in town there are 7 restaurants/cafes which we have been to which has gluten free food, plus its not the usual rock hard ruffage muffins but actual proper food. Em is beaming (and full) as we found Hell Pizza which serves the best gluten free pizza ever (actually the best pizza full stop as you'd never know it was GF)!! As well as that we also found a small but very busy cafe called Body Fuel which has tons of the best gluten free cakes ever! Sorry to go on about this but its just so cool to be able to have this much choice of places where Em can eat and really shows how bad the UK is with these sorts of things.

There is so much to do in Taupo so we've had to cram in just the key things. Without doubt the best thing we have done (apart from climbing Rangitoto) was the Rapids Jet Boat we've done. WOW! Its a 400bhp V8 Jet Boat which is designed to race through the narrow valleys and river rapids around here at speeds of over 60kph and can spin 180 degrees in its own length which is just awesome fun. We spent 35 minutes on the water and had such a blast although we got pretty wet but it was all part of it. Amazing!! Check out the cool pics we got of it.

We then went to a place called "Craters of the Moon" which is a geothermal park where lots of steam geysers and bubbling mud pools are. Really impressive place, but also quite eerie because you can see loads of steam coming out where your basically walking and can hear and see the mud in the craters boiling. One of the big craters sounded like a car jet-washer with the noise it was kicking out!! Oh yeah lets not forget the stench of rotten eggs everywhere! Mmmmmm makes you feel so sick :)

We went and had a look at the Taupo Bungy site to see if "we" as in Andy, could pluck up the courage to fall the 150ft but nah perhaps another day......yeah right!

Thursday we took a scenic boat ride out onto Lake Taupo and realized shortly after boarding maybe we should have done something more extreme because we were joined by the local old folks home on a day out. Yeah we know how to live on the wild side in New Zealand! But anyway, good job there was some stairs to the upper deck so we had that all to ourselves :) It was actually pretty good though and we got to hear the history of Lake Taupo and how its still and active volcano under all the water, plus got to see some cool Maori rock carvings. Also, Lake Taupo is extremely clear and never ever gets murky because its so deep and its all volcanic pumice. The river we went on for the Rapids Jet was the same thing, because its all volcanic stone it doesn't get dirty to the water is crystal clear.... nice little fact there. And last bit of trivia, Lake Taupo was formed 2500 years ago when the volcano here blew its top in the biggest eruption in human history, and the hole it created is what formed the lake, plus scientists know its still active because at the bottom of the lake which is 600ft deep, the water is 40oC!!! :)

Thats it for Taupo. Its a gorgeous place and if we could stay longer we would, but tomorrow we head North to Rotorua which should be fun, that is if Emma can keep her stomach together as Rotorua is known for a constant smell of rotten eggs from all the volcanic activity there giving out the sulphur dioxide gas. Mmmmmmmm nice, can't wait!

Hope everyone is doing OK and enjoyed the UK bank holiday.

x