Today we drove down from Rotarua to the town of Taupo in the centre of the North Island. Stopping at the Geothermal site called Orakei Korako. This place was really interesting - located in a hidden valley with a lake and what looks like a glacier intruding from the rugged landscape. The glacier looking location is actually a huge geothermal park, with stained white rock, bubbelling geysers and mudpools. There is a man made wood walkway which you follow along to see all the sinkholes and sulphar rocks. Obviously the place stinks of sulphar but it was a good hour walk around the park.

From here we headed to Taupo and had lunch at the Lake with a great view of the snowcovered Mt doom range - obviously its not called that but it is what Pater Jackson used as a template for Mt Doom in the Lord of The Rings trilogy. Unfortunately the cloud cover and 8 hour hike to see the mountain range doesn't fit into our schedule - so we had to just drive by :-( (can't have everything!). The town of Taupo is very appealing, loads of coffee and food shops, cool little trinket shops and some very friendly locals. We stayed this night in a free campsite by the river.
The downside about this location is we got stuck in a pothole and had a local tow us out, our stove is blocked and doesn't work! and the Vinny decided to play up - not starting on Day 2... We have a feeling that this might be a problematic 15 days.. but we shall see.
We borrowed a stove from a fellow travelling couple and had a steak that cheered us both up... Tomorrow is another day, but Taupo and this campsite (Reids Farm) were beautiful.