We had a leisurely day on Wednesday 16 Jan. when we planned our trip we made this a 4 night stop as we thought we might need a rest!!

We walked around the lake to the town. The weather is very different here from the heat wave we had in the north. There has been a very cold wind coming off the lake and we have had to wear our jumpers!, Obviously not cold like you are experiencing, we are aware you have snow! We browsed the Taupo shops and had a coffee. The lodge has a lovely courtyard when we were able to sit, sheltered from the wind.

On Thursday we visited an outside are gallery where many items were made of mosaics. Lovely sculptures for the garden. John could only look as there is no way we can get anything like that home!,

We drove up to the Aratiatia Dam which holds back the Waikato River. It is opened 4 times a day in the summer. A parched water course is transformed into a torrent of waterfalls. it was amazing to watch. The dam is open for about 15 minutes.

Today we walked to theBotanical Reserve. No flowers - must have been splendid in early summer.

This afternoon we had a boat trip. As we got on the guy told us that the lake was very rough and although he would keep to the coast the wind and waves would cause high waves. We stuck with it. There was a lot of rolling and rocking. As we turned the peninsula to see the carvings on the rocks the boat was pitching from side to side and it was quite frightening. We felt as if the boat would roll right over. At the start a few people did get off. We began to wonder why we didn't!,

We stuck with it and are now back safe from our adventure!,

May get some pictures on Facebook but it was difficult to stand still long enough to take any.