Well we got up a bit later...nice! Breakfast at home... I went for a long walk south along the lake...sooo perfect, Went to tourism office to book a steamship boat ride on Lake Taupo to Mauri rock carvings....then we strolled to Saturday markets where I bought some alpaca souls for my running shoes which are sooo comfortable and had a coffee (and apple crumble) while listening to live music...reminded us of the early days at the bribie markets! We then had a stroll down to the harbour to wait for our boat trip! Lovely day! Lake Taupo is the largest lake in Australasia caused by a gigantic volcanoes eruption in 181 AD. It is larger than Singapore...625 sq metres.. 44 metres north to south...130 metres deep...in total 60 cubic km of water! The volcano sent up ash which put the Romans and Chinese in darkness for 3 days. NZ was covered in ash to a depth of 7 metres! It was heard half way around the world! Comparatively in 1800 there was a huge volcano in Pakatorial? which killed 37,500 NZers ..it was only 20 percent the size of lake Taupo volcano...so who knows how many were killed then! There is an island in middle of lake Taupo where high priests and chiefs were buried! There is an active volcanoes today that started 2 years ago which they are watching...and a great number of dormant volcanoes around! OK...rock sculptures...carved in recent times...1938 by mauri's...not famous for age but most sculptures were on trees not rocks...so very rare...sculpture was of the chief...known as a good mimic...lines around face all represent important and women...very well done! Lots to do on lake....handicapped sailing boats, trout fishing, parasailing, canoeing, paddle boards, cycling, skydive, hiking,etc, etc