hello everyone!

Kei te pehea koutou?

we're now in Taupo!

we drove in to Taupo on the busiest day of the year, the annual cycle around lake Taupo, which is something like 160Km (about 100 miles). the roads were full of cyclists and its was really busy.

we actually felt pretty active and decided to take a "hike" up to Huka Falls, its
about a 2 hour round trip and the walking path runs along the Waikato River.
some of the views of the river and forestry are amazing, the river looks so nice
and refreshing. rhi made ham sandwiches for lunch, sorry mam but they were nicer than yours...
the rapids and the Huka Falls are an awesome sight and they look so powerful. there should be a few photos in the album. we picked a beautiful day to go for a walk, the sun was shining all day and it was boiling. after the "hike", i had to jump into the river and it was soo cold but soo nice at the same time. rhi opted to watch.

the views of the lake and moutains in the background are breathtaking, it seems to be wherever you go in New Zealand there is a kodak moment!

unfortunately the past two days the weather has changed for the worse and its been wet, so we've doing some reading in the camper and popping out for the occassional walk about the main streets of Taupo. we had lovely scrambled egg, bacon on toast and in the evening we went for Thai. we found a free camping area about 5 minutes drive outside of the town center and stayed there for two nights, then showered in public showers for a cost of $2. we cooked our first "meal" on our gas cooker, chicken flavoured noodles!! it took about 30 minutes for the water to boil and 2 minute noodles turned out to be 6-8 minute noodles. and for dessert chocolate mud cake
...which we couldnt stop eating.

we were going to Napier but instead we are making our way directly to the Wellington
area, passing Tongariro national park where mt tongariro, mt ngauruhoe (aka mt doom, from Lord of the Rings) and mt Ruapehu. before visiting the wellington city area, we are gonna spend some time on the Kapiti coast to visit the beaches and hopefully learn to surf.

phil and rhi

xxxxxx