Woke up to a pretty cold morning at Ohakune so we had a hot breakfast. We decided to go shopping before we left as there was a merino wool outlet store in town where prices were 50% off already rock bottom prices. Gary, Jean and I all bought some articles. I am very happy with what I got and will stay nice and warm when we return to winter time in Canada. We visited the local chocolate eclair shop again before leaving Ohakune. Just down the highway at Waiouru, we stopped for a couple of hours and explored the New Zealand National War Museum. It was an amazing museum and I could have easily spent a whole day there. Especially interesting was the New Zealand participation in the battles at Gallipoli. Very sad that so many young men lost their lives due to a big blunder by the British navy in putting them ashore 3 miles from where they were supposed to land and putting them right in the area where the Turkish army was at its strongest. We then continued up #1 highway on a road known as the desert highway. What an experience that was as there was a monster cross wind blowing which threatened to blow the maggot right off the road. At 2 spots along the way, the wind was so fierce that it was blowing sand across the highway and creating sand dunes on the highway. We were very happy to get past that area even if it was incredible landscape. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop and then continued on to Taupo. We are staying in another Top 10 site and it is quite well laid out and very clean. We checked out our site and then went exploring going to Huka Falls and to a place called Craters of the Moon. It was quite a sight to see huge plumes of steam seemingly coming out from the vegetation at the latter location. There is a big power station near here that makes electricity by harnessing the geothermal activity. The power station produces 15% of New Zealand's electrical power. Huka Falls is quite a sight as all the water in the Waikoto River funnels through a very narrow chasm and then plunges over a 9 meter shelf.