We started our day with breakfast in the same cafe as yesterday, as the alternative we had fancied didn't have toast - Cerys' preferred choice this morning. We then started out, heading towards Taupō (pron. toe-paw), which was some four hours away on Highway 1.

On the whole, there seemed to be a lot more traffic around, compared to the south island, although we were also travelling a lot faster so maybe it felt like we were held up more often - rather than being the ones doing the holding up. There were also more opportunities for filling up on coffee on the way.
Our lunch stop was in a town called Bulls, where we almost laughed at all the puns used on their signs - Town Hall (socia-bull), litter bins (responsa-bull), library (read-a-bull), police station (consta-bull) etc. Actually, the police one is quite good.
Here, we almost ended up with beef mince pies instead of the Christmas variety, due to communication problems with not-very-good-English-speaking cafe staff. Though I'm not quite sure how the distinction should be made to avoid confusion.
Although we didn't stop off much on the way, there was some very varied scenery, especially once the weather cleared up and we reached the area around Lake Taupō. A lot of very sparse scrubland in a very flat landscape, which suddenly rises up to the peaks of Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu, which played the parts of Mount Doom in the LOTR trilogy.
The weather got a lot warmer around this area too, and fortunately el Cheapo was equipped with working air-con, which made things a bit more pleasant.
As we approached Taupō itself, there were some nice views of the lake - the largest in NZ, and we arrived at about 3pm, which gave us plenty of time to look around for a nice place to stay, eventually settling for the Silver Fern Lodge, cheap but cheerful, and fairly close to town.

We then headed down to the lakefront, where sailing trips were advertised going out to the Māori carvings. As there was one leaving quite soon, and they were good value for money, we thought we'd hop straight on. We chose to go on the Barbary, a beautifully restored yacht once owned by Errol Flynn, and with a history of activism with Greenpeace. It was the only sail boat on the lake with an electric motor, and so checked the green credentials checkbox too. Bill, the skipper, used to own the boat before selling it on to enjoy his semi-retirement, and had obviously lots of good experiences out at sea in his time. We got to sit on comfy beanbags, and there were complimentary drinks too, while we sailed out to see the "ancient" Māori carvings in stone - in fact they had been made by some art students in the 80's, only a couple of whom had any native ancestry. The ship's mate, a girl from England, also did some fishing while we were there and bagged a massive trout. It didn't even involve any bait or much effort! The motor had to be used for the most part, but then the wind kicked in on the return leg and we were able to sail with the wind only, tacking in against the wind for the last part.
Bought steaks in the shop on the way home, and cooked them up along with the remaining potatoes and veg in the american-diner style kitchen before turning in.