Day 166 - Orakei Korako thermal reserve & Waikite Valley thermal pools and campsite, North Island - Friday 30th March 2012 We chilled out in Taupo town in the morning and just had a wander around the town and the lake and then drove off toward the Aratiatia rapids; after about ten minutes we had reached our spot. Basically the Aratiatia rapids are just really very small pool / pockets of water and not very much happens until 2 o'clock when the main dam ope...

Day 165 - Lake Taupo & around, North Island - Thursday 29th March 2012 After all the excitement of "the Super Loo" the night before, we finally arose from a good night's sleep to the sun rising over Lake Taupo; not a bad view for two unemployed bums from Stoneleigh! Anyway whilst eating our breakfast of muesli with yogurt and blueberries - that we bought from a local farm, Soph was doing her "lonely Planet" bit and telling me all about th...

Day 164 -Napier & drive to Lake Taupo, North Island - Wednesday 28th March 2012 We ate our breakfast to the smell of pongy eggs (I swear we're camping next to a nuclear power station) and then drove the little way into Napier town centre. Napier, known as the Art Deco town, has an abundance of low rise art deco style buildings in the main town area; the reason for this is literally the whole of the town was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 meaning that ev...

Day 162, 163 -Wellington, North Island - Monday 26th, Tuesday 27th March 2012 I think Soph in her previous blog mentioned that we were now living in a hostel car park and that the hostel was a tad basic and shabby!? I have another word for it -dump! Not only was it a dump (or El Dumpio in Spanish!) but it had some strange guests; I'll come back to them in a minute. For some reason we decided to stay two nights at "El hostel Dumpio!" and having survived...

Day 159, 160, 161 -Havelock, The Queen Charlotte Sounds and Picton, South Island -Friday 23rd, Saturday 24th, Sunday 25th March 2012 We arrived in Havelock to glorious sun and parked up for a quick walk around the town. Havelock is really just a port town and very small, the main business seems to be its fishing industry and the catching of Green Shelled Mussels. Apparently it's the Green Shelled Mussel capital of the world, as the local sign stated on the drive...