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Other entries in Taupo

Waitomo - Taupo, N.Z

Dawn woke me up this morning after getting a key from reception as she was fed up of knocking. This morning, everyone felt a little rough and we were all very tired too. We flopped onto the seats in the big green bus and headed to the Ruakuri Reserve. Unfortunatly, we didn't get the opportunity to walk to the natural limestone bridge, so I was a little disappointed. Anyway, we had a 20 minute walk following a path through the reserve that wound itself through caves and past waterfalls. It was a nice way to start the day, and good to get a bit of fresh air to clear out heads.
We headed back into Waitomo and to The Shearing Shed to watch an Ankora Rabbit being shorn. It was cruel to see a rabbit tied tied up but I fully understood why they have to do this plus I admit it was quite funny when the rabbit got flipped over and roatated, a little bit like a pig being cooked over an open fire. It was an interesting experience.
Ant, one of the guys on our bus, found a possum puppet in the shop and started to play and talk to it. It was hilarious to watch. Even the lady in the shop was wetting herself.. As we headed back onto the coach, Ant came trotting out of the shop with his possum friend on his hand. He had only just gone and bought it! For the next 10 minutes or so, he played with it. I can't describe how hilarious it was to watch. Anthony is a really handsome, good looking lad from Liverpool, one you would expect to see playing dirty onthe footie field, one for the ladies type of guy, to see him playing and talking to a furry possum puppet just didn't seem right! It was all wrong but yet so right, it was hilarious!!
From Waitomo, we headed to the Tongariro National Park where from a distance we caught a glimpse of the cone shaped mountain, Ngaruahoe a.k.a. Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings. Unfortunatly, there was some low clous so we only got to see the foot of the mountain.
We drove on, to a small village where we started an two hour walk to the Marokapa Falls. Apparently they are New Zealand's most spectacular waterfalls. I can't say whether they are or not as I haven't seen all the waterfalls in New Zealand! The Marokapa River bounds over three 6-12 meters falls before plummeting a spectacular 36 metres over the falls, where a fault has formed on a contact zone of limestone and igneous rock.
We arrived in Taupo and it wasn't what I was expecting at all. The lake was gigantic, O.K, Iknow it's New Zealand's largest lake but I didn't think it would be so big. It was as vast as I could see, infact it is excatly 616km squared. Oh, I found out later in the day that in fact, Lake Taupo is the largest lake in Australiasia! It is surrounded bu\y stunning snow-capped mountains and hills. The town itself is quite large and is growing fast. I was expecting Taupo to be a little bit like Wanaka, in the south island.
The lake was formed by a large volcanic eruption back around 186 AD and its full name is Taupo-nui-a-tia which means, 'great cloak of Tia', after a Maori tale.
I had decided to go on awalk in the afternoon, although tempted to do another skydive. Myself, Jacomenia and Manhurst checked in quickly, before we were drived to the Huka Falls. The Huka (foam) Falls are situated on the Waikato (flowing water) River, 2km north of Lake Taupo. What appears to have been a blasted out channel is completely natural, formed by an earthquake pulling the earth apart.
We walked along a 45 minute bridleway to get soe great vires of the falls and the river, before heading back to the falls and the beginning of the track along the river towards the town. It was a lovely walk and I enjoyed chatting to Jacomenia and Manhurst, and I felt really healthy. I miss doing regualr exercise. The all ways on the go, Kiwi Experience, doesn't provide a lot of opportunities to stay fit unless you have a lot of time in New Zealand and can afford spending time in places exploring them.
The walk from the Huka Falls down to Spa Park took an hour, from Spa Park to our hostel that was another hour and quite a boring trek. I was glad to get back to the hostel.
In the evening we headed out to an Irish Bar before finishing the night in the Holy Cow. We were all having a really great night but Martina got extremely drunk and so I had to take her 'home'. Luckily after a few chunders, she was able to get into bed and fall asleep. I waited for the others to return before heading to bed myself.

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