Evening lovelies,
Today was jam packed with adventures. Some excellent, some we can just say we have
done it. But I think you will agree that
all adventures have merit. The photo below is on our walk in Taupo. This island is privately owned
We were to leave Rotorua today and head to Taupo, and we
decided that we would do a little sight seeing on the way.
Our first stop was the Rotorua Farmers Market. We were going to try and do a little gathering
of goodies for lunch. Alas the New
Zealand idea of a Farmers Market is a little different to ours. There were lots of stalls to buy cooked food,
a number of trash and treasure stalls, but not “farm foods” as such. We are spoilt in Toowoomba with our Farmers markets.
After that we were on our way to the Buried Village. We came across two lakes on the way. The Blue Lake and the Green Lake. These two lakes are side by side with a
lookout between the two so you can see both at ones. The Blue lake is blue-ish in colour and is used
for fishing, swimming and water skiing.
The
Green Lake was kind of greenish, but is privately owned and has no fishing, no swimming
and no boating. Both very pretty we were
amazed to see the water come quite close to the waters edge.
The Buried Village is located at the site were people would
set out from to see the Pink and White Stairs.
These Stairs were proclaimed by locals as the 8th Wonder of the World. The
stairs and the village were destroyed when a volcano erupted.
Archaeologists have been working for years to
uncover the buildings and find any relics from the time. It is amazing to see what they have uncovered
so far.
 |
| mud around the sides has solidified |
One of the tracks took us along a crystal clear stream, were
there may or may not have been some trout.
We think that the stream was running far too fast for any sensible fish
to be swimming in. The track led to a
waterfall, and it was worth the puffing to get down and back up again.
Then we were off again.
This time our destination was Lava Glass. This was a little misleading as the glass is
not made from lava and why we thought it would be so makes us appear pretty
silly really. The glass was very pretty
and very very expensive. Only a short
stay there and we kept our hands in our pockets for fear of breaking something.
Off then to find our park, where we had some lunch and then
took what we were told would be a 20 minute walk along the river to the harbor. Again the water in the river was crystal
clear and looked very cold.
We got to the harbor where confirmed Rob’s birthday and
Fathers Day present for tomorrow. While
there I talked Rob into going on a twilight cruise on the lake to see the Maori
Carvings and some of the bays on the way.
As the boat left at 5pm we needed to scoot back to the van and shower
and get ready to return. Our 20 minute
walk had taken us 2 ½ hours.
The cruise left on time and it was a bit of a struggle for
the boat to get out of the river mouth. Where
the boats are moored is at the mouth of the Waikato River. This is the only river that flows out of Lake
Taupo and it goes all the way to Auckland.
At the mouth the current is very strong.
All was not calm on the lake and I feared Robbie would not last, but he was a trouper and managed to last the trip. We managed to see the Carvings that had been put into a large rock face, then made our way back along the shoreline visiting some of the bays. The views were lovely.
Things we learned today.
Trout are not native to New Zealand and it is illegal to
sell wild trout. All trout purchased are
farmed.
Lakes, especially large lakes can be rough.
You cannot make glass from lava.
Not all of New Zealand is green.
We could see snow on the mountains from Taupo.
We did not know there was an 8th wonder of the
world.
That is the end of our adventures today lovelies. Catch you tomorrow.
Rob and Lizzy
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