Wellington to Lake Taupo

We spent most of today in the car. Elle and Luke sorted us out with some breakfast and then we hit the road. We were driving from Wellington to Lake Taupo which is about 5 hours driving. Edd was keen to start the drive and was still keen after we stopped for a food shop and lunch.

It rained most the day so we sat smug in our little campervan and the rain stopped mostly every time we tried to get out for anything. We stopped off for petrol and a man filled up our car for us. They do it for you here if they get to you before you manage to do it yourself, feels very weird and a waste of human resources. Talking of waste of human resources they also pack your bags for you at the super market, again you stand there like a lemon watching and it feels very weird.

Anyway, the man who filled up our petrol for us told us about how they had recruited lots of locals to run around on 'mount doom' (Mt Ngauruhoe) for the Lord of the rings film. He said they had run around for about 7 days pretending to be orks and then they had replicated them so he features 15times at the same time in the film.

We arrived at lake taupo, which is nice, it's huge so you can barely see the other side of the lake and the weather wasn't fantastic. We went straight to the Huka falls and were very impressed, I don't know what I was expecting but not what we saw. It's great to be able to walk over such incredibly strong rapids. 

Apparently the early Mouri proverbs read 'a little water through a lashing hole wrecks the canoes' so they stopped trying to use their boats on the falls after one of their Chiefs was nearly killed trying. The only boats that come close to the rapids are the tourist jet boats, inverted in 1950 and the high power of the water powers the boat in the opposite direction - random, kind of cool little fact.

We then went on a drive along the 'coast' (edge of the lake) but hit a dead end and decided we had done enough driving for one day (when I say we, Edd did it all, I did offer I promise!!)

We are staying in a 'top 10' campsite, we've been using them a lot but it's always surprising how much they vary. This one is impressive, it has a very hot outdoor swimming pool, we're not sure if it's natural thermal springs or just a very expensive electricity bill! 

Edd enjoyed a little dip before dinner and I sat huddled under cover in the freezing cold and rain watching my husband paddle around. I felt like I should pretend I had a kid to watch in the water! They had Disney Hercules on the big screen so I was very happy to watch Edd's stuff for him and enjoy some Disney tunes at the same time!

We are having to start planning our dinners as we only have a few left before we give back the Jucy!! Can you believe!! Tonight we had sausage, mash and baked bean sauce which was ridiculously yummy! Edd realised half way through dinner that it was Thursday so his mum and dad would be having the same at home!!