First thing in the morning, Doug & Craig went to pick up our Rental vehicle. Craig offered to be our driver for our entire journey as long as he had Doug as navigator. That was awesome, because it was going to be challenging with driving on the left side of the road and the right side of the car. Craig was willing to take that challenge because he felt bad that he didn't help with any of the planning- a fair trade. We had requested the biggest vehicle that was available, which was a KIA Carnival SUV. Doug had figured out how much it would hold ahead of time and that dictated the size & amount of allowed luggage for all of us: one hard sided case medium size and a backpack. The KIA takes Diesel which here on the other side of the world, Diesel is cheaper than gas. We love NZer's accent and their different words for items, like that cooler in the above photo is a "Chilly Bin".
The first stop after heading south out of Auckland was the small town of Tirau. It was an unplanned stop; we made Craig turn around as we drove through the town because they had the most delightful roof & lawn decorations. These sculptures were made out of corrugated metal. Some were as large as a building, Others were adorning the roof of businesses.
Once in the country, we drove into forests of green fir, fern and palm trees with rolling grass hills. After driving a few hours, we stopped at Huka Falls where the Waikato River, which is NZ's longest river, enters a shallow ravine of hard volcanic rock. The effect is a wide deep, clear blue rush of water cascading down 11 meters at a great speed. It was misty and drizzly but we hiked the tree lined trail to the bridge that crosses above the falls.
We drove into the town of Lake Taupo where we were booked into the upscale Hilton for the next 2 nights. The Touring Company reserved us the 3 bedroom suite-it was amazing. There were 2 balconies, one looking out over the pool and the other looking out to beautiful Taupo Lake. Our suite was 2000 sq. feet with a full kitchen and 2 full baths with heated floors. This was one of the last minute alternate locations since we were not able to travel north. A few of us went grocery shopping, while Cheryl & I organized and let a bird in through the sliding glass doors. We had it shooed out in no time. We ordered pizza for dinner. Craig was our evening entertainment while unwinding & drinking some wine. Craig was so happy which led to his best laughing jag after Doug told us our next stay would be in "Charlies Econo Lodge".
Breakfast was compliments of Craig, not only is he our Driver, he's our Chef too. He made us all Egg McCraig's and they were delicious. After breakfast, we drove to Wai-o-Tapu Geothermal Park. We saw Mineral Pools, Craters and Sulphur springs. Gravel paths wound around these hot geothermal pools which spewed many rainbow colors, steam and not so pleasant fragrances. This area reminded us of Yellowstone National Park. We drove back to our hotel and had a celebrity sighting. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top was standing in the driveway with his guitar. His band, and Pat Benetar were going to be performing in the Summer Tour of NZ concert that night in town and they were staying at our hotel.
After a quick lunch in our suite, we walked next door to DeBretts Hot Springs Resort & Spa. The Touring Co. had booked a private enclosed mineral pool for all 6 of us. It was so hot, Doug & I could only stay in 15 minutes. Everyone else didn't last much longer. We relaxed in several different open air mineral pools heated by volcanic waters with different temperatures, all pretty hot. C&C and J&J found a pool with jets and enjoyed that for awhile.
Our evening was topped off with a nice dinner @ the Hilton Restaurant. We even dressed up in hopes of seeing more celebrities. We didn't see anyone else we recognized but we did a great job of entertaining ourselves, as usual.
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