Great Lake Taupo

For our first day in Taupo it was a beautiful day so we headed to one of New Zealand's most photographed spots, Huka Falls. The area is criss crossed with various walking tracks but with limited time we chose to head straight for the main attraction, the waterfalls themselves. They were only a short 15 minute drive from the centre of town and as we arrived at the car park full of coaches and buses we realised it was going to be busy, and it certainly was.

A short stroll along a paved path took us to a concrete bridge over the canyon that funnels the water towards the falls at a rate of 220,000 litres per second. Let's just focus on that fact - enough water passes the falls to fill an Olympic swimming pool every ELEVEN SECONDS!! Even with the sound of other visitors the gushing water sounded powerful, and we walked around the falls to a few viewpoints to admire the sheer power of the water that carved it's way through the rockface. From the car park we also found a short walk down a dirt track that led to the other side of the river from where the 100s of tourists were, giving a great view of the incredibly blue coloured water without the crowds!

We headed back into the town centre for a relaxed light lunch before we walked along the lake's edge to the marina where we boarded Barbary II, the sail boat that would be taking us around the lake for the afternoon. At 40 feet long there was plenty of space for the 16 or so passengers and two crew to move around and once the electric motor had taken us out of the marina the sails were released and the motor switched off, giving us the sound of only the splashing water and wind whipping in the canvas - very serene. Our destination was the far side of the lake and would take us approximately 40 minutes to reach and as we begun the journey the skipper quipped that it was typical of the wind to be against the direction of where we were sailing, however it meant we experienced the boat tacking it's way across the water. As the boat sailed we were free to move about the boat, including right to the pulpit out over the water - cue 'My Heart Will Go On' for our Titanic moment (no icebergs here, thankfully!)

Our destination was a series of Maori rock carvings that are made into the rocks that rise from the water at the edge of the lake. When we arrived there the water was busy with a number of other boats, many of which were anchored and the passengers had emptied into the water to swim or float about, making it a hard task for the boat to be manouvered close enough for us to get a good look at the carvings, although the skipper managed well. We were disappointed to find that the carvings have very little history, having been carved by some trippy art students in the '70s as a tourist attraction but they were certainly impressive to look at from the water. Moreover, the semi-clad woman standing infront of some of the most impressive of the carvings for the whole 2 minutes the boat was kept infront of the carvings did ruin our view!

The boat moved a few hundred metres away from the carvings before the skipper hooked a small ladder onto the side of the boat and told us we could swim off the boat. As soon as we were ready we were in - I climbed to the highest part of the bow before jumping in, while Beth chose the not-so-exhilirating climb down the ladder into the cool water. It was really refreshing and the water was so clear, it felt like we could see metres below where we were swimming. We'd have liked longer in the water (than the 5 minutes we had been given) however were called back to the boat by the skipper for the sail back to the marina.

We hadn't been overwhelmed by Taupo, largely because of a rather tacky, rough feel to the place so we felt happy to be moving on the following day, with only a short journey and plenty of stops on the way so we set off early to make the most of another beautiful summer day.

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