I made it to Wellington to partake in some of the weekend festival activities with my friend and then I was on the road again, this time North to Taupo to meet up with some friends I met while I was in Paihia. Taupo, basically in the centre of the North Island, is a nice little town at the edge of Lake Taupo with a plethora of activities to partake in, as well as many beautiful natural sites to see. We found, in my opinion the perfect spot at Reid's Farm Free Campground. We were situated right next to the river, where we have perfect views of the sunrise, sunset and the incredible star filled night sky. There is a dam upstream which is used for hydroelectricity so each day we would wake up to find the river at a completely different level from what we saw before retiring for the night. The river proved to be great fun, and on more than one sunny day, there was a unanimous decision to waste the day lazying around the camp site, jumping in and out of the river, letting the blazing sun give us a good air dry before jumping back into the swift, cool river. Pure comfort. And hey, who does like being greeted by a group of quacky ducks upon exiting your tent every morning.
I ventured to Huka Falls, Craters of the Moon, which was an underwhelming geothermic site not worth the $8 we paid to walk around in the scorching sun for an hour, the free hot springs, went kayaking and even made a few trips in to the local Salvation Army to see what kind of deals we could find to stock up our camp site. It was easy to spend a whole week here. It was amazing how time seemed to stand still when surrounded by good people, beautiful nature and are relaxed beyond belief.
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| Huka Falls |
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Craters of the Moon
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I made it to Wellington to partake in some of the weekend festival activities with my friend and then I was on the road again, this time North to Taupo to meet up with some friends I met while I was in Paihia. Taupo, basically in the centre of the North Island, is a nice little town at the edge of Lake Taupo with a plethora of activities to partake in, as well as many beautiful natural sites to see. We found, in my opinion the perfect spot at Reid's Farm Free Campground. We were situated right next to the river, where we have perfect views of the sunrise, sunset and the incredible star filled night sky. There is a dam upstream which is used for hydroelectricity so each day we would wake up to find the river at a completely different level from what we saw before retiring for the night. The river proved to be great fun, and on more than one sunny day, there was a unanimous decision to waste the day lazying around the camp site, jumping in and out of the river, letting the blazing sun give us a good air dry before jumping back into the swift, cool river. Pure comfort. And hey, who does like being greeted by a group of quacky ducks upon exiting your tent every morning.
Wow...Craters of the Moon sure looks different than Craters of the Moon in Idaho. Do you remember that area?
ReplyDeleteThat rushing water is gorgeous...and the ducks :)...so wonderful to wake up to that. For us here it's the roosters...
ReplyDeleteSounds like a wonderful pace of life and the water looks so inviting. I think that's kinda how we were meant to live or at least closer to the ideal than the frantic pace that most North Americans live at.