Friday 11th February

Up at 0740, breakfast at 0830, ready to leave at 0915 so a reasonable start today.  Today’s drive was scenic rather than cultural so no major stops apart from Waikiti falls in the Waikato river valley.  Not as impressive as the Canadian Falls but still good to see it.

Coffee stop at Lake Taupo.  This turned into a bit of a nightmare as we went to the coffee shop recommended by Nellie.  The coffee was great, the service was good but there was only one unisex loo so everyone ended up queuing which gave us very little time to go and actually see the lake!  The lake is absolutely huge and has a surface area greater than Singapore.  It is the result of a volcanic eruption about 1800 years ago.  Ash was ejected so high into the atmosphere that it was carried around the world, enabling historians to pinpoint the date of the eruption as 186AD- when the Chinese noted a blackening of the sky and the Romans recorded that the heavens turned blood-red.  As the underground magma chamber emptied, the roof slumped, leaving a huge steep-sided crater, since filled by, and forming part of, Lake Taupo.

Much of the North Island was covered in a thick layer of pumice.

We followed Desert Road South. The desert is actually not a desert as we know it.  They have over 40” of rain a year so even more than Manchester!  However, there is little vegetation as the soil is thin and volcanic. The road skirts the Tongariro National Park used as Mordor in Lord of The Rings which includes 3 Active Volcanoes, namely, the conical Mount Ngauruhoe, double peaked Mount Ruhapehu (which erupted in 1995 and 1996 and disrupted the skiing) and the flat topped Mount Tongariro used as Mount Doom in Lord of The Rings. 

We drove through Mangaweka which according to the guide book
“The brightly painted for of a DC3 airplane beside the highway is about the only indication that there might be a reason to stop in this dilapidated hamlet”

We didn’t stop!  Instead, our lunch stop was at a children’s farm at Flat Hills where we met Ted & Mya.

           

This proved to be a boring lunch stop as there was nothing to do if you didn’t have to wait for lunch.  We had provided our own of cereal bar and nectarine, washed down with a healthy bottle of water.  There weren’t even many animals to look at!

We dropped down off the plateau following a dramatic valley where the river had carved out a canyon with the Ruahine mountain range in the background.  As we moved further South the valley opened out and we could see why the Maoris had named the country “Land of the Long White Cloud” before the Europeans arrived and a Dutchman renamed it “New Zealand”.

We drove through the town of Bulls which would have been worth while stopping to look at the signage.  So many puns!  The local Police Station has a sign saying “ Const-a Bull”, the flower shop was “Bloom-a-Bulls”, the town hall was “Soci-a-bull” and the bank was “Bank-a bull” to name but a few.

We stopped for after noon break at Otaki at a children’s play-park and had indulgent ice creams again.
We arrived in Wellington where the traffic started to build up and booked into the Mercure hotel.  Linda needed to visit an optician to have her spectacles adjusted so we walked into the city centre.  The place was still bustling as the main shops have late opening on Friday up to 2100 although it was mainly designer shops.  After the specs were sorted we walked down to the waterfront where the grand civic buildings are situated.  The area is also the location for sculptures, fixed and ephemeral (a live event was in full flow with artists chipping away at their works of art).  An imposing one was labelled “Fruits of the Garden” (clearly representing Eden).

Back to the hotel for our last dinner with the group as we leave them after tomorrow’s coach tour of Wellington and a visit to the Museum of New Zealand, commonly called Te Papa. More of that tomorrow.