Day 25: Lake Taupo & Rotorua
Unfortunately, the weather did not hold out for us. Luckily, Lindsay built an extra day into the North Island itinerary (when reviewing the days, we realized the scheduled skipped from Monday to Wednesday – happy accident!) so we decided to keep going North, and circle back to Tongariro later in the week when the weather improved.
Coming around the bend, with a cloudy Lake Taupo in view. World-class trout-fishing here (but we already knew that!)
This region is the Maori cultural center of New Zealand – lots of public art on display, including a “Tongariro Crossing”
We drove though Lake Taupo and went for a short walk to the Haku Falls – the North Island’s “biggest” waterfall. We assume they are talking about volume of water, not height of the falls. The place was crowded with tourists – not sure what all the fuss was about.
Huge crowds at Haku Falls
Kayakers going over the falls
In the afternoon, we moved on to Rotorua to visit Te Puia – a Maori cultural center & Te Whakarewarewa Thermal Valley with the largest geyser in the area.
Pohutu Geyser – a natural geyser that erupts approximately every 60-90 minutes (unlike another in the area which are “soaped” to go off at exactly 10:30AM)
While admiring the scenery, this random group of Chinese tourists comes up to us and asks to take a group photo – WITH US IN IT – wtf?
Maori totems start appearing in the forest as we walk closer to the cultural side of Te Puia. Next to the maere house, a storage house carved for the 1906 World Exhibition
Details of the carved storage house
Igor exploring the old Maori village
A traditional Maori canoe, and a new totem being carved by the Te Puia Wood Carving School