I arrived in Taupo on my own. I walked to the hostel with a guy I'd met on the bus, and checked in to room: a 6 bed mixed dorm. I had no idea when Meryn was arriving, just that she was in the same hostel as me. From what I had seen of Taupo by the time I had walked the 20 minutes to my hostel, I loved it. The lake was the dominating feature and there's nothing I don't love about a city by water. The weather quickly declined as the week went on but we were lucky to have one clear day on the day we left to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. There was one crossover day when all three of us were in the same hostel, before Meryn left for Gisborne.
Taupo was the first place I visited that I felt like I didn't have enough time in. So much so that I actually cancelled my travel plans for the rest of the week in order to stay there longer. I was originally planning to go down to National Park and do the Tongariro Crossing from there. I found out that I could do it from Taupo, and staying in Taupo meant Tom could do it with me, and it was a no-brainer in the face of all that. I cancelled everything, extended my stay, and Tom and I left Taupo together one rainy Monday a few days after that.
That lake was stunning. On a clear day you could see a snow capped mountain in the distance (you can just about see it in this photo but it was so much clearer in real life!). The lake was huge as well. I think it's something like 200km around? You can actually cycle it as part of an organised cycling event that was taking place the weekend after we left. Apparently Lake Taupo is a volcanic crater, formed when the largest eruption is 70,000 years came out of it about 26,000 years ago. This fact absolutely blew Tom's mind and he spent a long time trying to wrap his head around what that could even look like.
I think my only real regret from this trip is that I don't have enough money to try all of the wonderful little cafes that are dotted around New Zealand, especially as they all offer soya milk. If I ever come back that will be top of my list of things to do: map out my journey with all the coffee shops I have stopped in.
My first day in Taupo was blessed with utterly gorgeous weather. Meryn and I seized the opportunity to walk to Hukka Falls together. We had views like this for the whole 5 miles of walking to the falls. Would you look at how clear that water is? And how blue! I haven't touched the colour up on this photo at all, it really was as amazing as it looks right there.
Hukka Falls is my favourite waterfall I've seen here so far. I couldn't wrap my head around how powerful it looked. Just look at that water behind me! Once again none of the photos I have do it any kind of justice. The contrast of all that green with the brightest blue as well... It was just beautiful.
While the waterfall was definitely worth the walk in the heat, even the difficult uphill bits, by the time we were making our way back Meryn and I were struggling. We found a bit of flat rock just off from the track and quickly sat down to dunk our feet in the water. Which was freezing. Meryn's feet quickly went numb and there was a worrying few minutes where she couldn't move them from cold. We couldn't quite believe the people we saw swimming in there after that. I mean, there's a refreshing dip of your feet to cool you down, and then there's potentially giving yourself hypothermia...
Taupo was the last place we saw Finn and Emily before they flew to Australia for the next leg of their round the world trip. We met them in Auckland, spent a few days together in Paihia, and then we said goodbye in an Irish pub in Taupo. It never gets easier saying goodbye to people out here, especially as it comes with the thought that you may never see them ever again. You have to just ignore that though otherwise you'll spend all your time in a pit of doom and gloom! We had a really fun evening with them, and we hope they're having the best time in Australia right now!
Who says you can't eat well on a budget! Those beef sausages were life itself. We were obsessed with them. They were on offer for pretty much the whole time we were in Gisborne and then again in Taupo so we ate them as often as we could. They went so well with that Tiger Bread as well!
This photo makes me laugh so much. Look how terrible our connection was! In the end we had to settle for a phone call over wifi because we just couldn't deal with the crappy connection. Only 88 days until this is real life and not over a computer screen though!!!!!!!
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