Lake Taupo and Surroundings

Admittedly, we didn't do much research about New Zealand before our departure (somehow time ran faster than expected and the preparations are not to be underestimated). We rented out our apartment, so we had to get all of our stuff out. It's amazing what accumulates in an apartment over the years. The boxes had to be transported to our parents' place. With a small Golf, that quickly became a few trips. A hospital stay added to it all, which put our planned departure on the line. In the end, everyone was on edge, but everything worked out :D

Long story short :D there were still things we wanted to do. One of them was the Tongariro Crossing (there will be a separate article about that) and for that, we had to drive to Lake Taupo.

Lake Taupo is the crater lake of a volcano that collapsed about 26,500 years ago, and with the size of Singapore, it is the largest lake in the country. Especially in this geologically active region, there are numerous geothermal features such as volcanoes, hot springs, geysers, and volcanic lakes.

All of this can be admired in various geothermal parks. We chose Orakei Korako for that. You are taken there by boat and can freely explore the park. Everywhere, things are simmering and steaming, the small lakes and rocks have the craziest colors, and it smells like sulfur.

Another special experience were the Hot Thermal Pools in Wairakei. We only arrived there in the evening because in the morning we noticed that something had leaked in the car. It was the water tanks. With all the gravel roads here, the car is naturally shaken vigorously, and it seems that something had splashed out. So the whole carpet in the kitchen was wet and it spread into the interior. So we had no choice but to cut out the wet carpet. For that, we had to dismantle half the car. When that was done, we went to the car wash to vacuum the interior and spray it with "New Car Scent". This option is always available right at the vacuum cleaner station here. You can spray the interior with a small "gun" with fragrance. Whether it really smells good is a matter of debate :D but it was definitely better than the musty smell of the carpet. So the car was fresh again and we could finally go to the pools.

There were 4 different pools, each with different temperatures, all naturally heated. The hottest pool had 40°C, which is quite a good bathtub temperature :D So the day ended on a good (and hot) note :)