Taupo - a few relaxed days

Hello dear ones,

Since the weather is still not very good, Lina and I have already retreated to bed. We quickly took advantage of a rain break and converted the car, and now we are waiting to get tired and fall asleep... until then, I thought I'd catch up with my blog and quickly tell you about our time in Taupo.

As we already wrote in the last blog, we took a hostel room in Taupo and drove there after our little bathing adventure on the Tongario Crossing. On the way to the hostel, we accidentally found out that Irene, from the Abel Tasman Track, is also in Taupo and on her way to free hot pools. So as soon as we arrived at our hostel, we quickly put our things in the room, put on our bathing suits, and went to the hot pools. It's absolutely impressive that there is something like this in the great outdoors and it's also free. You can imagine it like this: in a park, a small creek with warm water flows into small pools over several waterfalls, which then meet a larger and colder river. And we met Irene in one of those little pools. It was simply heavenly to sit in the warm water and slowly warm up again. So we sat there for at least an hour and talked about the past few days and our experiences. After we were warm enough, we went back to the hostel and took a shower. After that, we felt better and Lina started cooking a warm soup for us, while I threw our completely soaked clothes into the laundry. Since many of the things couldn't go in the dryer, unfortunately, we had to occupy all the hooks in the room to dry our clothes. Well, it happens. ;-) After a delicious dinner, we retreated to our room and had some conversations with our roommates and planned the next day before going to sleep.

The next morning (Saturday, October 7th), we got up comfortably and went to the local market after a delicious breakfast. There were so many stalls with all kinds of delicious things and also some interesting crafts. Then we strolled to the iSite and got advice there about possible activities. After that, we strolled through the city a bit and visited some souvenir shops before heading back to the hostel and the car. Then we went to the Huka Falls. Impressive waterfalls that may not be very high, but are incredibly powerful. After walking around there for a while, we went to the Aratiatia Rapids. There's a dam there that is opened several times a day, bringing new life to these rapids. Luckily, Lina saw from the car that there was an observation point where you could see the dam and watch as the rapids filled up at the lower end. Between the two photos I'm posting, there's a 5-minute difference. After we had seen enough, we also visited some interesting crafts attractions. There was a glassblowing studio with beautiful vases and other hand-blown items. Next, we went to a honey store, where you could taste both honey and honey wine. There were incredibly many things to buy that had to do with honey. And you could try things for free. Jackpot. On the way there, we also discovered a small cafe where you could taste chocolate for free. Of course, we had to go there too. On the way back home, we also passed a viewpoint from which you could look at a geothermal heating plant. Back at the hostel, we didn't do much except drink tea and chat a bit. In the evening, we had another cozy evening and went to bed early to fight off the cold from our Tongario adventure. That's why the tea ;-)

The next morning, it was time to leave Taupo. After doing a little shopping, we set off for Napier on the coast. But I'll tell you about that in the next blog post.

Until then,

Your Jessi