Leaving Lake Taupo Region for the East Cape

We left Turangi to drive the East Cape on the way to visit with Trevor’s folks in Tiniroto.  The drive is pretty rugged with no passing bays and quite a lot of trucks so we allowed two days for the trip with the thought that we would be stopping numerous times for sightseeing. Not only are the roads rugged (narrow, along cliff edges, across mountains) but the road itself was in pretty bad condition due to the winter weather. As you can see from the photos below, we often came to repair work because of road slippage, aka mud and rock slides.

  

As we entered Waiao Bay, we came to this beautiful church standing all alone on the sea edge. We didn’t get a picture of the sign in the church entry explaining that there was a strong and foul smell in the church because there was a nest of baby penguins under the baptismal font. Unfortunately, the penguins were actually under the floor and we couldn’t see them.

 We arrived early enough to have some time to walk the beach and watch the sunset. While the sunset was great, we were both quite taken with the enormous piece of driftwood on the beach.

Great evening clouds over the bay

On the way to Wairoa and Tiniroto, we stopped to view this church in Tikitiki.

The carving on this pew is exquisite. Note that it is inlaid with paua shell! All the pews had these colorful pillows to sit on.

This is the baptismal font

The church sits on this hill and has a view of the valley below.

Before getting to Wairoa, we came upon McNeil Road and thought about our family in Austin who lived or went to school near McNeil Road. Of course, McNeil Road in Austin is a lot busier than this one.

I'm going to stop here because my connection is getting funky. I'll post more in a little bit.

Aratiatia Rapids

The Aratiatia Rapids are two kilometers on the Waikato River. A number of years ago, the government put a power house and dam just above the falls effectively cutting off the water to the rapids. To keep the level of the dam constant, the power plant opens the control gates at various times during the day filling up the rapids again. Te gates open for 30 minutes 3 or 4 times a day. It is amazing to see the empty falls, see the gates open and the see the resulting rapids.

Looking into the pool right below the release gates

Same pond after full release from the dam

Another view of the full pond

The rapids below the upper pool - before the water release

As the released water starts to reach the lower rapids

Another view of the empty rapids

         

                                                                                       The rapids starting to fill

The photos below are a succession of the lower rapids filling

The photo to the right is wood ear fungus that was growing along the trail to the lookout over the rapids. If you've ever eaten hot and sour soup in a Chinese restaurant, you've eaten wood ear fungus. I've cooked with it but have never seen it growing.












So we leave the Lake Taupo region tomorrow and head for the East Cape. We will spend the next 2 1/2 days driving along the cape and visiting various beaches and points of interest. Our destination is Tiniroto where we will spend a few days visiting Jean and Terry (Trevor's folks.) We're spending our last night here finishing up Ernie's rainbow trout and watching the USA play Russia in the world Cup. Right now, the US is winning (10 - 3) and it's 30 minutes into the game. There's 50 more minutes of play and anything can happen. The US lost their first game but game a really good showing.

More stuff to come in a few days. Y'all take care!

Craters of the Moon

Now that we've established our fishing prowess with rainbow trout (oh yes!) and prawns (NOT!) it's time to get back to sightseeing. Since we've done the big commercial tourist thermal areas before, we decided to go to Craters of the Moon which is run by the NZ Department of Conservation and an unexploited thermal area. This doesn't means that it wasn't busy just that you don't have the gift shop from hell whose only purpose is to separate you from your money for stuff primarily made in China. This thermal area sprang up in the 1950s when the power station lowered underground water levels and reduced the pressure of the heated water causing more vigorous boiling and steam. Yes the whole area does stink from hydrogen sulfide, sulfur, and sulfur dioxide (thank you Ernie for the chemistry help.) The pctures below tell the story of what an amazing area this is.

This posting brings me up-to-date

We had scattered showers interspersed with downpours and 30 knot winds with gusts to 40 knots today. But, we’re on holiday and must continue on. We got a late start and decided to go to the prawn farm and go fishing for prawns. Not your everyday prawn, but giant Malaysian prawns. So with that information, we were all set for these killer prawns. Ernie caught 2 and that means that we caught 2. To be honest, when I looked at them, I couldn’t tell any difference from our shrimp. Nothing giant about these puppies. I understand that they have the potential for massive growth. The largest ever caught at the farm was 70 cm. So we went to the restaurant because they cook your catch and we had them cook our 2 prawns. Of course we also ordered some other food to make it all worthwhile. Even though it was cold and rainy, we had a great time. Stopped at the lookout for Huka Falls after that. We couldn’t help but think about our friends Heather and Brian who were with us 6 years ago when we saw Huka Falls for the first time. It didn’t feel right without them today!

Wow, this is a short post today! Almost feels like something is missing. Anyway, have a great day folks!

Drive from Paihia to Turangi for the next week!

Friday was a 6 – 7 hour drive to Turangi on the southern tip of Lake Taupo. Below is a picture of a road marker in Kawakawa directing visitors to the Hundertwasser Toilet Museum. The building is the only building in the southern hemisphere designed by Austrian born artist Hundertwasser and is the last building he designed before he died in 1999. Hudertwasser designed public toilets.

We were concerned about the drive through Auckland because the opening ceremonies and game of the Rugby World Cup was to be held that afternoon/evening in Auckland. While traffic going into Auckland from the west was really bad, our trip in the other direction was pretty uneventful. Thank goodness!Arrived in Turangi and found our resort. After talking with the host at the condos and getting info on local restaurants, we unpacked and went for supper at Valentinos. The restaurant (Italian cuisine)came highly recommended. While we were excited about ‘good’ Italian food, we were a little leery that it wouldn’t live up to the hype. It turns out that the chef is from a small town outside of Venice and he insists on staying true to the recipes he learned from his mother. His Italian product is imported and his bar is even stocked with true Italian aperitifs, wines and digestives. What an amazing evening! This was the best Italian food we’ve had since returning from Italy! We talked with the owners and several staff members for a while after our dinner. We left the restaurant and were walking down the stair to the parking lot when one of the ladies that served us came running down the stairs after us. We thought we left something but she wanted to give me something. She handed me a necklace of the Maori symbol representing the mountain overlooking and protecting Turangi. She said she loved my spirit and wanted to share that with me. When we told the host at the condo, she was quite surprised and said that was something very special and something not often done. For some reason, our spirits connected and that is very important to the Maori people.

We settled down in the resort lounge with several other folks, a bottle of wine and the TV to watch the opening game of the Rugby World Cup. The New Zealand All-Blacks creamed the Tonga team. It was nice watching the game with folks that really understand rugby rules and they could explain some of the finer points of the game as well as provide player info.

We drove to Rotorua on Saturday to go to our first World Cup game – Fiji vs. Namibia. It was expected to be a very one-sided game with Fiji dominating throughout, but Namibia held it’s own for a while. Ultimately, Fiji won. What a game, very physical and or so much fun!

An avid Namibia supporter

Ernie at his first Rugby World Cup game

All the games have been opening with a performance by a Maori warrior

The teams at attention while their national anthems are sung

This is the Rugby World Cup

Ernie went fishing for trout this morning on Lake Taupo. He expected to be out for 3 hours but actually returned after only 2 hours. It appears that he caught his limit (3) in the two hours. His total catch of 3 rainbow trout weighed about 10 lbs. So, guess what we’re having for supper tonight and again later this week! Check out his fish:

Well, that’s all for now folks! It’s pouring down rain and we have decided to hunker down and watch rugby games today. Going to have some shrimp and linguini along with pan fried trout for supper.

Y’all take care!