Taupo to the South Island

After a night camped out by Lake Taupo we woke early and headed for the volcano museum. After watching mini volcanos errupt, films of earthquakes and a display about the volcano we wanted to climb in the next few days errupting in 1995, 1996 and 2006, I found a computer with info on recent earthquakes and found that there had been a fairly big one on the 17th October 2007 which we didn't even feel. It caused a few medium sized landslides on the South island and we should have felt it on the North island but we didn't even notice, how rubbish!

Next stop was the Aratiatia Rapids...or lack of them! The Aratiatia Rapids was a section of ferocious white water on the Aratiatia River...that was before they built a hydro-electric dam right before them! However, they have to open the dam three times a day to stop it from over-flowing, so you get to stand on a lookout over a landscape of huge boulders and watch a gate open and a huge wave of water rush along, covering everything! A very cool site to see!

The book mentioned a 'hot water beach', a small area of sand on the bank of Lake Taopo which is heated by the volcanic rocks just below the surface. This meant that all we had to do was dig a big hole in the sand until we hit water to have our own personal hot water spa!! We spent the cold afternoon relaxing on the beach with our feet in toasty hot water admiring the snow covered mountains in the distance...

The next day we headed off to Mount Ruapehu and were hoping to climb it but the weather was bad so it wasn't looking like we were going to be able to. Visiting the information center confirmed the fact that we couldn't go up as there had been volcanic activity and they were advising people not to climb to the top incase there was an erruption!! So we had a long drive down to the windy capitol of Wellington and spent the night just North at a campsite in the green countryside.

First thing we did in Wellington was visit the botanical gardens, which covered a small hill, to see the view over the city. After that we visited the three buildings that make up NZ's houses of parliament and managed to get a tour around them! We weren't allowed to take any photos but some of the rooms we were allowed to go into included their version of the house of commons, house of lords and a committee debating room. The main building is called 'The Beehive', because that is what it looks like, and was designed by British architect Sir Basil Spence.

That afternoon we visited the Te Papa Museum, a huge free museum of everything Kiwi, from ancient mouri history to the day the Europeans arrived and up to the present day! That night we viewed the glowing lights of the city from a lookout on the top of a large hill, the next day we'd be making the trip to the South Island...






Aratiatia Rapids, pre soaking...



As soon as the gates opened a big pool built up at the top of the rapids...



...and began to crash down over the rocks...



...and on...



...until the rapids were really flowing!



The dam gates



The view of some snowy peaks from the hot water beach across Lake Taupo



The Beehive



The middle of the three parliamentary buildings, Parliament House



The Parliamentary Library



Wellington at night