New Zealand Explorer Motorhome Tour - Days 13-14

At Waiotapu Lady Knox Geyser very kindly (with the help of some chemistry) put on an impressive show bang on time at 10:15 after which we took the longest of the walk options around the geothermal area, past many steaming sulphurous pools.

We took our tour leader’s advice and stopped at the highly recommended Huka Falls which had a huge volume of water (up to 220,000 litres per second) tumbling over the relatively small 6 metre drop of the fall. The churned up water was a stunning turquoise colour and the power of the water was dramatic, dwarfing the tourist jet boats that powered up the river.

Along the way we drove through deforested areas of pasture with young cattle grazing and passed a geothermal power station which Scoot kindly told us provides 5% of New Zealand’s electricity.

At Taupo we enjoyed beautiful views of the lake and easy parking. We noted that despite being a hugely popular holiday destination, the town had no high-rise buildings and didn’t feel over-developed. Here we made use of a free and easy to use motorhome dump point right by the lakeside, to save us some time at the campsite and to lighten our load for the journey up over the Ahimanawa Range of hills.

Sadly it clouded over and we drove through some heavy rain but still appreciated the limited views of the volcanic landscape of small, tree covered conical hills through which the road wound.

Without much warning we seized an opportunity to stop at an elevated Look Out (as the Kiwi’s call viewpoints) and discovered the tumbling water of Waipunga Falls. After a quick snap of the camera, the rain drove us back into the motorhome and we continued on our way to Napier.

Our Napier campsite is busy this Labour Day weekend with families and youngsters competing in a Youth Football Tournament. Napier was rebuilt in the Art Deco style following an earthquake in 1931 which killed 250 people and is considered to be one of the world's two best-preserved Art Deco towns. We managed to avoid the tat shops with a late afternoon walk where we could fully appreciate the architecture.