New Zealand - Day 5 - Taupo

December 22, 2018

Woke up at 6 to the sound of the waves and the sun rise - an amazing place to wake up.

Breakfast all together in the van and then the kids went to play on the playground while we prepared the camper. Refilled the fresh water tank, emptied the grey water tank on the grass in front of the site.

Diana and I took a walk along the beach - stunning.

Got going by 9:30. Headed back the way we’d came from yesterday, filling up with diesel at the BP garage as the price looked pretty good - turns out every other garage we pass throughout the day is cheaper.

Stopped at the Okere Falls Store an hour later for coffee, a gourmet sausage roll and ice cream.

Next up the Countdown supermarket in Rotorua. Traffic was pretty busy and the town was bigger than we expected. Shopped at Countdown buying all the essentials I’d forgotten the first time (seems the family has different ideas as to what is essential - beers not on the list apparently), washing up liquid, soap, toilet paper and bought more food for the next few days. Alex found himself a ball and Bella bought a cute toy.

Back on the road straight to Huka prawn park, another 1 hour drive. Late lunch at the restaurant - prawns no less. Really tasty.

Afterwards we went fishing for prawns, about an hour. No luck. Then finished the self guided tour, playing with the water toys and feeding the trout.

Onto Huka falls 3 mins along the road. Easy parking and a 1 min walk to the falls followed by 10 minutes along the side to see the end of the falls but the view wasn’t as good from there. Beautiful coloured water and really powerful water.

Next to find a camp site for the night. First place which was our pre-researched back up option felt like a music festival and that a rave might breakout any minute - decided it wasn’t for us. Went in to the next option which was by lake Taupo. Found a decent spot close to the lake and setup nibbles and some NZ sparking wine, the sun was really hot and we were sweltering without shade.

We let the kids go and play on the beach and Alex immediately created a goal and wanted to play football with his new ball.

We decided to take a swim in the lake to cool off. Really refreshing and again beautiful clear water. Afterwards a penalty shoot out on the beach between Alex and me.

Back to the camper to set up the bbq and make dinner. Chicken, burgers and NZ wine. After dinner sand castles and some music in the camper, remembering to turn off the speaker this time!

Tomorrow we plan to cycle and swim and then it’s the long drive down to Wellington to meet up with Craig and his boys.

Distance traveled today: 168km

Grand total: 594km