New Zealand Road Trip – Rotorua to Tongariro
9th Jan. Day 9
KM Travelled today = 202.
Total KM this trip so far = 1,073
Up early as a busy day ahead, a couple of things to do in Rotorua, then a relatively short drive down to Tongariro National Park.
After breakfast, we hot-footed it over to Wai O Tapu Geothermal Wonderland for a look around the Geotherms (don’t think that’s a word) but mainly to see the Lady Knox Geyser erupt at about 10.15. Oh, forgot to say, the day at the moment was like a wet weekend in Skegness. Surely the sun will come soon!!!!
New Zealand Road Trip – Rotorua to Tongariro – One more tourist thing to do
The Geyser was good to watch, although we found out that although it erupts daily, the timings cannot be predicted, so they add Surfactant to the Geyser to induce an eruption, for us tourists!!!
After the eruption, we headed back to the Thermal Park and took a walk around, but only half of it as we had other plans for the rest of the day.
We then hit the road (still raining, obviously) to head to Taupo, our lunch stop. Amazingly, on the way, THE SUN CAME OUT AND WE ENJOYED BLUE SKIES!!!
New Zealand Road Trip – Rotorua to Tongariro – Haka Falls
We made a quick stop at Haka Falls, then into the town centre for a nice little lunch in a quirky place called Replete. We just missed out on the lunch menu, so we were stuck with the prepared food. Suzanne couldn’t have her Mussels in chilli broth, so she opted for the Mussel fritta.
I, being my usual adventurous self, had……..wait for it…….. a cheese and ham baguette, although I did have a pot of chilli dip on the side because this country appears to have never heard of mayonnaise!!!!
Anyway, after a quick walk around town, we headed south towards our overnight stop at Tongariro National Park. We couldn’t resist stopping on the way, as Taupo Lake is huge, the biggest in NZ, and some of the stops were just like stopping at a beach, great views, and at last, great weather.
Got to the accommodation at 17:30ish, for our closest call yet to Backpacker accommodation.
We were upgraded to what was quite a nice room considering. A corner room, where dominating the landscape are the dramatic volcanic mountains of Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe.
We headed off to the Chateau Tongariro for a slap up meal, then back to our Lodge for sleep as we plan a 6 am start tomorrow.
