September 15, 2025
Our stay in Rotorua has come to an end. It was a lovely, fun, stay. I’m amazed by all the thermal pools and mud pots all over this city and throughout the hills. I think this island is just one large volcano. We were up early again and ready to go. Unfortunately, our host in Tapauō said that we could not get in until noon. Which was ok. But earlier would have been better. It is an hours drive between Rotorua and Taupō and we needed to be checked out of our hotel by 10 AM. We decide to leave around 9:30 and go to the main park in Rotorua and walk around. The name of the park is Kuirau Park and it has paths running all over through it. The path led to all kinds of different thermal pools and some were over 100 degrees (C). That’s super hot! We walked around for 15 to 20 minutes and then got back in the car and headed towards Tapauō. But we had some stops along the way.
Our first stop was at Huka Falls. The falls does not have a deep drop…only about 9 meters. But the beautiful clear water fell over the falls at 200,000 liters a second on average. It depended upon the people who controlled the out flow from Lake Tapauō. Anyway, it was a gorgeous place to be. As we drove in, however, there was a sign for helicopter rides starting at NZ $99…which is about $60 USD. That seemed so cheap. So we stopped in to check it out. The NZ $99 was for a 6 minute ride but they went up from there with the most expensive ride being over NZ $1000. Tight Tim said…nah…to it.
We then drove up to the entrance of Craters of the Moon…another geothermal site. We looked at the map of it and decided Hells Gate in Rotorua gave us a Craters of the Moon experience already. So we just drove through the parking lot. We were killing time until we could get into our BnB. We needed to wash clothes. So we were anxious to get there and start this process.
Once we entered Tapauō, we looked for a bakery that was the ‘leader’ in making and selling their meat pies here. ChatGPT gave me its perspective on the top bakery. So that is where we went. ChatGPT did not let us down. We found a simple bakery that had over a dozen different type meat pies to choose from. Now, this is a staple here in New Zealand and Denise had to get some. Funny was that they also had an amazing looking Satay skewer which Denise could not pass up. The pies were good but the Satay was amazing. We ate the Satay and then only part of our pies. We will finish them for breakfast tomorrow.
We finally could go to the BnB. When we arrived, I pulled into the driveway looking for a longer driveway that had a sign visitor parking. But the driveway to the side of the house was blocked by a car, which was odd. I got out to walk around and see if could see a putting green, which this BnB had and promoted. The place was kind of dumpy and clearly did not have what was advertised by AirBnb. So I went back to the car and told Denise that this is not the place. I then looked up my notes and it turned out that I had put an 82 in the address and it should have been 81. The place was across the street….and much more elegant and nice. The owner met us as we got out of the car. He had just completed a round of golf. Obviously he loves golf having a putting green as his backyard. He also showed us their hot tub that is sourced by geo thermal water. You’ll see later that Denise and I thoroughly enjoyed that hot tub.
While driving here, the day was nice. It was warm, the winds had stopped. Just a beautiful day. So back in our hotel, we booked a 2 hour boat excursion on Lake Tapauō. That was scheduled for 2 pm. So we hurried to figure out the washer/dryer combo machine and get a load in. These machines require a Rocket Scientist degree to get them right. Anyway, the laundry went in and off we went for the boat ride.
The boat ride on Ernest Kemp’s Boat Tour was fun. The bad news was that clouds had come in and the winds had picked up. It was quite cold and the water was quite rough. No problem for our Captain…just a normal day. So off we went. Our 2 hour tour took us to some Māori carvings, into some cool bays where nice homes were, etc.. What I didn’t know at the time was that we were only covering 1/10th of the lake. This lake is the largest lake in New Zealand AND AUSTRALIA. It’s huge! I think it is over 200 square miles in size. Anyway, the town of Taupō is normally around 35k in population. But in the summer, it swells to over 75k. It’s a total tourist place in the summer and I can see why. Lots to do and see. And the area is quite pretty.
After our boat ride, we came back to the BnB to get one set of clothes out and another put in. Naturally the ones in the machine were not dry. Brought back English nightmares with the machines we had there at times. Anyway, we are good at hanging the wet ones up. So in with a 2nd load, and air drying for a lot of the first. We’ll get it done.
By now it was dinner time and we decided to find some Indian food. ChatGPT gave use some recommendations. So we chose one which was about 4 minutes from the BnB. Off we went. We were not disappointed. It was a small place. But the curry we bought with garlic naan was very delicious. Denise also ordered Papadoms. Unfortunately they came with no sauces. So Denise asked what’s up. The girl said that they did not provide that. Denise gave her a sad face and she said then asked what we would like. We gave her a few suggestions and she had a few. She brought two sauces to the table and our Papadom’s were golden!
After dinner, we came back, put on our swim attire and headed to this amazing hot tub. It was very hot. But with a cold wind blowing, it felt amazing, absolutely amazing. We worried that two of us could not fit. But it fit us fine. The next worry was that all the water would rise up and drain out. But all good there. We just sat and soaked. It was lovely. Now I’m ready to go to bed. But we have laundry to do! Yuk!
Well, another day in the books. I think this is hump day for the New Zealand trip and it’s all down hill from here.
Pictures:
The hot tub!
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