Lake Taupo

For some reason I had expected Lake Taupo to be a tiny settlement much like Lake Tekapo in the South Island. However, when we finally arrived here we found a large (by New Zealand's standards) city with all the popular chain shops and two supermarkets. There was even something of a 'buzzing' nightlife (again, by NZ standards). The town itself sits on the North Eastern corner of the lake so the town enjoys lake views from pretty much everywhere. Like in Rotorua, our hostel even had an outdoor spa pool.

Lake Tuapo is the geographical centre of the North Island.

This lake is the largest in Southern Hemisphere, can be seen from space and could fit Singapore inside. Kiwis are very proud of this. Amazingly, it fills a volcanic crater which is very much active! Again, I can't believe there is a city sitting on top of this and seemingly no fear about imminent eruption. They are sitting on a timebomb with no clue when it may next erupt. Apparently no one knows how deep the lake is because the furthest they can go is 500m down before the instruments become confused - the water is boiling at this depth due to volcanic activity. It's nuts.

Chris and I were to choose between one or three nights here due to the Magic bus schedule. Despite fears that we could be treading water in lava if an eruption occured, we decided to brave it and extended our stay here to three nights. This meant we could hike up Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings which you need a fully day for. In the meantime, Chris decided to make use of his child's fishing rod from Oz on a couple of occasions...

Sadly, he didn't catch a monster trout from the what is one of the trout fishing capitals of the country. Instead, he preceded to get his hook tangled in the rocks on more than one occasion leading him to go paddling for it in the lake.

Chris: "One souvenir we did walk away with was Pumice stone. The stuff that's thrown out during an eruption is everywhere and this rough, aerated rock is a welcomed tool to trampers with pretty scary feet. Pumice and ash were spewed out for 750 cubic km during the last eruption 26,500 years ago."

That evening, Karl showed his driverly kindness once more by giving us a lift down to a local pub with a few more of the Magic bus passengers. Chris was thrilled - not only did they have a meal deal (including the best bangers and mash we've tasted for a loooong time and three pints each), there was a pub quiz on.

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Huka Falls: Lake Taupo is the origin of NZ’s longest river, the Waikato, that roars through Huka falls and carries on all the way up to Auckland. We stopped here on the way to Taupo and were told that 20000L cubed water per second travels through these falls.