I arrived at my campsite on Monday afternoon and set up camp and I was surprised at the amount of people there. But most of them were pretty quiet so sleep wasn’t that difficult.
I also had my first offer to buy some weed in Taupo.
When I made my way towards a lookout, another car stopped next to me and the driver said to me: “wanna buy some weed?”
I was pretty puzzled, but of course I declined the offer.
The view from the lookout was very good and I took some pictures as well.
On the next day I explored the surroundings of Taupo with three other German backpackers, who I met at the campground.
At first we drove to a volcanic activity center, which explained the seismic activities under New Zealand and it was interesting to sit in an earthquake simulator. I’m glad that I slept through the earthquake earlier in November.
After that we wanted to see the Aratiatia rapids, where water is released into a narrow valley four times a day. It was interesting to see the water level rising so quickly.
And while it was quite fascinating to see, I honestly expected some more action. To be fair, I would definitely recommend this activity, but it takes some time until the water really gets flowing.
The Waikato river features also another very interesting sight, the Huka falls.
It is one monster of a waterfall, as every second 200.000 liter water flow downstream. That is enough to fill 5 Olympic swimming pools every minute. And the sound definitely corresponds with that.
To end the day, we went to some hot pools in Taupo and it’s quite amazing that you can sit in a hole in the ground with water hotter than at home in the bathtub. You even couldn’t sit in some places, as it was too hot.
My next stop on my journey through New Zealand is the Tongariro National Park, where I am going to start the Northern Circuit in the next days. The weather isn’t really perfect at the moment, but it is supposed to get better over the weekend.
Until then,
Cheers
Max Abbe 