We arrived next in Taupo and our hosts kindly gave us a lift to our accommodation in Acacia Bay. Lovely place and a fantastic view of the Lake from our courtyard (which CK is admiring, accompanied by her glass of vino!) Only hitch was that it was a 4 mile
walk into town and back with no public transport! Oops! Sorry CK! Must have missed that nugget of information when I was searching the web for somewhere to stay! But, being as we no
w seem to have an SAS style survival course being planned for us in outback Wales on our return (Thanks Bridget!) maybe that extra little bit of exercise will come in handy! Anyway, we decided to hire a car mid week (No - not to drive ourselves into town and back!!) We needed one to go up to Wai-O-Tapu (another sulphur smelling but spectacular thermal area!) that we didn't get chance to visit last week. Here we saw
the spouting Lady Knox Geyser and various pools full of amazing colours, depending on which minerals had been deposited. The best of which were the bright green Devil's Bath and the Champagne Pool - bottle green and bubbling but fringed with burnt orange and swirling with steam! A fantastic sight to see, but in certain areas of
the park the smell was horrendous! Haven't been able to face a plate of scrambled eggs ever since! Next we drove to Tongariro National Park to see a group of 3 volcanos and where parts of 'Lord of
the Rings' was filmed. The largest of the volcanos (the one with snow on!) is Mount Ruapehu, which last erupted in 1995! In fact our car
(where CK is posing with the map!) was old enough to have witnessed the eruption and still had the marks on it where the ash had fallen. We reckon the garage should advertise it as their "Volcano Special", having lost their former "Backpacker Special" which was a cheap to rent old banger that we wanted to hire(!) to a Taiwanese couple who tra
shed it by ploughing straight through a Give Way sign! Anyway we drove as near as we could get to Mount Ruapehu and visited the Whakapapa Alpine Village (yes, sounds like something out of the 'Night Garden' as those people who have any dealings with children under 5 m
ight agree!) The Grand Chateau that you can see on the photo was quite impressive and is the posh place to stay if you are skiing up there in the Winter, but not much more there to see really. In keeping with the ski theme, how do you like the cool bench that I found to stretch out on back in Taupo?! Next stop New Plymouth ...
We arrived next in Taupo and our hosts kindly gave us a lift to our accommodation in Acacia Bay. Lovely place and a fantastic view of the Lake from our courtyard (which CK is admiring, accompanied by her glass of vino!) Only hitch was that it was a 4 mile 
walk into town and back with no public transport! Oops! Sorry CK! Must have missed that nugget of information when I was searching the web for somewhere to stay! But, being as we no
w seem to have an SAS style survival course being planned for us in outback Wales on our return (Thanks Bridget!) maybe that extra little bit of exercise will come in handy! Anyway, we decided to hire a car mid week (No - not to drive ourselves into town and back!!) We needed one to go up to Wai-O-Tapu (another sulphur smelling but spectacular thermal area!) that we didn't get chance to visit last week. Here we saw 
the spouting Lady Knox Geyser and various pools full of amazing colours, depending on which minerals had been deposited. The best of which were the bright green Devil's Bath and the Champagne Pool - bottle green and bubbling but fringed with burnt orange and swirling with steam! A fantastic sight to see, but in certain areas of 
the park the smell was horrendous! Haven't been able to face a plate of scrambled eggs ever since! Next we drove to Tongariro National Park to see a group of 3 volcanos and where parts of 'Lord of 
the Rings' was filmed. The largest of the volcanos (the one with snow on!) is Mount Ruapehu, which last erupted in 1995! In fact our car 
(where CK is posing with the map!) was old enough to have witnessed the eruption and still had the marks on it where the ash had fallen. We reckon the garage should advertise it as their "Volcano Special", having lost their former "Backpacker Special" which was a cheap to rent old banger that we wanted to hire(!) to a Taiwanese couple who tra
shed it by ploughing straight through a Give Way sign! Anyway we drove as near as we could get to Mount Ruapehu and visited the Whakapapa Alpine Village (yes, sounds like something out of the 'Night Garden' as those people who have any dealings with children under 5 m
ight agree!) The Grand Chateau that you can see on the photo was quite impressive and is the posh place to stay if you are skiing up there in the Winter, but not much more there to see really. In keeping with the ski theme, how do you like the cool bench that I found to stretch out on back in Taupo?! Next stop New Plymouth ...
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