Taupo, North Island, New Zealand

20th November – 22nd November 2017

Once we got on the bus in Rotorua, it was only a short journey until we arrived in Taupo. Within an hour, we had driven into sunshine, which was a lovely change, as we pulled up at the information centre in Taupo.

After we had got off the bus and collected our bags, we had quite a walk to our hostel. As it was hot and sunny, it made the walk seem a lot longer than it was, and it wasn’t enjoyable at all, but we made it there eventually.

When we got to the hostel, we checked in and dropped our bags off. As we knew we had a busy few days booked in ahead of us, we had to make the most of the rest of the day that we had, as it was our only free time in Taupo. We had a quick research of what to do with the time that we had, before setting off on a walk.

We went on a walk to see Huka Falls, one of New Zealand’s most visited and photographed natural attractions. The falls are a part of the Waikato River, which meets Lake Taupo, just west of Taupo city. The views of the river along the walk were stunning and the hot weather made the water very inviting, but it was freezing to touch.

When we reached the falls, I couldn’t believe that they were part of the same calm river that we had just walked alongside. There was so much water and it was gushing so quickly, it was amazing to see. We were able to walk on the bridge over the falls at the top of them, before walking alongside the falls, seeing them from different viewing platforms along the way. According to the information, 220,000 litres of water flows over the eleven-metre-high falls every second – although this seems a lot, it was easy to believe when you’re stood there watching it. The walk took us around three hours in total and if we had more time, I would have loved to have been able to carry on along the river a little bit further.

On the way back to the hostel, we stopped off at the supermarket for some bits, mainly for lunch the next day.

When we got back to the hostel, we went back to the room to chill out for a little bit before dinner. Luckily, dinner was already made, and I just needed to heat up the other half of the chilli I had made earlier in the week and make some rice. While I was making dinner, I started to prepare lunch for the next day too, as we were going on a day trip and needed to take a packed lunch.

Once we had eaten and had prepared our lunch, we went back to the room to pack our day bag. We wanted to be prepared before we went to bed, as we had a very early start and didn’t want to have to mess around in the morning.

Our alarm went off at 5.30, the next morning. We had to get up early to do a weather check with the company, as we were off to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing and it is a weather dependant activity. We got ourselves ready and rang the company. As everything was fine, we were ready to be collected at 6.20.

Once we had been picked up, we had an hour and a half journey until we reached the starting point of the track, so we both had a little snooze on the way. We arrived at the starting point just after 8 and began walking at exactly 8.05.

It was a steady start to begin with, which was nice. It gave us a chance to walk at our own pace and take in the views around us. After walking for about an hour, we reached the second section of the walk: ‘The Devil’s Staircase’. Although it sounded absolutely awful, as we were climbing steps for the next portion of the journey, it wasn’t as bad as either of us expected, so that was nice for us.

After the Devil’s staircase, we had a little flat bit before the real killer. The next part of the hike was a lot steeper, and the ground was a lot less stable, as we had to hike to the top of the volcano. Towards the end of this section, there were ropes attached to the side of the rocks for us to hold onto the get ourselves up – I wouldn’t have liked to do this section in the wind!

When we reached the summit, all of the hiking uphill was worth it, as the views were stunning. We were by the red crater, on the top of an active volcano. We had views of Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Tongariro on either side of us, as well as being able to look down at the Emerald Lakes and the Blue Lake. We were spoilt for choice with which direction to look in. Once we had been standing at the top for a few minutes, we could start to feel the temperature change, as we weren’t in the hot valley anymore, so the layers had to come out of the bag. I felt the cold more than Joe, so I got wrapped up warm before we carried on the hike.

The descent was just as difficult as the ascent, but in a different way. It felt to us like it was almost a vertical drop, on unsteady, rocky grounds. It took us a while to get down, especially as the wind had picked up now and was making such a difference. I started to get a bit confident at one point and thought I could go a bit quicker; I was wrong and slipped right onto my bum, which was quite painful – it’s a good job the views were beautiful.

 

We eventually reached the bottom, and got a closer look at the Emerald Lakes. We didn’t stop for too long, as the sulphur smell was here too, and we wanted to carry on going to get away from it.

At the end of the next section of the hike, was the Blue Lake. We stopped and enjoyed this view for a few minutes, as well as looking back at where we had just come from, before continuing down the mountainside.

It was a steady walk back down the mountain: it was a gentle descent, but was long and windy. On the way back down, we stopped to eat our lunch at one of the huts. After lunch, we had an hour and a half to go, according to the signs on the walkway.

We carried on walking, but by this point my legs were starting to ache, so I had picked up the pace a bit in the hope of getting it done sooner, meaning that we overtook loads of people along the way, on the way down. Just before we entered the forest, on the way back down, we had a perfect view over Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand, which sits in the crater of a volcano.

We arrived at the car park, which was the finishing point, at exactly 2.05pm. We had managed to complete the 19.4km hike in exactly six hours, which was a nice feeling, as we hadn’t rushed or tried to put any time on it, but were happy with this one.

Lucky for us, there was a coach pulling up, just as we arrived. We were able to get straight onto that bus and head back towards our hostel in Taupo. It was another hour and a half drive back to Taupo, so once we had taken a celebratory picture, we took a well deserved nap.

When we arrived back at the hostel, we showered and chilled out for the rest of the afternoon. It was needed after the hike we had just completed.

For dinner I had planned to make us a chicken and cheese omelette with some sweet potato fries, but it did not go to plan at all. When we got to the kitchen, we got out all of the stuff that we needed, however, the oven was in use, so we couldn’t get our sweet potato fries in as quickly as we wanted, meaning that it was going to take longer than planned. We decided that we would have the omelettes first and then eat the fries once they were done, so I made a start on those.

When I got the chicken out of the fridge, I noticed that our cucumber had gone – it was annoying that someone would take our food but at this point I thought it was the end of the world, as there was only half left. Just before I started cooking the omelette, I went to get the cheese, but this had gone too! I wasn’t happy with this at all, as it was something we needed for dinner, cheese is expensive, and someone had gone out of there way to move our other food off the top of it, to take it! We asked the guy at reception, but there was obviously nothing he could do – it might not have been as worth as much, but the cheese theft hurt as much at the laptop and money theft I have already encountered!

We ate our dry omelettes anyway, but the fries still weren’t ready. It was the world’s slowest oven and was ruining the lovely meal I had planned in my head – I wasn’t going to try being fancy with dinner again after this meal. While we were waiting for the food to cook, Joe went and made a start on packing, as we were bored of waiting.

When the chips were finally ready, it was after 9 o’clock and neither of us were happy with how the food had turned out – I was still going on about the stolen cheese. We ate the chips and washed up, before going back to the room.

Back in the room, we packed our bags and got ourselves ready for an early check out the next morning, before going to bed.

When our 7.30 alarm went off the next day, I was very excited to get up and ready for our morning activity. We got up and dressed and had some toast for breakfast, before checking out. As we went to check out, our limo driver was already waiting for us, so we put our bags in storage and went off in the limo, towards the Skydive Taupo office. For the record, we didn’t request the limo, it is just the form of transport that was given when you are collected from Taupo, and we thought it was hilarious.

When we arrived at the office, we were taken into a room and shown some different video choices and a safety clip, before we were kitted up and ready to jump. They provided us with a set of overalls to wear over our clothes, and a silly hat to wear, with goggles – I wasn’t expecting the overalls or the hat because I didn’t have them when I jumped last year in Australia.

Once we were both ready and had met our skydive experts, we just had to wait for them to get kitted up before we could get in the plane. Luckily for us, it was just the two of us jumping during our time slot, so there weren’t loads of people in the plane, which made it a bit more comfortable.

We loaded the plane up and had to sit with our skydive expert so that they could attach us to the front of them, and make sure everything was right, before we jumped out. When we reached 12,000 feet, the plane stopped, and we were ready to go. Joe went first, which was weird to see, as he just disappeared off the edge of the plane and I knew I wouldn’t see him again until we were on the ground.

When it was my turn to jump, we shuffled to the edge of the plane and out we went. The freefalling part was by far the best bit of the whole thing as you’re just falling through the air. At this point, I didn’t even think about the parachute or landing, I just enjoyed the feeling of falling. Once the parachute opened, it was a little uncomfortable at first, but he loosened some of my harness and it made it much easier. While we were sailing down, I had a go at steering the parachute, but that was much harder than I thought it would be, so I needed some help with that one.

Once we landed on the ground, I made sure I had taken the silly hat off my head before my closing interview for my video – I didn’t want to look silly for longer than necessary. My legs felt like jelly for a little bit, but it was an amazing feeling and we both enjoyed it.

After we had taken all of our equipment off, we had to wait for about ten minutes, while they got our videos ready. We were able to watch them before we left, which was good. Once we had seen our videos, we got back into our limo and got a lift back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel, we still had a couple of hours until we needed to leave for our next bus, so we decided to walk down to Lake Taupo and see it from the ground this time. We sat by the lake for a little bit, before walking along the lakefront. Taking lots of photos along the way.

Just before 12, we walked back up to the hostel, so that we could have some lunch before we left for the bus. Luckily, the food thief didn’t steal our chicken, so we had chicken wraps – although they were very plain, as the cucumber had gone.

Once we had finished eating, we collected our bags and got a lift down to the information centre to our bus – the hostel offered free lifts down and it made such a difference, as we didn’t have to walk all that way with our big bags.

We got to the bus stop and had to wait a short while for our next bus, to our final stop in the North Island: Wellington.

Taupo is up there with my favourite places in New Zealand, so far. I loved the fact that it had a perfect mix of having lots of activities to do, if that’s what you wanted, mixed with the option to chill out, if that’s what you wanted. The lake was beautiful, even if it is the crater of a volcano which could erupt at any time; the river and the walks were peaceful and enjoyable and the fact that we jumped out of a plane over it all was an amazing experience and one I won’t be forgetting. The rest of the country has a lot to live up to!

To travel is to live, Katie x