Taupo Lake

Dr. Seuss trees along the trail to the Huka Falls. There are large patches of these in the bush everywhere.

A calm view of the river above the Haku Falls. These pictures are from our walk yesterday.

Here are the locals enjoying the warm water in the river where the thermal stream enters the water. It must be wonderful. Maybe I'll try it out tomorrow.

We had a great cruise on the lake today. The brunch consisted of a full English breakfast, plus fresh fruit, croissants, and lots of coffee or tea. Our hostess cooked the English-style bacon on a gas grill on the back of the boat. Delicious. We saw the Maori rock carvings whch were commissioned in 1979 by the Arts Commission of NZ and done by art students. Smart thinking. I can't imagine how many tourists come here to see these.

Lake Taupo is a volcanic crater created in 160 AD when the volcano under the lake (still active, and that's why there are thermal streams and hot beaches here) erupted sending debris 40 miles into the atmosphere. The resulting ash darkened the sky as far away as Europe and was recorded by the Greeks and Romans. They reported three days of darkness. The resulting lake is the largest in Australasia. It's also very turquoise and clear and stocked with California rainbow trout and brown trout from Germany.

We saw a young man get off one of the charter fishing boats about noon with a big grin on his face and a string of rainbow trout, three of them (which is your limit) about 3 - 4 pounds each. Wish I were having dinner at his house. The average size is 2 klg. which is about 5 pounds. NZ does not allow trout farming; therefore, you can only eat what you can catch in the wild.

We'll settle for some lamb shanks and mash, which is the specialty of the restaurant we've picked for this evening.