Day 11: Driving to Tongariro
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On our way to the Tongariro National Park from Napier, we stopped
in the city of Taupo, which is on the shores of the biggest lake (Lake
Taupo) in the North Island. Near Taupo was Huka Falls, which was the
busiest tourist spot we had seen so far. Probably that was due to the
very short paved path from the parking lot, and the fact that it was so
close to a moderately-sized city.
The falls were really incredible, with amazingly clear turquoise
water. There was also an amazing volume of water flowing over the falls.
More pictures at Huka Falls.
Taupo, which is not far from Rotorua, has a fair amount of
geothermal activity. We stopped at Craters of the Moon, a free
visitor's site. It did have a good amount of geothermal stuff there,
but overall, the Kuirau Park in Rotorua was much better.
This is a few from a nice lookout over Taupo, Lake Taupo, and the mountains of Tongariro way in the distance.
As we drove closer to Tongariro National Park, the weather became a
bit more flakey and started to rain a bit. However, we did see an
awesome rainbow just in front of some of the mountains as we drove in.
It was a very clear rainbow, and stuck with us most of the way to the
park.
We stopped at a tiny waterfall on the way to our hotel (The Grand
Chateau, right at the base of Mount Ruapehu), but as it was tiny and
the weather was turning quite cold, I'm not sure it was worth it. :)
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