I woke up to texts and chats from friends asking if I was okay. I had no idea what was going on so I pulled up Facebook and the news. An 7.5 earthquake had occurred on the southern island in Canterbury around midnight. I had fallen asleep before then and didn't feel a thing, although the shock was felt even more north than me in Auckland. The quake mainly affected Wellington and other northern parts of the South Island. Schools were shut down, landslides and massive cracks in the pavement blocked roads, buildings collapsed, and the main ferry terminal that connects the islands was damaged. Two fatalities had already been reported and I kept the news on all day to get the latest updates.
I booked a second night at the holiday park, took a shower, and headed for a local sporting goods shop. I'm planning on heading down to the Tongariro River to do some trout fishing and I needed some details on the area. I talked to a nice employee for awhile and he told me where to go, what flies to use, the technique, and other rivers to dabble in. I bought some hikers wool to put in my boots to hopefully aid my blisters. I then went over to the local museum. It was small but had a lot of neat history about the logging and Maori culture in the area.
It was lunch time and I heard about a unique McDonalds that they have in Taupo. There is the normal McDonalds building but next to it is an old airplane that they've converted into a dining area. Kind of cool. Next, I headed out of town to check out the Crater of the Moon park. Once I got there, I could tell from the building next to the car park that you probably had to pay to get in. I asked a couple in the parking lot if you had to and if it was worth it, they said it wasn't worth $8 if you'd already seen geothermal sites. Which I had, so I bagged it and went to look for the Huka Falls. I decided to walk to it from the Spa Park instead of driving right up the falls to make it more of an outing and get a bit of exercise while seeing more of the river.
Shortly after I started on the path, I came down to a bridge where on either side there were people sitting in pools of warm thermal water. I kept going on the trail as it ran alongside the deep bluish green river. Most of New Zealand is green....and that's about it. But this area had some plants that were yellow and it gave the area more color and depth, I liked it. As I went, I was just barely behind a younger guy but I made sure not to speed up so I'd be awkwardly right behind him. Since I was at a good pace, I ended up within speaking distance from him. We kind of said hello, how are you then we started talking. He was from Germany on a work visa (SHOCKER). We walked all the way to the falls, and having someone there to talk to made it go by quicker.
The falls were awesome! So swift and powerful. The blue hue of the river was gorgeous. The canyon narrowed by the bridge walkway and the water really picked up in velocity. I couldn't imagine taking a raft over it. We hung out at the various viewing platforms, looking at the water and chatting. At one point, we were standing in a spot where we could see past the waterfall and there was a jet boat zooming around the falls. It was quite a small boat, but must be quite powerful to be able to stand against the current of the water. It was one of the many tourist activities that you could do on Taupo and it looked like a lot of fun. But not worth over $100.
I made my way back down the trail and Florian the German went to his car there at the parking lot. On my way out I was stopped in my tracks because I saw someone with an Alaskan Brewing shirt on. Sadly, they were just from California. Haven't met a brother or sister from another mother, yet! I'm determined to meet another Alaskan here.
I stopped at the Pak N Save grocery store on my way back to the campground. I cooked up some chicken and finished off my Sauvignon Blanc. While cooking I struck up conversation with an older couple who lives on Auckland but is originally from Europe. They said they plan to make a trip up to Alaska within the next few years. We had dinner together and they found out I'm eventually going to the South Island so they gave me their friends' number who lives in Nelson so I could maybe meet up with them if I needed to. After that, they actually gave me theirs in case I come back to Auckland and need a place to stay or a helping hand. They were super sweet and I'm glad I made some more connections in different places around the country.
I hung out for awhile in the dining area / lounge since it was raining outside and didn't want to have to go into my tent until I absolutely had to. After awhile I did and went to sleep.
