The
journey to Taupo threw up a few surprises. On our way into the town
of Tirau I noticed a new and impressive factory adorned with
'Corruagted Creations' signage. It was a big building and I couldn't
imagine that there would be that much demand for their services. That
is until we entered the town. I have just spent a few minutes on the
internet looking (successfully) for Corrugated Creations and have
learnt that Tirau is the self-titled 'Corrgated Iron Capital of New
Zealand'. You had better believe it. Nearly every store, bar,
restaurant, service has one of their creations. A corrugated pizza,
ice cream, scissors, but my personal favourite – I really regret
not taking a photo – a 10ft, at least, corrugated Jesus. Frankly,
it looked ridiculous. To be honest, I'm not convinced that corrugated
iron is the most forgiving material when it comes to the subtle
detail of facial features so He had the look of a cartoon character.
Anyway, check out their work at http://www.corrugatedcreations.co.nz and for an idea of their Jesus piece check out their Good Shepherd in our NZ photos. Brilliant.The last 10km before entering Taupo were a real treat and when we arrived we were impressed too. Its pretty stunning with excellent views over the lake. A bit of local knowledge for you: Lake Taupo is in a crater of a volcano, and some of its previous eruptions are the biggest ever (Freddie, feel free to add some specific Geography stats) for example, the last eruption destroyed most of the North Island and was twice the size of the Mt St Helens eruption. Here endeth the lesson for today.
The
day we arrived coincided with the beginning of a cycling event and
clearly their hard graft left a mark on us because we decided to
sign-up for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing the next day. Its a beast
of a trek, 19km in total, and considered the best trek in NZ. I don't
walk fast and I don't really walk far (God bless the car), however,
I'd put on a few pounds in Australia and I love a challenge. After
all her running Chloe was as fit as a butcher's dog so no
hesitation from her either. I confess that at this point I omitted to tell her about
a friend of mine who had fallen down the volcano, breaking numerous
bones, been airlifted to hospital, on
this very trek, and in his own words “left a part of his
brain on the mountain”. The outcome for us was gratefully very
different. If I describe it in detail you'll get bored of the usual
hyperbole so lets just say it was a highlight of our trip so far.
Completed in 6 hours flat.
Taupo
was a good place, with more than its fair share of thermal activity
so we dutifully went to a thermal park to check out what all the fuss
is about. There was plenty of steaming water, bubbling mud and the
like and it made a nice walk too but thats perhaps being a bit
generous to the overall appeal of the place.
Similarly,
Yuka falls, another local attraction that was just
about worth a look. Apologies for the lack of enthusiasm - it's our own fault. The problem is
our standards are now set incredibly high and they have become pretty
unaccommodating to the supporting artists of the tourism trade. Lord
only knows what kind of reception the Kew Bridge Steam Museum
(with their finest collection of stationary steam pumping engines in
the world) would receive if we were to pop in back home. Apologies to
our reading steam enthusiasts. So you should probably take my views
on the thermal park and Yuka falls with a pinch of salt.
Next
stop Wellington for the ferry to the South Island. We did one night
in Wellington and I think it is probably a good town – we didn't
stop to explore as our schedule was unforgiving and NZ cities aren't
internationally renowned. On the other hand, throw in some corrugated
iron and it could have been a different story.
