After Rotorua we reached Taupo - my favourite place in NZ. I spent the time here doing various walks around the lake and along the river to the Aratiatia Dam (bumped into my korean friends Bai & Ary who just happened to be visiting for the day). Some of the bus group have been skydiving here and celebrated a little too hard afterwards (yes you Miss Purkiss) feeling quite ill the next day.
I made an overnight stop at Turangi where I went for a walk along the river and through a forest. The colours of the trees were stunning and there were so many fungi about. When I rejoined the road I took a wrong turn (my friends know that this is a common occurence) and walked for 10km in the wrong direction just as the rain started. So I hitched a lift back to the hostel - something I have never done in my 30something years on this earth - but its so easy, I can see me doing more of this.
