We stopped near the water and found some black swans...
10:13pm, Peppertree backpackers, Palmerson North
Not a whole lot to write about today… Got up early, and left the hostel ~9:30am. Found out that I ended up paying for 2 one-way shuttles for the Tongrariro Crossing yesterday, costing an extra $40NZ due to a miscommunication. Not a good way to start the day.
We decided to head north to Taupo, along the huge lake we could see from yesterday's hike, and visit a big honey store north of town (they have free tastings!). Halfway into the drive, we stopped for a 20 minute hike to a mountain lake, but didn't stay long. It felt good to stretch the legs after yesterday's hike though. The drive was pretty scenic, and we had some good looks at Mt Doom from across the lake. The town of Taupo is a mega crowded tourist villa.
We stopped near the water and found some black swans...
I later found out that "The Hobbit" will be filming the "barrel escape from Mirkwood" scene on the rivers near Taupo. We happened to find this lookout near the honey store, and I can see why they'd want to film on this river. No doubt this area will be a mecca once the next Middle Earth movies come out...
The honey place had a huge store, and a mini museum about bees. We tasted a few different kinds of honey, as well as a couple of meads (honey wine). New Zealand is famous for their quality honey varieties (we had already discovered that when we saw the huge selections in grocery stores). Before leaving, we had 2 flavors of honey ice cream, which was great.
After some honey flavored ice cream (super good!), we backtracked south along Lake Taupo, where I stopped to take a pic of Mt Doom (with Mt Tongrariro in front of it) across the lake. Clear skies today...
We had considered visiting some hot springs, but it was too hot and sunny out to warrant it, so we headed south, targeting Palmerston North as an end point, which is 1.5hrs away from Wellington (tomorrow's destination).
We stopped for lunch at a "takeaway". Takeaways are very common, and are eateries with orders to-go only. Wendy's burger was very tasty (which makes all 3 burgers in NZ being extraordinarily good). I ordered a fish sandwich, that was loaded with battered fish, tartar sauce, lettuce and tomatoes. Delicious! We've had great luck with takeaways. They are cheap and yummy. We also had some sweet potato fries. Ketchup costs extra though. We decided to buy a big ketchup bottle at Countdown to keep with us for such occasions. Clouds were covering the top of Mount Doom as we drove past on the east side. We stopped at a McDonalds along the way and used a few minutes of free internet. Internet has been difficult to find. We bought a 30 day period of internet from one provider on our 1st day here, but haven't found any other hotspots to use it on. Each hostel has a different provider, and many charge by bandwidth. I forgot that my 14er cards arrived this week, and quickly checked my mail to confirm they were delivered successfully in my absence. We arrived in Palmerston North ~5:30. John Cleese once said, "If you ever do want to kill yourself, but lack the courage, I think a visit to Palmerston North will do the trick." Guess he didn't like the place. The city ended up naming a rubbish dump after him in kind. After settling on a BBH backpackers to stay for the night, we drove into town and checked out Victoria Esplanade, a park with a rose garden, aviary, and crazy adventurous playground. There were rainbow colored birds and peacocks strutting there stuff. there was a white peacock. The playground had trampolines (there was a kid doing flips), a zipline, hamster wheels (large and small), and more. Wendy and I played some trampoline frisbee tossing.
The aviary had two peacocks displaying their tails...
New Zealand has some colorful native parrots. The trampolines in the park were a hit! Man, this park is mega dangerous for kids. Not sure it'd fly in the US, but Kiwis are the hardcore adventure type...
After our park visit, we stopped at the Pak n' Save (like Sam's Club), and bought food for dinner. Wendy flavored our diced lamb into a spedie-esque meal, while I made the salad. Yogurt for dessert.
BIG kitchen here, though it closed at 9:30, so we planned accordingly. A look at our room. We had to go outside to access the door to our room. The room comes with a flashlight, for late night bathroom breaks...
We have been troubled trying to figure out where to stay in Wellington for the next 3 nights. Parking is hard to come by, and places are expensive. After researching and calling several places, we found a room (with private bath) for $95NZ, that has free parking! And also has free wifi in the lounge apparently. That will be SUPER useful.
Off to Wellington tomorrow, last stop (for 3 days) on the North Island before heading to the South Island. Guess I managed to write a bit more than I anticipated…