Wednesday 29 April
The main problem with staying at an official camp site is that you often have to interact with other people, which is very much against our new hermit-like existence! So we were up and away fairly early this morning before any such niceties were required. First on the agenda was a walk up Whakarewarewa, which is a fantastic walking trail and mountain bike area on the outskirts of Rotorua. This gave us great views of the lake, and of the hundreds of geysers around us. (Not diamond geezers. We hadn’t magically transported ourselves to the East End….)

We were heading to Taupo, and on route stopped at one of our most entertaining places so far – ingeniously named Mud Pools (remember New Zealand, say what you see!). Absolutely brilliant! A gaseous pool full of exploding and plopping mud! Fun for all the family!
I’ll let you decide whether the below video is either
A) The Mud Pools, or
B) An internal camera in Charlotte’s ever active bowels.

http://youtu.be/R0VBUShHxLQ

Our final stop was at Huka Falls, another very impressive sight. The info claimed that there was 200,000 litres of water a second, and that it would fill 5 Olympic sized swimming pools every minute (having just written that I can’t help thinking I’ve possibly misread it or greatly exaggerated it)

http://youtu.be/C-9izLkGBg8

We stopped at Taupo to empty our waste water and take on fresh water, and I discovered that even worse than seeing Charlotte’s poo is seeing someone else’s poo! Oh good heavens! I was very nearly sick!!! Surely it’s time that Charlotte took on this responsibility? How is it allowed that she can simply refuse to do it, yet there is no task I am allowed to refuse to do???? Where is the equality?? I demand my rights!!! I’m being mentally scarred!!!!

Anyway, we’ve settled on the shoreline at Kinloch on Lake Taupo, in beautiful surroundings and in peaceful solitary! Normality is restored! There is a cafe/bar nearby called The Tipsy, but seeing as it shuts at 4pm it would be better named The Stone Cold Sober. Not to worry, our fridge has a never ending supply of Steinlager! And that of course has led to another session of dyeing my hair even blonder! I am now officially the oldest swinger in town! At the very least it provides great amusement to Charlotte!
Tomorrow is a planning and preparation day as we intend to do The Tongariro Alpine Crossing on Friday! Can’t wait! 20k of trekking over an active volcano! Weather permitting, currently gale force winds up there!