Rotorua to Taupo

Our road trip toward Wellington, where we will catch a flight to Christchurch (south island) started with a 80km drive toward Taupo. It was a lovely and our first stop was to observe Lady Nnox Geyser. We arrive just few minutes before the “show” started with a surprising amphitheater and a lady to tell us the story of the geyser

then someone poor soap powder in to replicate the original story and it started to erupt, very cool

then we drive few minutes to visit the Wai-O-Tapu thermal. There are 3 walks and we did them all in just about 1 hr. It was smelly but so beautiful. There are 12 of those gigantic craters

many beautiful, multi-color lakes with steam.

a sulfur river?

Next we stopped by Huka fall

and finally the Aratiatia rapid, dam opening at 2pm

We rested at our motel for a while before heading out for chinese food and a walk by the taupo lake. Taupo is a much smaller town compared to Rotorua but still plenty of tourists. Tomorrow we will have a long drive toward Wellington. I started to really enjoy the drive as the scenery is amazing, with cows and sheep all over the place and rolling hills. That’s what we came for 🙂