Taupo – Now we’re driving over the lake, over the lake …

… and hope we do not sink!

It is the continuation of one of our most beautiful stories of New Zealand. In Matamata we met Evelin, the maori lady. We could spend one night at her place and got a deep insight into their tribal history. She sent us also to her sister Irene to Taupo. We were only told that we should be in the Irish pub there to ask for Toni. Toni is Irene’s son-in-law and the owner. He took us to the ranchin his pickup. Here we were allowed to spread out in the garage. This is half-workroom and half-built guest hall with many sofas and a bed.

„Whoever does not like being friendly to a
stranger would probably never travel
abroad in a foreign country.“
– Friedrich Rückert –

We sat together for the evening with Irene, her daughters and grandchildren, and made plans for the coming day. We wanted to see the Māori rock art in the Mine Bay at Lake Taupo. For this you either have to go on a tour boat or paddle the kayak a longer distance into the appropriate bay. Since Irene’s daughter had two kayaks ready, we did not have to think long and faced to adventure. It turned out quickly that it should really become an adventure, because the kayaks were designed more for children and Andi looked as if he would dart in a small nut shell. With both legs in the water he tried to keep the balance – a very shaky matter.
Since Andi did not progress very fast in his nutshell, we hoped to reach our goal for every bay. After 1 ½ hours we finally saw it in sight. The carvings were created by the master stone mason MatahiWhakataka-Brightwell. They depict an image of Ngatoroirangi, a visionary Māori navigator and discoverer who, led the tribes of Tuwharetoa and TeArawain to the region of Taupo, over 1.000 years ago.

On our way back the clouds spilled graduallyand the sun rewarded us with their last rays of the day and we enjoyed the sunset in our nutshells.

With Irene’s old pickup we made our way back to the ranch. Michele waited for us with a surprise. After a short dinner we packed our swimming stuff and drove to a nearby thermal spring. Toni and her are participants and so they can use the sources undisturbed after the end of the officalopentime. For our muscles there was nothing better after the effort than lying in the hot water and looking up into the starry sky.

The next day we had to say good-bye. Our goal should be the Basecamp to the „Tongariro Crossing“, this is unfortunately only a little secluded and we weren´t sure if we would arrive there.

You can find more about our way to the Fate Mountain here:
https://anti-itchyfeet.com/portfolio/tongariro-crossing/

Salute from here and now,
Tina and Andi from Itchy Feet