It was warm and sunny the next day which made us wish that it had been like this in the other region for the Tongariro Crossing. We walked around Napier and saw all the art deco buildings which were pretty. It was a very unique cute town and we just wanted to dress up in 1920s clothing.

We also visited the aquarium since they claimed to have live kiwis and I wanted to see a live kiwi before leaving New Zealand. It was a small aquarium but it had some nice displays especially the seahorses. They also had an underwater walkway where fish swim all around and even above you and through this are there was a travelator. Even though the section wasn’t well maintained I thought the travelator was awesome.

A Kiwi

Then we decided to go on a small wine yard tour but only made it to one winery, the Mission Estate. It was beautiful and the wine was nice too, but I only tried one since I was the DD.

Then we went to lunch where we had the great debate of what to do next. We had several options which were drive to Wellington and stay on schedule, or drive back towards Taupo and do the Tongariro Crossing and postpone the ferry. The forecast was a bit bette—that it would rain in the morning and possibly clear up in the afternoon. We debated about buying ponchos and waterproof pants since we would have to start the hike in the morning. We were still skeptical so it was brought up that we could still decide in the morning whether to do the hike or not, to which I said no since it’s a 4+ hour drive back, and therefore, if we went back we would do it, at least I would do it. So unfortunately we decided to skip Tongariro. At least we know what we’ll do if we ever come back to New Zealand.

Mission Estate Winery

We drove to Wellington and stayed at the YHA. When we got out of the car we were totally blown away it was so incredibly windy and cold. We were told it would be windy but it was really incredible.

We woke up to rain the next day in Taupo.  Taupo itself is a very unimpressive town and actually everything in it is rather unimpressive after visiting White Island and the Thermal Wonderland.  It would have been better to first do Taupo and then the others for the build up but that’s not how they are positioned on the map.  We first went to Huka Falls, which would have probably been a million times better in the sun since the water was such a gorgeous color of turquoise, but it was still pretty.  Without the color, the falls would be pretty ordinary.

Huka Falls

Next we went to the Wairakei geothermal power plant lookout.  This is probably the most interesting thing in Taupo, and from the lookout you can see all of its massive pipes stretch far and wide.  Then we also went to the dam but we didn’t know when it was opened so we were there when it was closed so it was rather unimpressive, but I’m sure if we had gone there during opening times it would have been pretty spectacular.

Wairakei Geothermal Power Station

The last stop in Taupo was the Craters of the Moon which is definitely Taupo’s advertised highlight.  We saw in brochure that it used to be free to enter but now they charge $5 which I think is reasonable.  It wasn’t nearly as awe inspiring as Wai-O-Tapu or White Island but it had its charm and even though we weren’t too impressed it ended up being a rather photogenic place.

Craters of the Moon

We were done with Taupo before noon and we had planned to stay the whole day but there just wasn’t enough to do.  We decided to drive south since the Tongariro crossing was planned for the next day and that was south and there was another thermal walk in Tokaanu, which is at the opposite end of Lake Taupo.  No one really wanted to do another thermal walk but I really liked the thermal region and we had nothing better to do.  After a bit of trouble we found it.  I loved it and thought it was way better than Craters of the Moon.  It was full of boiling pools and in the mist of the rain they looked spectacular and I couldn’t take enough pictures.

Tokannu Thermal Area

In Turangi we stopped by a café called The Mustard Seed which was adorable and had really great desserts.  It helped lighten the mood a bit from the rain but then we went to the info center across the street to ask about the Tongariro crossing, the lady said that rain was forecast for the next two days at least.  No one was set on doing the hike in the rain so we decided to go to Napier instead.

Tokannu Thermal Area

The road to Napier would have been amazing if there weren’t so many low overhanging clouds, so we didn’t get too much from that either.  As we crossed the mountains the sky cleared and the sun shown and when we reached Napier there wasn’t a trace of rain.  We stayed at the Top 10 which was great since they had trampolines, a jumping pillow, and a swimming pool.  We were set.  When we went to get dinner though the whole town was dead and only one restaurant, Singapore Restaurant, was open so we didn’t have to make too many decisions and went there for dinner.