Lake Taupo, New Zealand
We left Waitomo bright and early on the 7th morning, eager to reach Lake Taupo before noon. Lake Taupo is a spectacular, massive lake, much bigger than Lake Rotorua, which we’d seen earlier in the trip. It’s the largest lake in New Zealand, known formally as “Great Lake Taupo,” and as we learned that day, it was formerly a supervolcano.
Several thousand years ago, a supervolcano erupted, leaving a large, cauldron-like depression in the ground called a caldera. Lake Taupo formed in that caldera. Because of the volcanic activity surrounding the lake, there are several hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the lake (360ft below) that make the temperature of the lake’s lowest extremely hot.
It was with this information in mind that we set sail on the Barbary I, a mid-size sailing yacht, to traverse the waters of Lake Taupo to see the famous Maori rock carvings.
Matt and I learned about the Maori rock carvings through some online research (a classic: “what to do in Lake Taupo”). These carvings are only accessible by boat, as they sit 30 feet above the water on huge rock faces on the outskirts of Lake Taupo.
We set out to sail on the Barbary I on a beautiful, sunny afternoon, with clear skies above us and crystal blue water beneath us. We took our seats along the sides of the sailboat and ducked as our captain adjusted the sails, hoping the boom wouldn’t hit our heads and knock us into the water. The wind off the lake made our little ship quick as a dolphin, whipping past all the other boaters on the lake.
As we sailed to the Maori carvings, our captain gave us free rein of the boat, so we climbed around to get 360-views of the lakeside, hanging our legs off the side, crawling up to the very tip of the bow, and sinking back into the captain’s chair to help steer the ship.
It was while we were at the front of the ship, wind and water blowing in our faces, that we befriended two French girls who were on holiday. Through broken French and English, we learned that one was a pastry chef at a French restaurant in Auckland, and the other was a geographer living in the south of France. Like our dolphin boat captain, these girls wanted to know about the political scene in the USA, but they were also quite curious about our lives, as we were theirs.
About an hour and a half into the cruise, the captain lowered the sails a bit as we approached a bend in the lake–the carvings! We spent about 20 minutes sailing around the carvings, learning about their history and taking tons of photos up close and far away. Our boat captain informed us that even though they l these carvings were actually pretty young–they’d been created in the 1970s and 1980s by a Maori artist who wanted to depict his ancestor, Ngatoroirangi, on the rock face. You can see a photo below.
After spending time with the carvings and taking a dip in the beautiful blue lake, we headed back to land, which took about another hour and a half.
After disembarking around 4:30pm, we decided to visit another Lake Taupo hot-spot: Huka Falls. Huka Falls is a set of waterfalls on NZ’s longest river, the Waikato River. As we watched the thunderous falls roaring down the river, we learned that the volume of water flowing through often approaches 220,000 liters per second. The intensity of the water mixing with the air as it falls creates a sparkling, bubbling sensation in the pool below, making the water an impressive shade of blue. As we left, I heard a loud “boom!” and felt dizzy for a second, but genuinely didn’t think much of it.
Following our detour to Huka Falls, we debated about doing another hike, but as it was reaching 6pm, we were drawn to a sign near the falls reading, “thermal hot pools.” (We’d loved our thermal hot pools experience so much that we decided to try it again at a place recommended to us by a local–The Wairakei Terraces). The Terraces had three levels of hot pools, each flowing into the other one and fed by a massive geothermal spring at the very top. It was as we bathed in the hot pools that we overheard several guests discussing the earthquake they’d felt earlier–that was why I felt dizzy!! I’d been in several earthquakes before in California, but I was quite pleased to have experienced a very mild one in the true Ring of Fire.
After our hot baths, we were starving and tired, so we decided to grab fish-n-chips takeout (except I got falafel) and head back to our hotel for the night! On Day 8, we head to Tongariro National Park!!
