Day 2 – Rotorua to Levin

Had a bit of a late start today. Spent a bit of time with the hosts of the POP (park over property) and couldn’t shut them up long enough to escape.
Headed for Taupo and HuKa Falls (see picture). These are spectacular; Norma figured we should whitewater raft them, I figured we’d end up dead.
Kept going south and lunched on the shores of Lake Taupo which is actually the crater of a giant volcanoe.
From here we took the western route around the mountains. You’d have to have a death wish to live near here, these mountains are active which is easily seen by the recent huge craters on their walls. Absolutely spectacular sights.
Its pretty mountainous country through here but the van did well even if it did guzzle a fair bit of juice.
Stopped at The Chateau  for a coffee and had a chat with my brother Phil on the Gold Coast.
Down through Raetihi for fuel then across to Waiouru and Taihape. The road winds through a valley that is flanked by the huge cliffs of a river. We took a back road through to Feilding that took us in and out of this valley, up and down across the river. Would have loved to have had the Guzzi; great riding country.
Feilding to Palmerston North and then Levin at 7pm where we looked for a POP and found one at the local Cosmipolitan Club.
It had been what seemed like a long day but we only covered 400klms which isn’t far by Aus standards but in NZ where its a constant up and down, round and round, it is a long day’s travelling.
Tomorrow we’ll head for Wellington (only 100klms away) for a look around before taking the ferry across Cook Strait on Saturday morning.
CYa

Advertisement