Thursday, January 24, 2013

Magic Carpet Ride

After our sunrise fiasco we went back to the hotel room, showered, packed and got on the road. First stop - McDonalds for take-away breakfast. With coffee in our hands we drove back to the seaside and spread our picnic blanket out by the water. Such a lovely place for breakfast!





With our tummy's full and almost enough caffeine flowing in our veins we hit the road for our next stop - a detour a little north of our route to a golden sand beach. Waipatiki (?) beach. To get there we drove up, up, across, and down, down, down some big hills. There wasn't much along the way other than sheep, goats and signs for the slipped away roads (yikes! the fence beside the road was hanging in the air..). Finally we came around a corner and there was this beautiful, semi-deserted beach. We walked to the surf and immediately decided to change our plans for the day. With our bathing suits donned we made our way back over the hot sand and started splashing in the surf. The water was cool but the sun was hot (plenty of sunscreen was used). We stayed there for a few hours enjoying our time in the sun. The picnic blanket was used again - this time for lolling in the sun and then lunch!



Back on the road and onto highway 5 we started winding our way to Taupo where we are now. We passed through many different landscapes, each one as beautiful as the last. There were places that we wound up and over some hills, and other places that were flat and straight. We did pass quite a bit of construction, but even still the roads travelled well.





We made it to Taupo somewhere between 4 and 5, found a motel, hit the beach, walked into town for hamburgers, found some hot springs along the beach, and are now back in our room, exhausted. It will be an early night.



Happy Tails!

2 comments:

bjosa said...

Hi, memories comes back. We stayed in Taupo back in 2010. You have to go to Huka Falls and Weirakei Terraces. (Maori cultural site and thermal site.)
Many wonderful things to see. Maories have a show at night at Weirakei.
Oh I have to go back there some day.
Enjoy!

Merikay said...

My son in law is a New Zealander aand we have visited his parents there. It is a beautiful, peaceful place.