Going To New Zealand part four (Wanganui via Taupo)

Hmm.

The farmstay near Te Anga over, we headed for the Lake-town of Taupo. According to one of my close friends (herself a NZ PR), Taupo is one city to visit, and the lake itself, is larger than the whole of Singapore. Fascinating.

We had light snacks along the way, listening to the local radio stations as we passed by innumerable sheep farms and the like. Apparently, the two very commonly played songs were 3 Doors Down's 'Here Without You' and Sheryl Crow's ripoff of Rod Steward's classic 'The First Cut Is The Deepest' both of which I can play. Barely.

The day was very warm, but dry. Very Often we stopped by the road to take pictures (mostly by yours truly once more) or simply to enjoy some scenery while silently knowing that the best is yet to come. We went by many towns: Puketutu, Bennydale, Whakamaru and finally Taupo.

The first sight of Taupo was actually a deep blue stretch of water barely seen between two hills. the Lake was a deep blue, and with the sun shining, I was dying for a dip in the lake.

We came across a small boat jetty, with a small child wading in the lake's shore along with several black swans. Permission from mother given, I changed into my trunks and plunged into the lake. It was absolutely unimaginable: just loads of algae and marine plants growing on the sandy and silty bed which was home to tiny, bony fishes. the water was indeed cold, and I just swam about twenty minutes before being told to get out of the water before I catch a bloody cold by my mother.

Apparently, My NZ PR friend told me afterwards that what i did was incredibly risky, since there were unknown viruses roaming the waters. Ah well, I'm still alive, but wary now. So I went in, swam about in the filth of God knows what, and came out alive. At least I was the only one in the family who swam ever in the North Island's Lake Taupo. I believe that sometimes, we've all got to take a breather and have some lunch, which we did after my dip.

Lunch was a fishy affair as we located a small cafe near to the lake which sold magnificent Fish n chips (which afterward became almost my staple lunch until Wanganui). From Lake Taupo, we proceeded to Turangi, past National Park, Horopito, Tohunga Junction, Retihi, Kakatahi and finally Wanganui. The road to Wanganui was extremely tiring for my dad as the roads constantly consisted of hair-pin bends and the like, which required him to drive slowly, dragging the weight of time even longer.

Wanganui was almost a dead town by the time we reached it at 5pm in the evening. I was singing the theme song for the western movie 'the good, the band and the ugly'. Apparently, most New Zealand towns close for the day by 4pm or slightly later. We searched for the motel in which we stayed in and decided to go get a takeaway for dinner.

We discovered a small fish n chips shop on a corner in the town and when we went back, we discovered to our extreme disgust that the fish and fries were actually non-salted. Sitting there in the seventies-era motel room eating tasteless fish was extremely discomforting and depressing, so my mum decided that it was a waste, but we should eat until we could take no more, and the rest, mostly fries, dumped into the trash.

I was full of fish and chips even by the next day, when we went to explore the town. In fact, there isn't much about Wanganui except that it is a stone's throw away from the tasman sea, and there was an ancient tower stuck on the hill. deciding that there wasn't much about the tasman sea, we decided to go for the tower. Using the road map was easy enough, but trying to find a way when most roads were one way was the pain in the arse for us.

The tower was finally reached, but we had to take a lift up the hill which was very,very,very old. Costing Three NZ dollars each, we went up the hill and emerged at the top of the hill to see the brick-red tower.

Climbing up the tower, we decided to climb the tower, but we could never get the same amount of stairs as the plaque said the tower had. It was more stairs when we went up, but less stairs as we went down. The view was magnificent, so leaving God to his oddities, we left the place and headed back to the car.

Cheers, and keep reading

Crawldaddy