I am sitting writing this blog by the side of Lake Taupo. We are spending all day slowly travelling around this huge lake.

It is the largest natural lake in Australasia and is contained within a huge ancient volcano. All round the lake are small volcanoes and thermal pools and steaming hillsides. It is amazing.

It is windy today and there are small waves on the lake. The black swans are being bounced up and down. I can see huge white cliffs and rounded hills formed by volcano deposits.

There are only 3 main towns around the lake…. Taupo, Kinloch and Turangi where we are based. The largest volcanoes are Mt Ruapehu, Mt Ngauruhue, Mt Tongariro, Mt Pihanga, Mt Tauhara. The national forest surrounds the area and it is on the great NewZealand Plateau. It is spectacular volcanic scenery full of native forests,bush walks and ski areas, thermal pools and waterfalls.

The Maori heritage is very much in evidence throughout this area. The whole area is very significant to the Maori.

We have just had a bit of excitement! we turned down a lane towards the lake when we saw 4 large horses running quickly towards us on the road. They slowed down before they reached us as there was a field of horses on our right and they were all excited too. 2 4 wheel drive cars managed to stop them and encourage them to return eventually to their field. Naughty horses!!

Anyway hope you like my photos. Tomorrow we travel to Tauranga via Rotorua , right across the plateau and to the sea. We will see lots of beautiful scenery on the way and intend to take it slowly stopping where we can at view points

Lovely sunny day today and we decided to head up to the volcanoes. We stopped at the view point over lake Taupo and chatted to 2 ladies who had been to all the places we had been to in South Island It was good to compare experiences. They just left Haast before the terrible rain came.

We went up the volcanic loop highway up to the ski fields. The road went up so high with fab views. At the end of the road we got on the ski lifts for half price as we are seniors! The lifts were good fun and as it was so clear we had good views all the way up. In the afternoon we went back to the lake to explore along the other side. There are fissures of steam coming from the hillsides and hot pools. We went down to the water to photo shoot wildlife. Again we had such a lovely day.

Travelling day today. The sat nav took us to Wanganui South of Hawera and then on the highway 4 so we avoided the Forgotten World Highway thankfully, it would have taken ages that way as the roads are windy and steep and not easy.

At Taumarunui we turned right on the national park over the plateau. We then found we were on the volcanic loop highway and yes MORE VOLCANOES.

One is steaming!

The lake is beautiful and we are very happy.
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Our last day in Taranaki and we visited the lake Rotorangi, I managed to photograph a blue bird with a red beak a pukeko…..

Also we got our daily fix of the volcano views

We went up the volcano roads but there was low cloud there and we couldn’t see much.

So we headed for the coast via New Plymouth where we had fun again with the mirrors on the art gallery.

we also visited the top floor of the visitors centre

we got some more views of the Cape Egmont lighthouse and the beautiful Tasmin coastline.

In the evening we walked down the lane by our motel and caught the sunset behind the volcano.

Hi we are on the way to Lake Taupo and found an Internet cafe. HOpefully we will have wifi there will post later

Today we went to New Plymouth for the day and found it was an interesting place. On the way we took more pictures of the volcano (got to get our fix for the day!)

We went to the information centre in New Plymouth and it was also a museum and café with free fast wifi!

We ate the most tasty lunch there too.

The photos show the coastline at New Plymouth. It has 4 beaches and a huge port. The tide was coming in and the surf was impressive, due to the tail of the hurricane which hit Fiji. Lots of crabs were on the boulders in front of us, trying to escape the waves.

On the way back we stopped at a coast guard centre with a light house.

It is cooler today but still warm 20c. it is officially Autumn now in New Zealand and they say enjoy the last of the sun as by May it will be very cold!