Wellington to Taupo

 

Bus stop near our friends' house, Wellington, NZ

View from our friend's house, Wellington, NZ

Sunset, Wellington, New Zealand

MORE ADVENTURES IN NEW ZEALAND!

Carrying all the stuff.

What we carry each time we move!

Catching the city bus down to the bus stop in Wellington.

LEAVING WELLINGTON

Not long before we left, we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants in the area, Grill Meats. They have great dumplings!

THE BUS

Most of our travel in the North Island of New Zealand was via Intercity.

ARRIVING IN TAUPO

Taupo (Pronounced Toe Paw) is on the edge of Lake Taupo, which formed due to volcanoes!

MACDONALD'S IN AN AIRPLANE?

I'm not sure why this McDonald's is in an airplane.

STAYING WITH A FRIEND AT AN AIRBNB

We had met and stayed with Jen for three days while in Adelaide, Australia, around Christmas time. We planned to meet up with her again in Lake Taupo, where she was looking after an Airbnb, and help her out.

SWAMPY CLIMATE!

The plants in Taupo were so unique, and I felt like I was in a swamp! Turns out, I was right! Khevron spent a lot of time cleaning the long, long driveway and also blowing the leaves off the many, many pathways through the forest around their house.

The Lake Taupo area features extensive, protected lacustrine wetlands (marshes, bogs, and swamp forests) directly along its shorelines, while the wider catchment is classified as a Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forest biome. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

The marshy, waterlogged feel of the area comes from a fascinating mix of volcanic geography, specific wetlands, and human history: [1]

• The South Taupo Wetland: The southern edge of the lake features a massive, diverse wetland reserve that is home to marsh-loving native plants like flax, sedges, and ferns. [1, 2]
• Swamp Forests: In fertile, flood-prone areas near the lake and its inflowing rivers, you will find Kahikatea (native white pine) swamp forests that thrive in matted, waterlogged soils. [1]
• Volcanic Geology: The lake itself is a massive volcanic caldera surrounded by pumice terraces. Because pumice is highly porous, water behaves strangely around it—acting like a sponge in some areas and creating swampy, boggy microclimates in others. [1, 2]
• Tussock & Scrubland: The wider landscape around the lake has a marshy, open feel not just from water, but from centuries of historic fires that replaced the original dense forests with hardy, low-lying scrubland and tussock grass. [1, 2, 3]

(GoogleAI)

SUNSET AT JOLLY GOODFELLOWS 

We picked a restaurant that looked both fun and also faced the ocean for good sunset pictures (such as Khevron loves to take). And we settled on Jolly Goodfellows, which was a pub. We went there with Jen.

Jolly Goodfellows, Taupo, NZ.

THE MENU

THE SUNSET

Enjoying our pub food.

BEAUTIFUL HOUSE GARDEN

Jen had a good friend, and we got to wander their beautiful garden while Jen visited them. 

Golden Elm Tree.

I particularly liked this tree with its leaves a range of green to light green to yellow.

The teeniest flower!

It is amazing that one house can have such an extensive and well-kept garden!

Op Shops and the Crafty Trout Brewery

 

Op Shop is a Thrift store

WE LOVE OP SHOPS

In New Zealand and Australia, we loved to go to Op Shops (Opportunity Shops), which Americans call Thrift Stores. Almost everywhere we go, we hit up the Op shops as we arrived in a new area. Lots of fun. And we'd find good deals, but wouldn't always buy things (because we were backpacking and had very little room). So, it was mostly safe.

BOOKS

So we found two good books at an Op shop in Taupo. First was a Tundra, an Alaskan comic strip book. Chad Carpenter is a hilarious writer, and we've followed his comic strips for a long time. He always comes to our state fair in Fairbanks. So, we picked up that book and gave it away. 

THE DOOMSDAY BOOK

The Domesday Book is a manuscript record of a massive survey of England and parts of Wales, completed in 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror. It is Britain's earliest public record and was designed to assess the country's wealth, landholdings, and taxable resources. [1, 2]

The other was a great find: The Doomsday Book. Mind you, we found this book in the Travel section, but it is not a travel book (even though it contains photographs of cities). Being in the SCA and loving medieval history, we knew that this was a copy of the survey done by none other than William the Conqueror in 1086! So we picked that up (for like $1) and gave it to a friend there in the SCA (where it will do much more good than it will in the travel section of an Op shop!).

CRAFTY TROUT BREWERY

Nothing is more fun than a welcoming, well-done brewery! When we saw the front, we knew we'd have to go eat there. 

We loved the great pub decor and also the clever signs (much more than pictured here!). 

BREWS ON TAP

Here's the list.

AROUND TOWN.

Around town, we saw another majestic tree.

A view of Lake Taupo from near our Airbnb

What is this? Not sure.