Taupo touring...

Last weekend we decided to go away for the weekend so that Granny and Grandpa B could see some of the country other than Hamilton. They were keen for some mountains and some thermal stuff, so Taupo seemed like the best place to base ourselves. We booked a bach (a holiday house, for non-Kiwis) through bookabach and headed off on Friday afternoon. The weather forecast was good for Saturday, so we headed up to Whakapapa in the morning. We went for a short stroll at the now-closed ski-field and managed to find a last little patch of snow to play in - which Ben had been keen on! After warming up in the cafe, we headed back down to the village and went for a short nature walk and had a picnic lunch. After that, we went for another short walk, this time to Tawhai Falls, followed by the drive back to the bach. All up it was a pretty long day - we were all tired by the end of it.
On Sunday we planned to have a slightly more relaxed day, so we just went in to Taupo to the AC Baths (thermally heated pools) for the morning (as a special birthday activity for Ben!). That ended up being very nice - Ben had oodles of fun in the nice warm water. We had a relaxing afternoon back at the bach and then went out for a nice birthday dinner in town again.

Monday morning was pack-up time, so once we'd done that we started heading north again. A stop at Huka Falls for morning tea, then on to Orakei Korako - a thermal area about half an hour north of Taupo. We all had fun walking around there looking at steaming pools and bubbling mud, before heading back home after lunch.

A very busy weekend, fitting in lots of stuff, and tiring Granny and Grandpa B out thoroughly!