Friday, February 6, 2009
We made it to New Zealand!!! Our flight was pretty uneventful. They served us two very good meals and as much New Zealand wine that we cared to drink. I watched Rachel’s wedding and 27 dresses and slept about 5 hours so the flight went pretty fast for her. Troy watched everyone else sleep on the plane. We picked up the car and headed toward Taupo. Mike drove. He did pretty well, but used the windshield wipers instead of the blinker on multiple occasions (this would be the theme for anyone driving as we were on the other side of the road than we were use to).
The scenery driving from Auckland to Taupo was remindful of Northern California. We stopped in Cambridge for breakfast and then stopped to see Huka Falls just outside of Taupo. It was here we found out our camera was broken. So here we are without a camera on the first day. We tried to check in early, but the person at the counter wouldn’t allow it. So we went into Taupo and had lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon checking out Taupo city centre and looked at cameras.
After we checked in, we then went to Taupo Hot Springs. It was nice to sit in the mineral water and relax after our long day, but the place was not as nice as expected. We were thinking it would be similar to Costa Rica and the springs at Arenal, but it did not remotely resemble that tropical paradise and gardens – it was more like a hot springs water park.
We went to dinner at Huka Falls Winery and Restaurant. Troy had very good salmon, but Rita’s beef was overcooked and my dinner was also average, but the wine was good. We were all very tired. I couldn’t stay up past 8:30 p.m. but everyone else took a walk by Lake Taupo before heading to bed. It was still light out when we went to bed as the sun didn’t set until after 9:30 pm. The weather all day was wonderful and the people we met were very friendly. Outside of the camera incident, the day was very good. Slow paced and a great way to start our holiday.
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