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Scenic New Zealand

Entry 95, on 2004-12-02 at 15:15:49 (Rating 1, Travel)

This is a belated report on our trip to Taupo, in the center of the North Island of New Zealand, about 10 days ago. The main reason for this trip was to celebrate my Dad's 70th birthday, but we also did some traveling around the area. I realised I had been to other countries (Australia and USA) about 8 times since the last time I had spent any time on the other island of New Zealand!

Taupo is quite an interesting place. Its lake (which is the largest in New Zealand) was formed after a huge volcanic explosion, which I read somewhere was the biggest volcanic event the world has seen in the last few hundred million years! The whole area still is obviously geothermally active, with volcanoes (some occasionally active), geysers, and hot springs.

We spent a day exploring a couple of the thermal areas, which was something new for Phillip and Nicole, and another half day lazing around in the Taupo Hot Pools. On the way home we had a brief visit at the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa, in Wellington.

After having such an enjoyable break we decided to explore the possibility of having our next "overseas" holiday in the North Island. People often don't realise that their own countries can be interesting, and there are so many things we haven't done there that there's no need to travel any further.

If you are viewing this entry from my main web site you can see a photo of the Diamond Geyser at Orakei Korako. You can also see my report, and photos, of this trip by using the link.

Link at: http://owen2.otago.ac.nz/owen/XuPersonalN/North00.html

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