Day 15 - Fri 26 Oct

A pretty slow day after yesterday's excitement (and thankfully a MUCH shorter journal entry!!). Slept in with the hope of a recovery from the cold, but that was not to be. We then headed back to the Tamaki Village for a better look at the shops, with the intent of buying some sort of wood carving as a souvenir.

The village there really has an authentic feel to it. Much more so than the tourist version put together at Whaka. We had a good look around, including spending some time in their museum which has good exhibits of their traditional tools, weapons and beliefs, and a presentation on Maori history, including the original Maori migration to New Zealand. They also had a video playing that explained the battles between the Maoris and the Europeans from 1844 through 1872.

We then contined on to Taupo, the latter part of the trip with a petrol light showing. Just made it .. phew. Cruised into town and again first stop was the tourist information centre, then lunch to digest our research (and, of course, some vittles). Back to the information centre and booked a lake cruise for the morning (since the volcano tour was not available until after we leave town).

Lake Taupo

We seemed to spend a lot of time here finding a good campsite. Probably because we were early and had the time to spend. The first one was scenic but the facilities looked a bit dodgy. The second and third had spa pools, but were dives or just sitting in the middle of suburbia. We decided on the fourth, De Bretts Thermal Resort, (not least for the lovely 1950s, 60s and 70s music radio station which was piped 24 hours into the bathroom - making us feel towards the end of our short stay like we were trapped inside a nursing home!!! Aaaagh!) pulled into our site, and settled in for a relaxing afternoon off, reading papers and books and drinking tea and coffee in the back of the van while the rain fell outside.

PANIC!! PANIC!! About 6 PM we noticed that we didn't have my (Cameron's) camera bag. This is the bag that I take everywhere, so it not only has all the camera equipment, but also my passport and plane tickets. We quickly packed the car and drove back into town. It had to be at the Information Centre or at the lunch cafe. However, both of these were closed. We then tried the police station, and were most relieved (PHEW!!) to find it there. Seems I had left it at the cafe, and they had kindly delivered it to the police on closing. I spend the rest of the evening berating myself for being so stupid. STUPID! STUPID!! STUPID!!! Lucky ....

Dinner in town, then off to bed, most dubious about how much we'll enjoy tomorrow's lake cruise in this pouring rain.