Yesterday we moved on to Taupo which is a town on the shore of Lake Taupo and is probably as near as you can get to the centre of New Zealand.
The lake is the largest lake in New Zealand and as you can see is quite spectacular.
Today it was decided that we would take a boat trip to see the Maori rock carvings. Now there are two ways to do this trip, well actually there are four, either by super duper modern catamaran or by an old clapped out steamer - guess which one it was decreed that we go on - got it in one!
Incidentally the other two ways are by sailing boat or by kayak.
The total trip was about two hours and started off by going round several of the bays and then to the sculptures. Now because these are Maori carvings the assumption is that they have been there for many years but that is not so - they were only done in the 1970's
When we had returned from the boat trip we (well me) decided that we needed a bit of excitement so we went for a plane ride - now calling it a plane may stretch the bounds of credibility as it was a Cessna Floatplane. Now you have to bear in mind that the last plane we were on was an Airbus A380 which is about the biggest plane around at the moment and this is right at the opposite end of the spectrum - and we will not even go down the road of when it was first built (1970's - can you see a theme developing?)
The trip in this plane was breathtaking - it was almost impossible to take in all of the scenery. We have seen some spectacular scenery whilst driving around but to see it from the air was something else.
More photos from this flight can be found in my photo gallery.
Tomorrow we move on to Rotorura - our last stop on the "road trip" before we return to Auckland