Day 19 - A Chilled Day in Taupo

​Today was Kreig’s day off, so a free day for the group in Taupo. People had booked various different things, but I had my eye on a nice wander along the lakeshore and a few geocaches on the way.

I had a bit of a lie-in (it’s a 6:45am start tomorrow, so I needed to take advantage whilst I can!) and a quick breakfast before starting my walk along the waterfront. 


Not too long into my stroll, I stopped on a convenient bench overlooking the lake and had a good catch-up on the phone with Dad (who assures he that he is keeping out of mischief…..). I then also paused a bit to watch the rather strange ‘sport’ of sea golf….


It was then a lovely wander for a few hours. I saw lots of cool art and features, and then enjoyed looking at all the water-based transport in the marina - especially the seaplane. Riverside park was also peaceful and a lovely place to stroll. 


I found quite a few caches, and enjoyed a lovely cup of tea and Anzac biscuit in a cafe.

I walked back to the hotel through the town centre. The highlight of this was a stop at officially the world’s coolest McDonald’s, on account of it having an actual DC3 plane as part of the restaurant. For the record, I have tried to find out exactly the criteria for being the world’s coolest McDonald’s but with no luck…. It does seem to be generally accepted that this wins though!


After a bit of downtime (reading my book and having a quick nap!), I went to a lovely local restaurant. My main course was good (the duck fat roast potatoes a particular highlight!) but the dessert (apple crumble ice cream) stole the show!


I am now doing a bit of a repack of my suitcase in preparation for our move down to Wellington tomorrow. It is going to be a long day, but a LOT of excitement is planned…. Including a musical in the evening :) 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1 - It Starts……..

Image
Having been thinking and talking about this adventure for months, today rather crept up on me. As well being a little hurried in actually packing a rucksack for up to three months of travel (I had been organised with packing lists, just not the actually putting things in a bag bit), I was also a bit last minute in tying up loose ends at home, mainly the boring things, like sorting out my car tax that I realised expired whilst I am away. It was therefore also a bit of a late night doing the really important things, like finishing the hardback book I had no intention of travelling with, and downloading some shows to watch onto my Chromebook. But, after a bit of last minute re-packing (Do I really need that extra T-shirt? Probably not. Where did I put that charging cable?), my rucksack was ready to go, and I had sorted everything I needed to in my flat. I am pleased to report that I have not left anything in the fridge that is likely to be gross on my return. Then off through the rain to ...
Read more

Day 2 - Touristing it up in Brussels

Image
The Eurostar journey was pretty uneventful yesterday. Despite looking out of the window, I did not see any fish 🐠 as I crossed the Channel, and I made sure I was on the look-out for small boat crossings too.....  It was early evening when I arrived in Brussels. The metro system took me a few minutes (and one journey in the wrong direction) to figure out, but Google Maps did its thing and got me to my hotel safely. The hotel is near the Royal Galleries, close to the Grand Place, and it is pretty busy around as apparently this is a big weekend with Belgian National Day tomorrow.  An evening quest for food (success) was followed by a walk through said Royal Galleries and then a test of my photography skills at the Grand Place. It is, as the name suggests, pretty Grand. Pleasingly for me, there were lots of Geocaching AdLabs around for me to use to learn some history. My visit here was then followed up with some good wandering around, with the highlight undoubtedly the Brussels D...
Read more

Day 3 - Happy Belgian National Day!

Image
Yesterday evening was fairly quiet - a stroll to see Jeanneke Pis, all in the name of gender equality.... and then an ice-cream and soaking up some of the holiday vibes.  Today, in case you did not know, is Belgium's national day. I had read a bit about some celebration events, some of which I am hoping to see this evening, but I did not know that as I walked to find some breakfast this morning, within 100m of my hotel I would stumble upon the whole Belgian royal family arriving for the Te Deum mass at the St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral. Having previously sat opposite the Swedish royal family at a concert in Stockholm when visiting with Lizzy, I am starting to appreciate European royal families turning out for my visits.... Apparently it was King Philippe, Queen Mathilde, and their four children (Elisabeth, Eleonore, Gabriel and Emmanuel) who were there. You can read all about their outfits on the Daily Fail Online, if that's your thing.  Anyway, I enjoyed the experience, ...
Read more