After our glow worm adventure, we drove on to Taupo, the next stop on our journey south. Along the way we passed rolling hills with huge grey boulders erupting at random from the grass. Lord of the Rings country was in full effect!

As we found a parking spot and carried our bags to the hostel, it already felt chillier in town in comparison to Rotorua and Auckland. The skies were clouding over for the first time since we’d arrived a couple weeks ago. In New Zealand, the further south you go, the cooler it gets.

Lake Taupo

I didn’t find the town itself to be so impressive (sorry, Taupo), but how gorgeous is this massive lake? This was our first view of proper New Zealand snow-capped mountains, and we had a mini celebration as we veered off the road onto the nearest scenic overlook. The tiny person in the photo above is Kate, after running gleefully through the field to get her perfect shot.

I think one of those mountains is Mount Ngauruhoe, aka Mount Doom, but I’m not entirely sure. I know for sure it’s in that direction. If not one of those mountains, it’s directly behind. Anyway. Moving on!

Moody sunset at the lake! Rainclouds over the water. So cool.

Waikato River

The tourism websites never mention this river for some reason, but the water is STUNNING. Maybe I just have an obsession with that deep turquoise color, but I have about 50 horribly-composed photos just of the water because I couldn’t get over it. Kate and I drove to this park to see the falls, and we decided it’d be nice to take the “scenic route” on a dirt footpath that followed the river’s edge. The walk was much farther than either of us expected, and we ended up getting rained on, and one of my boot’s laces caught on the other boot and I took a pretty hard fall…but for that river? Worth it.

Huka Falls

Travellers we talked to around town were underwhelmed by this waterfall, so we weren’t expecting much. We certainly weren’t expecting the spectacular waterworks we saw when we finally got there! That beautiful river gets funneled into a narrow canyon where it churns up into a frothy bright aqua blue and runs up along the rock walls. The water is under lots of pressure so it takes on all kinds of structural forms. It’s mesmerizing to watch. Then, at the far end of the ravine is the actual waterfall, where the water shoots out of the canyon with such force that it flies out through the air instead of falling straight down. The whole place was singing with sheer energy and power.

Rt. 1

After a couple days in Taupo, we got back on the road. We didn’t go far before the scenery shifted completely, to scrub-covered plains and snow-capped volcanoes. Pretty epic scenery for a road trip onward!