A Family Adventure Scenic Taupo

As we continue our journey south on the NZ North Island towards Taupo, we stop at the Geothermal Wonderland Park named Wai-O-Tapu. Now this park was fantastic in terms of size, walkability, and had a great variety of thermal pools to look at. There was a Grand Prismatic-like spring, boiling waterfalls (not really, just hot water migrating downhill, but boiling waterfalls sounded cooler), toxic waste green pool, and beautiful lakes. I highly recommend stopping here if you are doing a NZ road trip.

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The smells were quite intense at several parts of the park. Depending on which direction the wind is blowing, you might have the sulfur smell chase you through the forest. This was a place Jeff continued to be quite concerned could blow at any moment. This thing is HUGE. The last time it erupted was 1,800 years ago. That’s right, humans were running around. Here is a fun video about the volcano with Microsoft Paint quality drawings, which had to be a complete biatch to draw.

Source: Lowe, David & Pittari, A.. (2021). The Taupō eruption sequence of AD 232 +- 10 in Aotearoa New Zealand: a retrospection. Journal of Geography (Chigaku Zasshi). 130. 117-141.

After our day exploring spicy-hot-death pools, we headed to our Airbnb. Our plans for Taupo were pretty simple. So simple, we ended up playing in a park and crawling on the “Love Taupo” sign. One fun thing that happened was when the boys walked by this large dog laying on the ground by his owners. Without doing anything, and I know this because I was watching them, the damn thing lunged out at Owen aggressively.

Luckily the owner had the dog on a leash, and Kujo was not able to bite Owen’s face off. Strangely, their reaction was very cavalier, with no apology or acknowledgement of what just happened. Owen was scared shitless. My reaction was less than subtle. The fact that the completely irresponsible dog owners would allow their highly aggressive dog out in public and around people (children) without a mussel/significant restraint is disgusting. After helping them understand what should happen with their mutt, we continued on our way.

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The Taupo town is pretty cute. It was a bit rainy, but we didn’t let that stop us in the slightest. The next activity was a long hike to Huka Falls. This is a 100% must do. It was raining A LOT but we really didn’t want to miss it. Also, it is fun to hike in the rain. In these conditions there typically aren’t many people, so the trails are pretty empty. The forest smells amazing in a nice rain, and as long as it’s not too cold, you really won’t be too uncomfortable.

The color of the Huka Falls was just the most brilliant blue. They were strong, and I could have just sat there for hours in this majestic Zen zone. There are ways to get to the main bridge that don’t involve a hike as well if needed. You can also take a red boat up to the falls edge like Niagara falls. They turn the boat power up, head towards the falls, and then they just let the waterfall push the boat away. It was fun to watch the power. I am pretty sure if the boat got too close, the falls would sink the ship pretty quickly.

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When we got back home before dinner, I had to use my latest and greatest invention. The Blowhard Shoe Dryer (BSD) will be coming to market late 2025. In order to build such a contraption, one must have a hair dryer, box of any sort and a lack of fear for fire or the confidence you could put one out quickly. The key to this setup is to make sure the “overheating” element in the hair dryer doesn’t trigger. I will be selling the BSD on Alibaba so others can resell it for more on Amazon.

Alas, it was time to say goodbye to Grandpa Gary who was an absolutely impressive travel partner. He held his own so incredibly well. All the hikes, rain, dogs, thermal pools, jetboats and much more. We had our goodbye dinner at a lovely restaurant and then headed back to the house. We would be dropping Grandpa off early in the morning.