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Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Taupo Trip - Day5

Taupo - Mt Ruapehu Trip Day 5 < 24th June 2007 >

After bfast, bout 10.40am, a courtesy coach owned by Huka Jet picked us up at Silver Fern Lodge. We were glad that the weather for 2day is pretty good, where there is sun and no rain. Hehe=) After we got the tickets, we handed our bags to the counter, headed further to the boat. Huka Jet is one of the most thrilling activity that you must undertaken when you go to Wairakei Tourist Park. Once we dressed up ourselves with waterproof life jackets, they took a photo of us, and we are ready to go for the thrill. Once we stepped into the boat, our driver of the boat – Ash welcomed us with some light entertainment. At that moment, four of us were really in exhilarating spirit, thinking the ride must be fun. The whole ride includes the ride down to Aratiatia Dam up to Huka Falls. Huka Falls – known as Hukanui in Maori, meaning ‘ Great Body of Spray’. It is a largest fall in NZ as a great torrent of water , more like a giant rapid that plunges through a narrow cleft in the rock. – more than 220,000 litres tumbles over the clift per second. In overall, the Huka Jet ride is a exhilarating ride where u get chill when you zoom past sheer rock cliff and the 360 degree spin. Thanks to Ash for its expertise of controlling the boat that makes the ride a nice one. =)
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The final result was we were soaked wet…haha coz splashed by Waikato river’s water…hehe After the ride, we went back to the reception desk to get back our bags and our photos. Well, I wasn’t that satisfied with the shot, so I didn’t buy the photo pack. Only Elun bought it. The guy at the counter was so disappointed, sorry to say…*grins*

Our next stop was Craters of The Moon, a beautiful name for an unexploited thermal area. The whole track takes about 45 minutes to complete. Well, it was an interesting sight to see as lots of steam appeared when you wander them along the walking track. For me, I think the view is spectacular! You can never see such view in any other place…Sad to said after few minutes walk, you will find boring as all view looks almost the same… Yet, at the second lookout, there is a large mud crater – a highlight of the area. Closely looked, you can perceive that pumice and mud are bubbling from the crater.










After a pretty long walk at the thermal environment, we headed to Honey Hive- 100% pure NZ’s honey by hopping into the HOT BUS. This honey hive houses NZ’s largest collection of honey bee products and a few glass-enclosed hives. There is also free honey tasting for a wide array of honey ranging from the mild traditional Clover honey to the most famous Manuka Honey. There are lots of natural honeybee skin & healthcare products as well supplemented with souvenirs and unique gifts under the theme buzzy bee. Besides, I could also grab the chance of trying the creamy honey ice-creams at the Bees Knees Café. I ordered an ice-cream topped with 1 scoop of Manuka Honey & Chestnut with another scoop of Lemon Meringue Pie, a heaven delight!



---> real life bee display

---> miracle within the mirror?

--->i m tasting the honey..hehe

----> the buzzy bee

--->all kinds of honey in wide display

---> the honey bee's product

---> manuka honey+ chestnut + lemon meringue pie ice cream


In the same building, at a small corner there is the NZ Fruit Wines section. It is believed to be NZ largest collection of fruit wines and liquers. There are quite a lot of unique NZ medal winning fruit wines on display including Kiwifruit, Boysenberry, Plum, Fejoa, Apricot, Passionfruit, Strawberry, Blueberry and Honey Meads plus fruit liquers and brandies. All together I tasted four kinds of red wines and I feel that the sweet plus not-that-bitter black raspberry taste the best.


After that, we thought of going to Lava Glass Studio Gallery. But unfortunately the driver of the Hot Bus who sent us didn’t manage to get what we said and sent us directly back to our backpackers, sad isn’t it? Frust. No other way we can go back but to blame on bad luck hits us for the day.
---> the HOT BUS


Back to Silver Fern, due to lots of obstacles that hinders Elun & Py from goin to sky dive, they decided to try on another daring stunt- the Taupo Bungy. Left me n wyne wasn’t that bold enough to try on such risky activity. So they headed off to Bungy and we went on our shopping spree again.
...Here r some of the pics we took in between our shopping...





Dinner time, we went to Max Café. Elun & poh Yee were so excited for explaining their unforgettable experience for bungy. They still cant believe that both of them had really gone through it. I really have to congrats them for being such brave to take on the plunge, bravo! My salute to u guys! My dinner of the day was Ham & Mushroom Pasta. Yum yum tasty! Poh Yee ordered smoked salmon pasta, while Elun & Wyne ordered burger for each.

the following two pics I got from Elun...their taupo bungy pics...expensive pics...haha cool experience!

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