There was a huge windstorm last night, carrying on into the morning. The laptop started up just fine, but you know what they say about problems that disappear by themselves!

I packed up a small backpack and prepared to head out. Just then, Elke woke up. She's Kylie's friend from Australia who had come over for the weekend to get a tattoo from a skilled Maori tattoo artist. We talked about tattoos, the law of attraction, living in the present and how other cultures see the world. She also had some wonderful thoughts on the "fire" (or spirit) within us that drives us to do certain things... such as why I "needed" to come here to New Zealand. She said that life is constantly displaying to us a huge spectrum of what is possible.

I wanted to stay much longer but was already 30 mintutes late because she was so fascinating to talk to. It was still quite windy out. I caught the bus to the train station and got there just after 2 pm. Regan swung by in the car a few minutes later and we were off on our weekend adventure.

We passed though the town of Bulls. These people had a sense of humor! Everything was "-bull"... as in unbelieve-a-bull, transport-a-bull, afford-a-bull, etc.

At 5:30 pm, we passed through Taihape, which has as its claim to fame: the gumboot capital of the world. Apparently every year, they have a gumboot (or rubber boot) throwing contest.

A large gumboot statue

Here are a couple pictures you've seen before from my Auckland bus trip:

Mount Ruapehu

Regan told me they did a lot of filming in this area for The Lord of the Rings. But because of the delicate plant life, the gear and people had to be flown to the shooting location by helicopter instead of driven in (they had to go deep into the area to get away from the power lines). Also, the tops of the mountains are sacred to the Maori people (they consider them to be their ancestors), so in the final movie, all the tops of the peaks had to be digitally edited to respect this belief. Here, however, you can see them as they are.

Mount Ngauruhoe

Unfortunately we didn't see any unicorns actually crossing the road!

It had been hot for most of the day but was starting to cool off as we arrived in Taupo around 7:15 pm. The sun was just about to set on the lake.

Lake Taupo

We checked into the Camellia Court Motel. Even before he showed us the room, the manager offered us, in his thick South African accent, an upgrade. We said we'd have a look at it first. So he walked us over to the small bungalow and opened the door. It was indeed small, but that made it all the more worth staying it!

One tiny bungalow... four rooms

My back was to the wall to take this...

... and the other direction

Classy...

... even classier!

We dropped our stuff off in the room then decided to walk into town. About a block away, we decided to turn back and get the car. It was obvious we weren't in the "best" of neighborhoods that Taupo had to offer, especially since it would be dark when we would be walking back. It was also a LOT farther away from downtown than we realized.

We found a small cafe/bar and sat and had some beer while the sun set. Regan had harshly-carbonated, too-cold, watery beer, and I had harshly-carbonated, too-cold, watery beer with dark coloring added to it. But the incredible colors in the sky made up for it.

I'd like to say "yum"... but I can't really.

Oooh... Aaaaah....

We grabbed a falafel plate at a cafe just as it was closing and brought it back to eat at the hotel room. There were no chairs and the table was just a bit too small, so we ate on the bed.

We were worried it was going to be a party motel, with the loud conversations and "thumpy" music that came through the thin walls, but things quieted down very early.