Huka Falls Resort, Taupo.
Here’s another of my irregular posts with few words and heaps of pics. This time it’s from a recent trip to New Zealand’s central North Island. We stayed at Taupo and took the kids up Mt Ruapehu, minus the skis, to see the snow.
Even though it was a grey old weekend we had a good old time.The Huka Falls Resort in Taupo was a a nice little place to stop off for the night on the way there. We had a reasonably-priced 2 bedroom villa all to ourselves, which was perfect as it meant we could isolate the kids from the other guests…
The drive down from Taupo to the mountain took barely more than an hour, and that was in miserably wet conditions. Thankfully the rain had washed away by the time we reached our destination. The Central Plateau area is all stark, brooding, Mordor-like volcanicness (particularly on a bad weather day) but spectacular nonetheless. It’s a far cry from the European-style Alpine picture-book scenery you might associate with a popular ski-field, but cool. Very cool (in more ways than the obvious).
Here are some of my snaps.
Chateau Tongariro is dwarfed by the mountain.
Mt Ruapehu. Snow!
The Chateau. Cool old building.
The Bruce Road takes you all the way up to Whakapapa ski field.
Scoria Flat isn’t very flat.
Happy Valley at Whakapapa. Full of happy people.
Obligatory snow man. Seconds before obliteration…
Huka Falls, just north of Taupo. Stop off here for a few minutes to see some very angry water.
The locals are very welcoming.