Today we have another scenic drive, this one overlooking lakes Rotoaira and Taupo.
We stop in the town of Taupo. Across the street from the information centre is a McDonald’s with a 1940s style passenger plane attached to it for additional customer seating.
In the information centre, we all book a jet boat ride for the afternoon with Rapid Jet, who claim to operate the only jet boat in NZ that goes over whitewater rapids. After a quick walk around town, it is time to drive to the starting point.
The boat ride is on Aratiatia Rapids on the Waikato River. At the top of the rapid is a large hydroelectric power station, with the rapids being a spill off from it. There are eight people on the quite compact speed boat, which makes it extremely agile, light, and therefore fast. Jet boats are powered by a jet of water ejected from the back of the craft, making the propulsion much more intense. The pilot swings us between various obstacles and the rock face banks, seemingly coming within inches of serious hazard. As well as a lot of fun, it’s a scenic little canyon. The pilot tells us that this part of the river was recently used as a setting by a film crew for a Yogi Bear film that is supposed to come out next year.
We are told that we are not allowed to bring cameras on the trip because we will probably drop them, which could be dangerous. It has nothing to do with the Rapid Jet employee photographing us as we go up and down the rapids so they can sell us a CD of them when we finish. We buy one CD to share between us, which costs NZ$35 (£17) on top of the $90 per person for the ride. Not that I am complaining though. It was like a scenic roller coaster ride that lasted for more than half an hour, though it didn’t seem so long.
Tonight we camp at a DoC site defined as ‘basic’, which means it has no water facilities (and no TP in the toilet). It is about 40km from Taupo and is accessed via a dirt track. In fact there is a track that goes through the campsite deeper into the woodland which undulates up and down and in bends, just like a BMX or Quad Biking track. However, I am told by one of our fellow campers that people take their 4x4s on this.
This is a hunters’ campsite and, for probably the first time since we arrived in NZ, most of its patrons are New Zealanders. They are here for the population of deer in the woods around us. One of the hunters is friendly guy of about fifty called Robert, who has brought his young sons as well as being joined by extended family. He is originally from Wales, but left in 1981 and now lives in Hamilton. We have a long chat with him, during which time he asks how much it costs to go stag hunting in England. When I explain that in England such things are seen a rich man’s hobby, he is quite disappointed as he had hoped to make a trip. Hunting seems to be very much a part of the everyman culture in NZ. Robert tells us he doesn’t have a job, so he sources his food the old fashioned way.
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