We woke up in Lower Hutt (just outside the capital city, Wellington) and after a Pita Pit breakfast, got on the road. We weren’t sure where we would stop so Shannon read through our Lonely Planet guide on the drive.

We drove into Taupo, which is on a huge lake by the same name and decided this would be a nice place to spend a couple nights.

There is a lot of geothermal activity in this area too, which means hot springs and volcanoes. Just like in Picton, we found a Top 10 which are fast becoming our favorite campa places to stay.

This Top 10 was really nice with a heated pool, trampolines, free DVDs to borrow and excellent facilities. It is also a short walk to the Spa Thermal Park, which is basically a hot spring that empties into a river in a park area.

The river water is pretty chilly and the hot spring is boiling where it comes out, so its nice to go back and forth between the cool and warmer parts. We swam around here for hours. We cooked a nice meal back at the campa park swam in the heated pool before watching a DVD in the van before going to sleep.

We woke up the next day and went for a walk around Huka Falls. This is a popular place to ride the jet boats, but we didn’t do this.

Next, we went to Wairaki Natural Thermal Valley, which is a nature park with geothermal activity literally bubbling up from underground.

All along the walk, there are wild grapes and berries you can just pluck off the vine and eat.

After this walk we hit the grocery store to make a nice picnic for the Spa Thermal park. We liked it so much the first day we went back again – this time with food and beers.