Ernest Kemp

A little bit of a later start today and it was still raining but we had planned to go to this "geothermal wonderland" called Orakei Korako. Its a volcanic area park with geysers, hot springs and bubbling mud pools. It's about a 25 minute drive up north and besides a cab (which was too expensive) there was one shuttle that ran there. The lady at the iSite called but he said he had no availability to take us there until 4, and since its winter that was just a little too late for daylight. This was sad news, a girl at our hostel told us that shuttle guy is kind of a jerk.

So instead we took a boat ride out to some famous rock carvings done by the native Maori people in the area. That was nice. It sailed through Lake Taupo and had some really beautiful views and the carvings were so awesome. The boat got us really close.

The rain cleared up during the boat ride which was quite the relief. After the ride we walked around the town and saw some more great views. There was even a rainbow in the sky! They have this golf challenge there where you hit a golf ball off land and aim to hit it in the hole of this section thats floating in the water some distance away. It was only $1 dollar per golf ball and if you hit the cube of land, you got vouchers for stuff around the town and if you got it in the hole you won ten thousand dollars.

My first shot was actually really close to hitting it! Second and third... not so much.

Later that night we hit up the bar street again, much more mellow on a Sunday. This one bar had karaoke going on though and that was pretty cool. Once I gained the courage to go someone else claimed the last song. That was probably for the best.