Taupo

Drive to get to Lake Taupo

After half a day checking out hot pools and sucking back sulphur fumes it's time to clear the lungs and head south towards Taupo, about 45 mins away. You'll be driving through the Kaingaroa State Forest, the largest man made forest in the world. Just before Taupo is the thermal village of Wairakei. Wairakei is home to New Zealand's ﬁrst geothermal power station, the miles of steel pipes shrouded in steam are a bit of a give away. The natural steam supplies 8% of our national power. You'll also ﬁnd the Huka falls. The Huka falls are New Zealand's most visited natural attraction, and for good reason. The falls are located on the Waikato River. The river enters a narrow channel dropping 8 metres over a length of 230m before ﬁnally being ejected 11 m above the plunge pool below. The falls are a raging churning bubbling torrent, even crossing the concrete walk bridge can be quite an intimidating experience when the river is in full ﬂow.Over 300,000 litres per second hurtle through the narrow chasm of the falls. On the other side of SH1 is 'Craters of the Moon' thermal reserve, it's certainly not to the measure of Waimangu or Waiotapu but worth a look.

Lake Taupo is actually a massive volcanic caldera, the remains of a spectacular volcano that last erupted around 186 AD. There is debris from the eruption scattered on the Bombay hills south of Auckland. The eruption threw ash and rock 30 km in to the air and devastated any living thing in its path. The Chinese and the Greeks noted these events and recorded the change in the atmosphere due to the huge amounts of volcanic ash thrown in to the stratosphere. No one inhabited New Zealand then.

What to do in Taupo

There's a huge variety of accommodation in Taupo but like most places it can be a real nightmare in peak season. Make sure you book at least a couple of nights in advance if travelling in summer. There are some great places to eat and there's certainly no shortage of nightlife. A lot of people in Taupo have spent the day falling out of perfectly good aircraft or leaping off 40m platforms so there's always a good vibe.

Taupo is arguably the skydiving capital of the world. There are more tandem skydives carried out at Taupo airport than any other drop zone. Jumps start at around $215 from 12,000 feet, that's about 50 seconds (freefall) of screaming bloody good fun!!! For more info contact the crew at Great Lakes Skydive or drop in to the bright orange and yellow hanger. Skydiving is very weather dependant and you guessed it, it gets extremely booked up during the summer months, give the drop zone a call on 0800 373 355.

There are plenty of other activities to keep you entertained. If the skydiving didn't scare the crap out of you, try the bungy on Spa road. The bungy's 50m above the mighty Waikato River and guaranteed to put a good shake in your knees!!! There are also ﬂight-seeing trips, 4WD motor bikes, white water rafting, mountain biking, kayaking and of course ﬁshing trips.

See Taupo in the Winter

During the winter Taupo transforms from its summer lakeland playground to a mountain ski village with New Zealand's largest ski ﬁeld, Whakapapa a little over 1 hour away.

A clear day at Taupo has some of the most spectacular images you'll encounter in your New Zealand experience. At the southern end of the lake are the volcanic mountains of Tongariro, the conical Ngauruhoe and the imposing Mt Ruapehu.

There are also a number of thermal hot pools in the Taupo region for the hot pool enthusiast. DeBretts on the Taupo Napier highway about 10 minutes outside of Taupo features a large complex to keep families entertained. They also have private pools for those looking for a little more solitude.

If you're heading back to Auckland today the drive will take you about 3 ½ hours by following SH1. At Cambridge follow SH1b until it rejoins SH1 at Taupiri, this way you'll bypass Hamilton .

If you're heading south, there's a really pleasant drive as you drive around the rim of Lake Taupo towards Turangi. Running between Turangi (the trout ﬁshing capital of the world) and Waiouru at the southern end of the Tongariro National Park, is the Desert Road. Here SH1 runs through the desolate volcanic wasteland of the central plateau, skirting the National Park and the Central North Island volcanoes. This road frequently closes in winter when it is impassable due to ice and snow.

Did you know?

Oranui Eruption

Lake Taupo was formed through one of the biggest volcanic eruptions on Earth, around 26,500 years ago. The Oruanui eruption threw out over 800 cubic kilometres of ash and rock. The ash was over 100m deep around the vent, there was enough matter to form three cones the size of Mt Ruapehu! The Chattam Islands over 800 km away off the South Islands east coast, received 11cm of ash.

Huka Falls

There are 32 rivers that flow in to lake Taupo and the Waikato river, home of the Huka falls, is the only river that flows out. Lake Taupo is 616 sq km and is large enough to fit Singapore in side it. It is 178m deep at it's deepest point, and it's bloody cold!

Ouch! During the Taupo eruption of 186 AD, at one stage 30 cubic km of pumice, rock and ash was ﬁred out horizontally at over 800km an hour. The material was molten so was in a liquid state and decimated everything in it's path except the peak of Mt Ruapehu. Scary stuff!