Taupo is a huge freshwater lake in the middle of the North Island. It’s
surrounded by picturesque mountains, gravelly beaches, pine trees, and green
grass.
There’s something about seeing so much freshwater in one place that
impresses a parched aussie like me.
There was an ironman competition here yesterday. The winning time was
almost nine hours. Can you imagine running, swimming and cycling for that
long?
At the Waiotapu Thermal Park there’s a large area of thermal pools all
colored by different chemicals that occur naturally in the water.
My specs fogged up from all the steam.
We’re off the ship and exploring New Zealand.
Here’s some quick shots of some thermal mud pools at Waiotapu today. It
looks like something from another planet. And smells like it too 🙂
The ground is still rocking. We haven’t quite got used to being off the
ship.
It’s been a fantastic last day today. We couldn’t have asked for better
weather. This’ll probably be my last video from aboard Aurora, so I thought
I’d film it from my favourite place – up on the forward observation deck
overlooking the bow.
I might try and get a video of our table-mates tonight so you can see some
of the fascinating people we’ve been eating with each night.
Indians love their cricket so much that they even play it at sea!
We’re now closer to land (about 20km away) and small pleasure craft are
starting to come close to us.
Here’s a quick view of one that came pretty close this morning.
Sunsets at sea are amazing.
I saw these birds following us yesterday. We were hundreds of kilometres
from land. They weren’t flapping, just gliding behind the ship and skimming
the waves.
They almost looked like they were doing it just for fun!
