I'll be honest... We kinda skipped part of Orientation. We all wanted to travel, to see more of this incredible place. After a night of a few drinks, a few friends and I spontaneously booked a trip to Lake Taupo. We found a place to stay, Tiki Lodge, and roundtrip bus tickets all for around $50 USD. Can not complain with that type of deal!
Wednesday morning, before we hopped on Mana Bus (basically the same idea as Mega Bus - so super cheap!!!), we stopped at a little cafe called Robert Harris Cafe. I've since learned that the cafe is actually a chain here in New Zealand, and I am kind of obsessed with their coffee - and quite honestly, now their food as well - so that is a plus in my book! The first thing that caught my eye was a gluten free Ham & Potato Cake. I definitely will be attempting my own recipe like this in the near future, because it was delicious! I think along with the ham and potato, there definitely must have been some egg. I'll definitely be visiting Robert Harris Cafes again!
Our bus came about 75 minutes late, which we were all a bit annoyed about as we had just booked a sunset cruise to the Maori Rock Carvings in the Lake Taupo. Luckily, although I am not sure how we all survived the bumpy trip without a few pieces of luggage flying, we made it to the beautiful Lake Taupo. Seeing water was honestly pretty surreal. New Zealand is a big island, so it’s easy to forget that you’re on an island at all, especially when you're not on the coast. Although Taupo is a lake, you would never guess... It's HUGE!
Taupo has BIG and choppy waves. The boat was kind of like a roller coaster. Funny thing though - the 4 of us came in our swimsuits thinking we would go swimming, yeah - no, it was WINDY and freezing... It may be summer here, but that does not mean it's warm! We definitely earned the "dumb Americans" title at that point, but hey! Who cares :)
After the boat ride, we were all exhausted! We got some dinner and went straight to bed. We had big plans for Thursday... (See below!)
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First, we visited the Spa Park Thermal Pools... A real natural hot tub! The thermal pools are so warm, and the lake they are in is SO COLD. This is a must visit spot here in New Zealand!
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Stacey, me and Kaity. You can see the steam here!
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Excuse me, but why am I the only one who looks like an ice cube? (L to R: Kaitlyn, Stacey, me and Kaity!)
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Aratiatia Rapids of Lake Taupo.
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The next few pictures are from the Lava Glass Gardens. This place was so beautiful. For $10 NZD we got to learn/watch the glass blowing process and walk the sculpture gardens. Highly recommend!
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After all of this, as you can bet, we all were starving. We found ourselves a table and ordered snacks from the Lava Glass Cafe. I was AMAZED by the dessert I came across. I love zucchini bread, so I knew I wanted to try this lovely GF zucchini sweet.
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This is a Zarbo Slice. It has zucchini, coconut, dark & white chocolate. Honestly HEAVEN in a dessert-like form.
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I think I'll need to do some research and figure out to make Zarbo. It was so delicious. I love finding new GF foods that are savory and exciting! Some of the gluten free choices we have really are not appetizing, or rather, they just are not very taste-filled, and as a food lover - I do not want to give up tasty, exciting foods! GF can be just as exciting, you just have to do a little searching ;)
Well, after this we all worked our way on back to Tiki Lodge and headed back home here to Palmy. I already miss the water!
See you again soon, Lake Taupo!
Becs
(26 February 2018)
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