We stopped at the thermal park as the rained ended. By the time we were done there, the clouds were lifting a bit and we hoped to see some of the mountains we knew we'd be driving past on our way south.
One of our early stops was Lake Taupo. It is a lake that is in the caldera of an old volcano. Max depth 610 feet, its over 200 square miles of surface area! We stopped for a picnic for lunch.
As we drove on, we noticed a lot of the trees in the forest along side us had a very pruned appearance.
Next we saw whole forests of newbie trees.
Then we saw giant debris fields of razed trees
And equipment to clear the trees.
And giant fields of newly planted trees.
Further googling does not provide a clear answer to what is going on, but it is evident that NZ forests have a number of problems that they are fighting to over come. Possums may actually play a role in weakening the trees, but are obviously not the sole cause of the problem.
We continued to drive along Lake Taupo for almost an hour. Over hills and around and seeing it again.
Picnic on the lakeshore. Visited by a black swan and ducks. We also saw a parasail in the distance. Not a lot of other boat traffic, and definitely not a lot of wind for sailing.
Very winding roads today. First peek of snow covered mountains in the distance. David was smart enough to wake me so I wouldn't miss this.
The area we drove through in the center of the North island was labeled on the map "desert road". It was indeed pretty arid. The forests were gone and just scruby brush was on the sides of the road.
Finally got a good view of the mountains.
Mt Ruapehu. THIS is why I wanted to come to NZ - amazing mountain views!
Mt Ngaruhoe - classic volcanic cone
We passed out of the desert area quickly and were in rolling hills that were COVERED in sheep. Every hillside. COVERED.
We finally made our way back to the coast and saw the ocean on the West side of the island. Pretty view at the end of the day.
Within a few kilometers of Wellington, we finally hit a four lane divided highway, which very briefly became six lanes. After having driven more than half the length of the North island on their "main" highway with only two lanes, this looked a little odd. Notice how little traffic there was on Christmas day!
A few random notes: McDonald's was actually closed on Christmas day. Gas stations (some) were fortunately open, so there were toilets to use, but its a good thing we had our food packed with us!
At one point I looked up and noticed that the center line between different directions of traffic was a dotted WHITE line. This could be very disorienting for the US driver where the dotted white divides two lanes going in the same direction. Upon further observation, I saw a solid yellow with a dotted white - no passing on the yellow side. And a double solid yellow - no passing at all. Truthfully, on some of the roads, there should have been a double yellow for a long ways! Roads very much follow the landscape here, lots of curving around.
The speed limit was max 100. We would approach a town and see circle 50 signs to slow down. Then immediately after the last house (or building), there were the circle 100 signs - back to full speed.
Capped off the drive with a major flat tire just 10 minutes from our destination. David, Adam and Charlene managed to get the spare put on while the rest of the group went ahead to start fixing dinner for the hungry bunch!
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