May 12, 2007 Taupo, New Zealand

Date:  Saturday, May 12, 2007, Taupo

Location:  <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Taupo, New Zealand

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Knowing that today was a shorter driving day we decided to spend a little more time in Napier before we left town.  Joan and I went to the New Zealand Aquarium along with Carl and Barb and had a real nice time there.  Especially interesting was a movie on the octopus which was shot (the movie) down around Stewart Island off the southern tip of the south island of New Zealand.  After that we had lunch at a nice sidewalk café enjoying looking at the Art Deco buildings.  Napier had an earthquake and subsequent fire that leveled most of the town in the ‘30’s (need to look up the specific date again) and most of the town was rebuild in a very short length of time.  The style of construction at that time was art deco and as a result the buildings in the town are predominately art deco.

 

We had a nice drive over to Taupo in partly cloudy weather, a little cool but as they report the weather here “mostly fine”.

 

Taupo is a nice little town on the north end of Lake Taupo.  The lake is the beginning of the longest river in New Zealand, the Waikato.  The lake here is known for it’s monstrous trout.  All of the trout in New Zealand came here as fertilized eggs from California about a hundred years ago.  Now the trout fishing on Lake Taupo is believed to be the best in the world.

 

We had our meeting this evening and in reviewing the days activities with everyone we found out the Jack and Shirley had gone to the Marineland in Napier and he got to hold a penguin.  Now I am jealous.

 

Tomorrow is Sunday and a number of us are planning on attending church in Taupo and then heading off for Rotorua.