TAUPO!

We headed south on Saturday morning, to the central north island (for those of you trying to follow along on your maps) and after a two day stopover in Rotorua (ro-to-ru-a), home of natural hotsprings and the most obnoxious sulfur smell ever, we headed a bit further south to Taupo, arriving Monday. The Subaru made the trip (8 hours in total) without any problems and she's very good on gas. Pictured to the left is Huka Falls, just off of Lake Taupo from which the town gets it's name. It's gorgeous here as in every other part of the country we've seen. NZ defines picturesque as I just feel like I could blindly pull off the road at any point and take a beautiful picture. Sunday we got our first taste of "Zorbing" in Rotorua and it was fantastic. Basically, you're shoved in a hamster ball 1/4 full of water and rolled down a big hill - it's completely disorienting and totally fun. If you want a full explanation, you'll just have to Google "Zorb." It's very rural here and Kiwis just make up all kinds of crazy things to entertain themselves.








We arrived in Taupo Monday and right away we both found jobs waiting tables (and for me a bit of kitchen work) at the "Tasty Thai" retaurant on the Taupo waterfront. We appear to have an apartment all lined up and we start work on Friday. Hopefully I have another job bartending and I'll sort out next week if I want to quit one or work both. Twenty - 25 hours a week at one job may not be enough to keep me sane with no tv and limited beer money.
Taupo is still a small town (about 16 - 18 thousand we understand) which is unbelievable considering the beautiful blue lake and the mountains on the horizon, but it is very peaceful and slow-paced here. Unfortunately there are punks in small towns, just like anywhere, and someone jumped through a window and stole my backpack with our computer in it Monday night. They took Brooke's as well, but there was nothing good in it, so it was left outside the building. Barney and Andy (I quote "the only two cops governing the whole of Taupo and halfway to Rotorua") rushed to the scene around midnight and took some information and fingerprints, but I doubt the laptop will show up. It's a minor setback, but things are looking better. Picture posting will be even harder now, but hopefully I'll figure out a new system and we'll get them up soon. Until next time...