Sunday, March 22: Sunny at first, very cloudy in the early afternoon, then sunny again

Liz & Phil’s (airbnb, $48)

Breakfast was possible at the trucker’s place, as I had everything with me, and the free truckers’ coffee could be diluted with milk, the cereal finished off, and the bowl washed. Then it was off very early to Taupo to try to get accommodation for tonight but the i-site was not providing more than its usual service – no wifi hotspot, but, “You can try a café.” Yeah, right, which one. Taupo i-site seems to have won the prize for the worst service – any question you ask, you realise that the answer is the one you had already come up with anyway. No added value asking there at all.

Anyhow, photography was on the programme – the Huka Falls was the first stop, with a couple of time lapses from the right bank just as the sun was shining onto the water, then a couple from the left bank in full light. That will have been worth it.

Next stop was the Aratiatia Dam. What I didn’t realise was that the water is let out at prearranged times to fill up the gorge, and then turned off again. I got there just as the water was flowing at full throttle and I took my time to walk down the path to the midway lookout, and it took even more time until a place was free to photograph the falls. Set up my time lapse and let it run. But, of course, during the time lapse the water started to be turned off. I extended the time lapse until the water was reduced to its minimum level. That should be quite fun.

Back on the road I passed through Golden Springs and was in Rotorua in good time for lunch, so the first thing I did was to inquire at the i-site about wifi, and guess what? Their’s was the hotspot, albeit without power. Managed to put a request in to airbnb, and even got an acceptance. The browser was very slow, however, and the data throughput was miserable, so I couldn’t get much of a map. Anyhow, a bit of a breather is in sight. Trying to find a place for lunch was made more difficult by the flea market on the lake shore, but eventually I settled on the war memorial which was nice and shady for both me and the car. A couple of ham sandwiches, an apple and some raspberry lemonade was just fine.

Went back to the i-site but still no further information so I set on the further road to Tauranga. Took the toll road for $2 and was in the centre of town pretty quickly. Had a bit of a stroll around. I-site mumbled something about wifi downtown being “eol” (in reality the library is next door and open on Sundays, with both wifi and power) and now with a map and much better throughput I could put up Henry’s picture and see if there were any replies to my facebook chats with Tom (for next weekend) and Rayna (for Easter/lunar eclipse).

At the appointed time of 4:30 I came down the private road here and was greeted by Phil. Very nice couple, stunning house and possibly good sunset/night lights. Washed the boots (finally) and am getting hungry.

Dinner was two hoki and half a scoop of chips – still too much – for $7.6 from the very local takeaway. Phil & Liz had their dinner in front of the telly, which was mainly some house renovation game/competition.