Apparently, Taupo to Napier used to be a journey fraught with danger and difficulty. The scenery was certainly a) spectacular and b) vertiginous in parts. I was the one who was driving when we were going up a hill that strongly resembled Sutton Bank in Yorkshire - which I hate driving up!
First stop was in the other direction though - Rob said he couldn't leave the geothermal area without seeing a geyser, so we went up to a place called the hidden valley. Where there was so much to see that Rob flattened my camera battery taking photographs of geological formations! They're not all on the end of this post; only a selected few.
It was a beautiful place though - far quieter than Wai-O-Tapu, and in some ways more domestic. There were tiny pools by the edge of the path, bubbling away gently, and a large terrace with lots of little streams running across it, carving channels into the ground. If you stood and listened to them, it was like being up on the fells, but instead of curlews there were bell birds and the endless chirping of sparrows (introduced into New Zealand to eat insects off the crops. Except that they ate more grain than insects).
The tour round finished with a path back to the ferry through the bush, which was all native trees, and green and quiet, and un-English but not tropical, despite the amazing tree ferns. Saw what I think was a silver-eye on the ground in front of us, eating an insect. And I definitely saw a fantail on our way over to Napier, when we'd stopped to look at a view. They're so well-named! They really do open and close their tails just like a lady's fan!
Napier, we're staying in a motel - v. common here - so we found the nearest Pak'n'Save (a bit like a cross between Morrisons and B&Q), found some food and had a light tea, so as to have a good appetite tomorrow for the Christmas dinner at the County. Also found a very nice bottle of Pinot Gris for less than a fiver...
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