Hasting, Napier, Waipunga Falls lookout

We did not came to Hasting on the right day. Cause our main purpose was to walk the Cape Kidnapper to see the Gannets bird colony. Because the walk is on beach track,  we can only start the walk from Clifton Beach no earlier than 3 hrs after high tide, and return no later than 1.5 hrs after low tide. So the timing for today's high low tide isn't suitable the walk since it is a 4-5 hours return walk, 20km return. Gosh, make sure to check with Hasting or nearby I-sites before heading there. See here for more info about the track: http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-visit/hawkes-bay/hawkes-bay/cape-kidnappers-gannet-reserve/plan-and-prepare/ 

And the famous Hasting farmers market is held on every Sunday, which we missed as well..

There are other options for taking tours to see the Gannets starting from $42 that is more flexible about the times, and of course educative and relaxing without the 5 hr walk!

So we just head to the nearby Havelock North town, on the way there are so many orchards selling the summer fruits! Yums, we got ourselves a real fruit ice cream again in Hasting for $4 with blueberries. And this punnet of apricots for $5. It taste so good, taste a little like papaya really. When we work in Roxburgh (central otago, south island) doing apricot thinning, we were told that those apricots grows up to the size of an orange. Well, these certainly are much smaller. But we thought we have to try some!

Xmas trees for sale!

At Havelock North, we visited Arataki honey factory*****. They have really nice information on honey, bees and the honey processing. There's even a magnifier glass to see the queen bee, bee hive and worker bees. And we saw some bees doing a dance, like flippering their wings and go round and round, which actually signals the rest of her bees that she found a good area with lots of pollen or nectar. Real cool. Eventually we spent like $192 on honey for souvenirs =.= we found that the manuka honey with UMF+10 sold here is cheaper than supermarket which is quite unusual. Also bought their Blue Borage honey and Rewarewa honey, yums yums! Open 7 days, 9am-5pm.

Mushroom farm near Arataki Honey. Really freshly picked mushroom, at much cheaper price than the supermarkets. About $7.25 per kg for white button mushroom. Really big ones! And we were lucky enough that the staff there shows us how the mushroom grow in the farm, 'huge aircon room'. The mushrooms that we saw have just grown not long, like few days, so they are still small but looks really cute like so many white ball stick on the mud. Mushroom actually grow pretty fast, just takes about one week and have to be picked within 3 weeks.

Silky Oak Chocolate Factory @ Napier

Only free tasting for milk and dark chocolate tablets. Nevermind, we still have like 4 kg of one of the best NZ chocolate in our van, hohoho!!

There is a chocolate museum here that seems interesting, but they were closing when we reach there before 4 pm. 

On State Highway 5 towards Taupo, we free camped at Glenfalls recreation reserve, Waitara Road. With old pit toilets and water from stream. Very good free campsite, good grass carpet and lots of shade area.

Further north of Mahaka river, free parking for motorhome at Tarawera

Cafe with toilets.

Waipunga Falls lookout, pretty low profile but worth a look!

Lake Taupo Cruise

It was not the perfect day to sail in this largest lake of NZ, Taupo (the size of Singapore!). It was raining in the morning then the afternoon seemed alright. So we proceed with the afternoon sail with Barbary cruise which we booked online through bookme.co.nz (really cheap deals there!). For half price $20, we went on the Barbary sailboat for 2 hours to see the Maori rock carvings.

                    

The moment we sailed out, it was drizzling! Ooooo... Lucky the tour provides rain ponchos but it was still freezing cold.

Bill, the captain told us interesting stories and taught us a little about sailing. Lake Taupo is really special, it was a volcano crater filled with water from the three mountains of Tongariro, Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe. And from this lake, the water flows to Waikato River, the longest river in NZ. This lake is about 200metres deep! Amazingly, there are live corals near the crater vent because the temperature is quite warm there. It definitely looks more like a sea than a lake when we see it from the shore =)

Quite far away to the north west side of the lake, we had to cut through the big waves to see this Maori carving. It was carved in the late 1970s. This carving is the image of Ngatoroirangi (about 10 metres high) which is a powerful spirit protecting Lake Taupo from the volcanic activities underneath.

Because of the stong waves, we are lucky to be able to reach the carving. So we did not stay for long. Some boat trips have to be cancelled if there is too strong wind because it is dangerous to get near the cliffs.

This tour also provides hot drinks, biscuit and photo opportunity with the captain. All three of us got to sail the boat for a while too... since there are only three customers that sail =P

It was a nice sail, despite the cold cold wind and drizzling rain. Really fun when hitting the waves =P

Mount Tauhara

After the sail we went to the Huka Honey Hive for free tasting of honey and honey liquors! It was really nice this honey mead above but we find this shop is much more expensive!

For two nights we have been camping for free at Reid's Farm recreation reserve by the riverside. It's a good free camp since we can get water supply and shower at the Superloo (toilet) just opposite the I-site. A hot shower costs only $2.50 which runs for 4 mins. Reid's farm is just near Huka Falls and provides pit toilet. So we get to save a lot from accomodation here =)

On the way to Wellington