Some weekends around Taupo

Hi, it's Evelyn. My posts have become so infrequent that I feel I should identify myself when posting :) I wouldn't want Tom getting the credit for my amazing thoughts and commentary! 

Since we have finished our South Island adventures, we have spent some time continuing to explore the areas closer to home. The scenery is still amazing and we definitely don't want the boys to get out of the habit of hiking :)

We often pass, on the drive between Taupo and Rotorua, a sign for Rainbow Mountain. We've never been able to stop en route, so we decided to make a dedicated trip to visit and hike to the top. 

This is the view towards the beginning of the hike. Lots of bush and lots of ferns.

Here's a lovely crater pool we passed on our way. Yes, the area is volcanic, and the minerals here make the water such a pretty color.

Here and below you can see why it is called Rainbow Mountain. If you've been keeping up with your blog reading, you'll guess that this color on the rock is produced by lichen.

Here's a view from the top of the mountain. You can see the highway winding its way through the hills. These hillsides are yellow, as it is summer. I can't stop commenting on all the yellow, dry lawns we pass in our neighborhood. I love that - even though water is free in New Zealand, nobody wastes it watering their lawns in the summer!

Another view from the top. We met a forest ranger in the fire tower who let us come up and enjoy the views and showed us how he communicates with other rangers about the location of any smoke that he may see. You can see a photo of us on his facebook page: rainbowmountain lookout

The Ironman race in Taupo is a pretty big annual event. Lots of locals will volunteer for it and lots of locals actually race. It took place March 1st. Jasper and I were awake in the morning, around 7, and Jasper told me he saw a tornado in the water on the lake. We were actually just seeing the shadows of the swimmers - and we could see the kayaks in the lake as well. They looked like, well, like a tornado in the water. Here are some photos - it was an amazing sight.

See those tiny little swim-capped heads bobbing in the water?

We watched the elite racers come in around 3 pm. The female winner was American :) She ran in and Jasper got a high five from her! I volunteered at the medical tent after the race. The sweat laden, harrowing experience has confirmed for me that I will never compete in any endurance type race like this. Seriously, I never really had any doubts, but now I know for sure.

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There is a very pretty walk about ten minutes from our house in a very cool forest with lots of large trees. It reminded us of some hikes we do at home -- because we could hear the traffic from the highway sometimes :(

Amazing trees, right?

Aidan is so pleased with his selfie taking capabilities...

...but mom always does a better job capturing key moments with the camera

Turns out, like Winnie-the-Pooh, Jasper lives in a hollow tree.

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Tom and I spent a day without the kids visiting the buried village, a historical site, near the famous (in New Zealand) eruption of Tarawera that destroyed the pink and white terraces. It was great to spend some time just the two of us exploring.

The weather has gotten a bit cooler and our mountains got a little dusting! So pretty...

The nighttime views are pretty nice, too. This shot turned up mysteriously on our camera. My suspicion is that it was Aidan's doing.

This past weekend we went to a secret spot near the National Park to visit a very cool spring with some friends. Here are their children playing.

The pool is so deep, the color of the water is amazing - and you can see down to the bottom.

kids playing in the rocks around the pool

Here's the lot of us, hanging out

Later, those of us who wanted to went for a swim in the lake. This beach was awesome, the cliffs behind us were very dramatic. We had never been to this side of the lake before.

It was an awesome, lazy weekend day - with a perfect kiwi fish and chips ending! We feel lucky to have such amazing and generous friends.