Day 8 has got to be my next most anticipated day, after Day 6 (for Hobbiton), as we've one of my favourite activity planned out for the day.... HIGH TEA!
But before that, we need to get our breakfasts out of the way first, so The Taupo Market it shall be!
The Taupo Weekend Market specialises in both variety and quality, with emphasis on being local where most of the products sold are grown, made or sourced in and around the Taupo district. This weekly market is held on the Riverside Park Reserve (Redoubt Street), one of the most beautiful parks in Taupo and adjacent to the Waikato River (opposite Countdown Supermarket).
I'll very much prefer this market over the Rotorua Night Market (but it might also be the rain and us reaching not early enough) as there's a good mixture of food (think churros, muffins, scones, pies, doughnuts, cakes, breakfast English muffins & sandwiches, coffees etc) and many other novelty items such as hand-knitted baby clothes, books and decorative items for sale. There's also a seated area set up in the middle of the market for patrons to sit down and have some coffee and delicious food while enjoying music from a basker situated right beside the seated area.
And I absolutely loved that date scone, which was slightly crisp on the outside but moist and fluffy on the inside. YUMMY!
There's also plenty of parking at designated parking slots by the streets and the market has proper pavement, making it wheelchair (and baby pram) friendly. According to the website, there's also clean paraplegic toilets and baby changing facilities available on site, though we didn't come across either during our visit.
The Taupo Market is open every Saturday, 9am - 1pm, rain or shine. For more information, visit their website HERE
My initial plan is to drop by Taupo Bungy at Waikato River, just a 5 minutes drive away, to see if we can get to see anybody doing their bungy jumps, but the BF is not interested in that and hence, we embarked on our 1.5 hours' drive straight away for Tawhai Falls, which is located in the Tongariro National Park, near the Whakapapa Village.
But before that, let's take some pictures with Lake Taupo, which is roughly the size of Singapore (before land reclamation).
But before that, let's take some pictures with Lake Taupo, which is roughly the size of Singapore (before land reclamation).
And finally, the snow-capped mountains came into view!
Tawhai Falls is one of the waterfalls that depicted the scene in The Lord of the Rings movie, where Gollum is catching fish under the watchful eye of Faramir and his archers.
Only a quick and easy walking trail (20 minutes return loop) is required to reach the scenic spot to a good photograph opportunity of the 13m waterfall tumbling over the edge of an ancient lava flow.
And since we skipped Taupo Bungy earlier in the morning, we ended up having a little more time on hand before our high tea reservation, and so after reaching Whakapapa Village Visitor Centre (which is next to Chateau Tongariro Hotel, where Ruapehu Lounge is located) we chose to go on the Ridge Walking Track, with the trail's starting point just a 3 minutes' walk from the Whakapapa Village Visitor Centre. The track is a rather short and managable 1 hour return trail that brings us through a beech forest on the (mild) climb up (and down again) to get us to an awesome view of the surrounding mountains (volcanoes) as we reach the alpine shrubland.
As I've no idea what on earth is a beech forest, I did some googling beforehand and ended up being rather disappointed during the visit. It looked nowhere nearly as impressive as what came up in my google search, but the view of the mountains at the top of the trail was quite worth the time spent!
There's actually 3 mountains (read about them HERE ) at the Tongariro National Park, Mt. Tongariro, Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt. Ruapehu. But, I can't differentiate them.
And so, after earning our calories for the day, we walked back towards the visitor centre and then further down towards Chateau Tongariro Hotel for our High Tea at Ruapehu Lounge at 3pm!
As of most high tea experience, a reservation is strongly advised and I've also requested to be seated by the Ngauruhoe window, which the restaurant managed to accede to. :)
And since this is called the Ngauruhoe window, I supposed the mountain that we see from this point of view has to be Mt. Ngauruhoe. HAH!
Priced at NZD $32 per pax, you'll be getting a fixed set of 3-tier high tea with sweet pastries like scones, macarons & tarts to savouries like mini-sandwiches, along with a cup of tea or coffee.
I'll say that for the pricetag and based solely on the food quality, you can easily get a better tasting high tea experience literally anywhere in Singapore, for nearly everything on the table is at best average and didn't make an impression at all.
But for the ambience (and overall experience) for dining at a pretty posh looking lounge with the view of snow-capped mountains as your backdrop, I'll still say that this $32 is pretty well spent!
Plus, they even have such gorgeous looking wallpaper in their washroom too!
High Tea is available at Chateau Tongariro Hotel's Ruapehu Lounge daily from 11am to 5pm.
For more information (& reservations), visit their website HERE
ps. more (and possibly cheaper) parking is available at Whakapapa Village Visitor Centre
My initial plan was to go for more free trails, specifically for the Taranaki Falls & Silica Rapids, but the BF thwarted my plans (and he can, because he is the driver) by insisting we head up to the Ski grounds at Mt. Ruapehu.
Till then,
Mia Foo
And since this is called the Ngauruhoe window, I supposed the mountain that we see from this point of view has to be Mt. Ngauruhoe. HAH!
But having the front seat view of Mt. Ngauruhoe while you sip at your tea (or coffee) comes with a price to pay: YOU CAN'T GET IG-WORTHY SHOTS because the backlight problem is OMG so hard to tackle! It really didn't help when the lighting in the lounge is specially dimmed for better ambience.
I'll say that for the pricetag and based solely on the food quality, you can easily get a better tasting high tea experience literally anywhere in Singapore, for nearly everything on the table is at best average and didn't make an impression at all.
But for the ambience (and overall experience) for dining at a pretty posh looking lounge with the view of snow-capped mountains as your backdrop, I'll still say that this $32 is pretty well spent!
High Tea is available at Chateau Tongariro Hotel's Ruapehu Lounge daily from 11am to 5pm.
For more information (& reservations), visit their website HERE
ps. more (and possibly cheaper) parking is available at Whakapapa Village Visitor Centre
My initial plan was to go for more free trails, specifically for the Taranaki Falls & Silica Rapids, but the BF thwarted my plans (and he can, because he is the driver) by insisting we head up to the Ski grounds at Mt. Ruapehu.
And so, this happened. Experiencing snow (reluctantly) while dressed for 18 degree Celsius.
By the time we were there (I think it was past 4pm), the ski grounds was already pretty much closed for the day. And there were only a few skiers getting ready to leave the grounds.
And so, after letting the BF had his fill of seeing snow, we hopped back onto our Jucy Chaser and headed down the mountains to Taumaranui Holiday Park, which was around 45 minutes drive away from Whakapapa Village Visitor Centre.
But of course, a pit-stop along the way for some camwhoring is always in the itinerary. ;p
There's actually a free campsite at Te Maire Carpark, which will be a little nearer to the Forgotten Highway (our 1st destination next morning), but reviews for this free campsite (with no facilities) are nothing but bad; and some even said that the place feels creepy. So I decided that we're better off spending NZD $18 per pax for an overnight stay at a proper holiday park instead.
Taumaranui Holiday Park is definitely the quietest holiday park we've stayed at for the entire roadtrip, with only 2 oother CVs (one of which had no obvious signs of occupants) around. The place is pretty big, and with all the basic facilities (kitchen & bathrooms) and even a playground with trampoline. The kitchen was a little old; the induction cookers all looked like they've seen better days and take a really really long time to heat up. There's also no cutlery (forks and spoons) available, so we ended up having to use our own forks and spoons from our Jucy Chaser.
And although the bathroom/toilet was clean, there's only 2 cubicles available when the park itself is pretty big. I guess it's because they expect those in self-contained motorhome to not use their facilities but frankly speaking, even if I'm with a self-contained CV, the reason why I will check myself into a holiday park is to use their (more spacious) facilities.... right?
But since there's only 2 other CVs (and literally nobody) around while we're there, it actually didn't bother us that much.
For more information (and reservations) of Taumaranui Holiday Park, visit their website HERE
And here's a very badly taken shot of our dinner for the night!
(I had HDR mode on and didn't realise it)
Fish fingers, scrambled eggs with baby spinach & bell peppers, and MyKuali Hokkien Prawn Mee!Till then,
Mia Foo
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