Taking it easy in Taupo

Yesterday, we met up with our wonderful hosts, Mitchell and Lyal, in Foxton at the very large Dutch windmill.  We all packed up and headed off to Palmerston North, where we picked up a friend of Laura's from Alberta who is studying at Massey University.  We then met up with a few other Rotarians, one of whom works for the Department of Conservation, and headed up the Manawatu Gorge to view a very large slip that occurred two years ago and shut down one of the major thorough fairs for eighteen months.  The hike up was 2.2 km, which meant a 2.2 km hike back down.  Our guide, Faye, very generously provided us with delicious skroggin (traillmix) for the hike up and "rewarded" us with bananas and oranges when we finally reached the top.

Our intrepid hikers

We learned about local flora and fauna as well as how the Department provides a wide range of services including maintenance of the natural areas and education.  We also learned that Manawatu means "place where my heart stood still".  The story is that long ago, members of one tribe came and kidnapped the daughter of the chief and took her back to their tribe.  As the chief was chasing them, he came around the bend and saw that the river in the gorge was high, and he was not able to cross.  This was when his heart stood still because he knew that she was gone forever, and that he would never see her again.  What is interesting is that when the story is told from the point of view of the other tribe, it is a love story with a happy ending.

Just as we reached the parking lot, it started to rain, so we dashed off to Beyond the Bridge Cafe, which was an amazingly cute old farmhouse with a clay oven roaring just outside the front door, filling the room with the faint aroma of campfire and home baked goodness.

At the cafe, enjoying Mitch's excellent hat collection

Next, we drove through a massive wind farm (passing a dead hedgehog along the way).  Mitchell is the head of the volunteer fire department for several towns, and at this point, Nathalie found the microphone for the overhead speaker on the car.  Her cow imitations were so good, that we soon had a heard of cows following the car down the hill looking for their long lost mother.

Huge turbine

We pulled into Taupo around 9:00 p.m. and promptly set about hunting down a dinner of fish and chips (which apparently is the traditional thing to do on a GSE trip).  Unfortunately, everything was closed, and we ended up getting fish sticks off the kids menu of an Indian restaurant that was 5 minutes away from closing.

Everyone was relieved to get back to the "bach" where we are lucky enough to stay for the weekend.  We each have our own room, and the kitchen opens up onto a wonderful kitchen and living room, complete with a window seat and French doors onto the patio.

This morning, we really enjoyed a leisurely morning sleeping in, reading, doing some laundry, and cooking for ourselves.  After taking it easy, we finally got ourselves sorted enough to head into town for a bit of GSE (Group Shopping Experience).  We are now fully enjoying ourselves in a beautiful cafe with lattes in hand, doors open, Italian music playing, and bare arms soaking up the last of the summer sun.