March 23 Ferry (Day 178)
We caught the ferry this morning and traveled through Cook Strait back to Wellington, enjoying beautiful calm weather under partly cloudy skies.
The sister ship passed us shortly after we left port. We enjoyed appetizers, drinks and a buffet lunch before we disembarked 3 hours later in Wellington.
We didn’t stick around Wellington, we had a long drive to Lake Taupo, about the middle of the North Island, encountering a thick fog as we rose up over the volcanic highlands along Tongariro National Park.
The weather was more cloudy and windy as we descended to Lake Taupo.
We discovered that this is a popular tourist town, full of locals today, but we finally found a room at the Bella Vista Motel. Not very Bella of a Vista though, is was dark by then, but still nice enough to walk into the main downtown and find dinner. We never did see much of Lake Taupo, the largest fresh water lake in NZ, as well as all of Australasia!