Taupo is a small town on the shores of Lake Taupo, located in the middle of the northern island of New Zealand. The name is an abbreviated version of the Maori name Taupō-Nui-a-Tia. The lake flows into the Waikato River (New Zealand’s longest river), which flows through Huka Falls. Taupo is the centre of volcanic and geothermal activity. Bathing hot springs can be found in several places nearby.
Six kilometres to the east is the volcanic mountain Tauhara. Significant hot springs, containing extremophilic microorganisms living in an extremely hot environment, lie in the northeast.
Lake Taupo
With an area of 616 km2, Lake Taupo is New Zealand’s largest lake and the second-largest freshwater lake in geopolitical Oceania after Lake Murray in Papua New Guinea. It lies in the caldera of the Taupo volcano, has a circumference of approximately 193 kilometres and a maximum depth of 186 meters. The lake has significant trout fishing.
Māori rock carving
On the northwest side of Lake Taupo, on the cliffs of Mine Bay, there are Māori rock carvings created by Matahi Whakataka-Brightwell and John Randall in the late 1970s. It depicts Ngatoroirangi, a navigator who, according to legend, led the Tuwharetoa and Te Arawa tribes to the Taupo area thousands of years ago. A 10-meter-high carving is to protect Lake Taupo from volcanic activities beneath it.
Huka Falls
Huka Falls is a set of waterfalls on the Waikato River, which in the canyon narrows from about 100 meters to 15 meters. The water volume often approaches 220,000 litres per second. The last stage of the waterfalls reaches about 11 meters.
Tourism and challenges
Tourism is a major part of the Taupo commercial sector and the city attracts more than 2 million visitors a year. The busiest time is the main summer season around Christmas and New Year.
The city organizes the Cycling Challenge on Lake Taupo. The bike path around the lake can take 4 – 10 hours. Exceeding 40.2 km of the lake is a challenge for swimmers. In 2020, the first swimmer, Michael Wells from Australia, succeeded. The city also hosts Kellogg’s Ironman.
Our stay
The Master for Accommodation Martin found a beautiful 2 bedroom house with a small garden just outside the port of Lake Taupo in this town. I do not know why, but I saw a bit of resemblance to Mácháč in the Czech Republic when a lot of people (from large cities) go somewhere where the beautiful countryside and surroundings are.
What awaits us next time?
From Lake Taupo, we are moving north to the Rotorua area with a stop in and around Wai-O-Tapu.
