Desert Road and on to Wellington

A storm was moving in when we got to Lake Taupo. We wanted to get as far south as we could, so we continued south from the town towards the bottom of the lake, and found a great freedom camp site. A few other campers were there as it was a large car park for the lake, complete with restrooms and swans. We had tried some side roads, and almost got stuck! Luckily Jon is skilled at driving backwards as well as forwards.



From Lake Taupo, you can see the large mountains where they filmed Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings; that is if it's clear out! It never really cleared, so we're hoping to catch a glimpse on the way back up.



What New Zealanders call the desert sure is different from what we know as a desert! It's really more of a grassland, quite beautiful and dramatic against the snowy mountain range.




We arrived in Wellington in the afternoon, and found that the campervan doesn't fit in the underground parking structures in town! We had quite a time of getting it parked and ourselves into a hotel room for the night. We went out to eat at a Thai restaurant, then got plenty of sleep for our big trip across the channel to the south island!