New Plymouth to Lake Taupo

We got away fairly early but not before Andy had bought a cold box off some English people who were heading home that day. They were asking fifteen dollars for it but Andy beat them down to ten, this was quite a good price seeing it included six cold blocks.
The problem for us was fitting the new addition into an already crowded boot. This required careful planning and several attempts to get it right. However eventually a careful plan evolved and we were able to get everything in, mainly by the simple ruse of collapsing the material cold box we had and putting the stuff from that into what the New Zealanders charmingly call a chilly bin.
We had planned to go and see some caves but before those we decided to visit some famous gardens in New Plymouth. We found the gardens easily and spent some time walking around the Great Lake and then we looked at the fernery  and the begonia house, where the blooms were fantastic. All of us agreed we would rather do that than spend some time afternoon.
The stroll we had took over an hour and we had to make a decision to press on. Well Andy and I thought we were pressing on but the joint navigators decided we should visit a walkway at Waitara, a little town , about ten miles out of New Plymouth, along the coast.
We had to stop at a garage to get some petrol and asked the attendant the way to the walkway, she almost fell about laughing. She pointed us in the general direction of the beach and was still chuckling when we left the garage. We found the beach and enquirer about the walkway again. The surfer we asked pointed out to us a rough path through the bush which we declined. We drove along the sea front and eventually found a boardwalk which ran from the sea front to the river mouth and along the river into the town. As it was of no length we decided not to walk it and carried on tot look for the white cliffs walkway ten kilometres further along the coast. This proved equally elusive although we did get to the beach at Oanero, where we found a little road that drove through a golf course and ended up at a semi permanent camp site on the beach front. We walked down onto the beach and took some photographs but couldn't find the white cliffs walkway. At this point we decided to look for a rock formation called the three sisters, but unfortunately they were  hiding as well and so well were they camouflaged that we were unable to verify their existence.
The drive along to Mokau was interesting and firmly spectacular. We stopped in Mokau to get a pie and took them as takeaways down to the beach which again was composed of black sand. It was hot again and we enjoyed our stop.
We drove to Te Kuiti and having decided not to visit the caves drove a quiet road to Mangakino, stopping for an ice cream on the way, this was a drive through remote countryside mainly sheep grazing and very small villages. We drove into Mangakino because two friends of Andy and Sally's came from there. We were singularly unimpressed with the town. The drive form there to Taupo was short and we began the search for a motel, we found we liked the look off on the lake front and Andy, with his great diplomatic skills was sent in to reception to negotiate. He returned saying  that had a room for three hundred dollars overlooking the lake or one at the back for two hundred dollars. We decided the cheaper one would do us. We sent Andy back in to complete the deal and then had to follow the receptionist to our room. We went out of the motel into a back street and at this point all of us wondered where we were going. We were led to what looked like a house and were more than delighted when it turned out to be a veritable palace. There was a huge hall and bedroom with a queen bed in it down stairs along with an en suite bathroom. There was also a huge lounge with a single bed and a sink and kettle. Upstairs there was an enormous lounge with a balcony, a dining area and another bedroom with a queen bed and en suite bathroom. This was clearly the best accommodation we had had in two weeks travelling.
After unpacking the car we walked into Taupo, had a drink in a pub, where the staff needed lessons in friendliness. We then strolled through the town and stopped to look in several closed shops. Again good planning paid clear dividends.
We made our way back to the house and sat on the balcony, where we watched the sunset over the large area of lake we could see and then had a tea of food which had been left over, a steak salad with avocado, tomatoes and cheese and biscuits to follow. Who could ask for more?