Top Of The Mountain In Taupo (Oct. 26 - 28)

Bidding Taranaki farewell, we turned our sights east. Since we weren’t going to spend our remaining pre-Auckland time in Taranaki, Becky reckoned that we should really see the East Cape, a heavily forested, quite rural, and strongly Maori region on the opposite side of the island from Taranaki. Much like New England, there really are no direct east-west roads on the North Island, so it’s quite a haul, making a stop in the center of the island a good idea. We had tried to Couchsurf around there with a couple in February, but they’d been away in the States when we passed through. We had heard nice things about them, so we figured we should try again. When we emailed them they said they could host us over the weekend, so we thought great, and got on our way.

The amazing blue water at Huka Falls outside Taupo

We arrived in Taupo around mid-day, and promptly ran into some Red Sox fans on the street, who informed us that the World Series was on that day. With nothing on the agenda for that afternoon, we thought we should catch the end of the game. Funnily enough, we know where to see American sports in Taupo: the same sports bar where we watched the Super Bowl in February on our last pass through. We got a kick out of the randomness of the whole thing, but I think some times you just have to accept that the universe obviously wants you to watch sports. I certainly wasn’t going to fight the universe on this one.

The mandatory photo of thermal activity at the Rotorua mud pools

After the cosmically predestined game we headed out to Reporoa, where our Couchsurfing hosts Brad and Clare live. As they live on a mountainous section of her family’s property, we saw that they had a nice, long driveway. As Becky says, we’ve found that we always have had nice experiences with people who have long driveways. Brad and Clare’s was certainly no exception, as they came out to give us a ride up the really washed-out top part of their drive in their ute.

Brad and Clare's mountain hut - check out the view!

When we reached their home, a hunting hut perched on top of a small mountain, we were awestruck by the view and tremendous location. It seems that everywhere we go, the places we stay just get more scenic by the day. Once again, Couchsurfing comes through, amazingly. The hut was originally built by Clare’s dad as a hunting retreat, and on the rustic interior it shows, with bunks and hunting trophies the main adornment. But the view is really the thing with their place.

We spent a couple nights with Brad and Clare, and had a great time just chatting and hanging out in the mountain chalet. They’re just really cool and outdoorsy people, so Brad knew everything about hunting in NZ, and on his day off took us touring around the property in his ute, showing us how to track various wildlife. Clare is a former adventure tourism worker who can tell you all about the ups and downs (well, mostly downs) of abseiling. They also had some cool experiences, as they’d lived in Haast, on the west coast above Fiordland, and in Chch.

The view of the valley on our 4x4 tour of Brad and Clare's property

They were also keen about the States, as they’d Couchsurfed in the US and Canada for almost five weeks on a massive snowboarding trip earlier in the year. All in all, experiences and people like this are what make Couchsurfing such a great way to travel. Yeah, being able to stay places for free is a boon to any traveler, but getting to stay somewhere amazing like this, learning about the area from the locals, and just getting to meet really cool people is what makes the whole thing magic. Cheers, guys!

Becky, Piper, and Clare at the mountain hut