Day 4 - Taupo
The next morning we checked out of the Discovery Lodge and headed north towards the Lake Taupo region.   Before long, at the south end of Lake Taupo, we saw a sign for thermal pools.  Sore that we were, a hot thermal pool sounded like a very good idea.  So we stopped in at the Turangi Thermal Pools.
   
A hot spring water soak is the perfect follow-up to the Tongariro Alpine Crossing!   It's not that far away from the trail end; they ought to make it part of the package.
   
There is a short trail around the hot springs and mud flats.
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
We continued on and soon encountered Lake Taupo.  It reminded me of California's Lake Tahoe.
   
Mount Ngauruhoe is visible in the distance.
   

The town of Taupo is at the northeast corner of the lake.   This is where all the tourist stuff is.

Our first stop was at Huka Falls.   This is where New Zealand's longest river, the Waikato, surges through a narrow rock channel from Lake Tapo and north all the way to the sea just south of Auckland.
   
 
   
A short distance away was the Huka Prawn Park.  Of course, we had to check that out.
   
Even though on first glance it appeared a classic tourist trap, we ended up enjoying it.  They have created a good business farming Malaysian prawns here for export, plus showing the operation off to tourists on the side.  The tour of the facility was very interesting.  Here Maggie is holding a young adult prawn.
   

I was struck by how long the claw arms are.   The older (bigger) prawns could put some hurt on you with their claws.

The adult male prawns are nasty critters, always fighting and picking on the weaklings.
   
The guide gave us food pellets to put in the palm of our hand, then into the water.  The smaller prawns -- an inch long -- would climb on your hand to get to the pellets.  It was a strange sensation feeling their little legs and antennie on your skin.
 
A female prawn will produce 14,000 offspring at a time.  But in the wild, she immediately eats most of them.  But here, they quickly separate the mother from the offspring, and raise them -- 14,000 -- to adulthood.   In Malasia, the water is warm.  Here, they use discard water from the geothermal power plant next door to heat the prawn water tanks.
   
The tour guide explained how to fish for the prawns, then we headed outside to catch ourselves some prawns!  They would cook in the restaurant for free whatever you caught.
   
Fishing for prawns!
   
The prawns grow to market size in these big outdoor pools.
   
The prawns were definately out there but they are clever crustacians.  They repeatedly hit our bait, but avoided the hook.
   
 
We had the last laugh though.  Althought we didn't catch any prawns -- we only fished for 30 minutes -- we did enjoy prawns for lunch in the restaurant.  They are delicious!
   
It was time to do some driving and make our way towards Wellington, at the southern tip of the North Island.  We left Taupo and headed south.  We drove mostly through flat, farm country but as with all of New Zealand, it was very scenic.  We stayed overnight at a motel in Palmerston North which worked out well.  We experienced more New Zealand culture by dining at "Burger Fuel".  It wasn't bad.  Sort of like a Five Guys or In and Out Burger.
   
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