Bussing to Taupo

I think Beth gives me the easier days to blog about as I won’t write as much and thus there are less words and less likelihood to use big words, which my nieces struggle with. Anyway…

Yesterday (Tuesday) was generally a travel day as we bussed (slow travel is cheap travel) from Auckland to Taupo at a cost of $17.50 a piece. The ride on the InterCity bus was very nice, on-time and included free WiFi. Before getting on the 9am bus out of Auckland, Beth went for a run and made a discovery that made us both cranky–she found a good grocery store. When we travel we like to split up our meals–eating out and also finding local wine/food to eat in the room. We found convenience stores which we made use of but really would have used the grocery store if we had know about it.

Anyway, before boarding the bus, we grabbed a bite to eat in an Esquires Coffee Shop — right across the street from bus terminal AND the same cafe we ate at when we were in New Zealand in 2008.

With a 40 minute stop in Hamilton, we arrived in Taupo at 1:50 p.m. We wanted to visit Taupo as we had driven through the town on our last trip and it looked pretty cool. After checking into our Dunrovin Motel room ($64/night) that has a separate living room with full kitchen, we headed to the Taupo Museum and Art Center. It was good, not great. The most interesting aspect was the WWI information on a computer–the exhibits for WWI were not very informative, but the digital facts and figures really helped us better understand Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) efforts. After that we went to a shop we had stopped at on our 2008 visit, the Merchant, a fine food and spirits retailer. It was more spirits than food this time though, so we went to a local grocery, Countdown, to pick up food for an in-room picnic. Had a great meal of smoked mussels, cheese, crackers, two prepared veggie salads and a bottle of Cable Bay Sauvignon Blanc.

Some ask why we blog, really it is for us to remember our travels and to share with our friends and family who may be interested. Prior to the internet, we would write our day’s activities in a journal. We have quite a few of those journals at home and occasionally pull one out and randomly read a sentence to see if we can recall the trip. Usually, just a sentence or two brings back memories of that adventure.