Continuing our journey from where we paused in Part 1…
This was the day I was super excited about ever since we decided in favour of our road trip to the capital, you know why? I know you don’t… lol. :p Let’s have a look at the highlights of the day so that you can get an idea why I was so thrilled. (Watch in HD or 4K)
As you have already seen in the video, we had amazing plans for the day which included visiting the mighty Huka Falls along the way and then heading straight towards Whakapapa to experience some real snow. OMG yaaaas, this was the very first time I was about to touch and feel real-natural snow – believe it or not! :D. I have been to Ski Dubai before if you guys remember my ‘Mommies’ Day Out‘ post (Read it here) but the idea of making snowballs of real snowww with E was making me mega peppy! Lol *overexcitement*
The was a slight chance that we might not be able to go Whakapapa because the day’s forecast predicted snowfall and they usually close the snowfield there in such conditions. Keeping our fingers crossed we hit the road and made our way to Huka Falls; which is supposedly the most visited natural attraction in New Zealand!
The Huka Falls are the largest falls on the Waikato River, near Taupo (where we spent the night) on New Zealand’s North Island; located at a 5min walk from the Parking lot, no need to hike or track a long way to witness the humongous trail of 220,000 litres of water pounding down with electrifying speed and shooting out over 8 metres beyond to create a beautiful blue/green ecstasy pool. Now I understand why this is the most visited natural site here in NZ. Check out the pictures below to get an idea 🙂 (which are not doing any justice to the breathtaking beauty by the way)
Spellbound by the scenic beauty, I almost forgot that we had to advance towards another place too which is equally intriguing and unique in its own regard. But HI took up the role of the alarm clock and started nudging me to leave. After snoozing him for so many times and inhaling in the misty air of the smashing waterfall to my heart’s content I finally followed his lead and we headed towards our next destination- Whakapapa! Thank God, the weather wasn’t bad up there and the snowfield was open for the day (Happy dance inside the heart… lol :p)
We had to drive all the way up to Mount Ruapehu to roister in the snow. The excitement rose with every snowy bend of the road. Once there, we covered ourselves in 3 layers (which we thought was more than enough) and tried to take a tour of the whole area but we couldn’t because of our insufficient preparation (we did not have snow boots, never thought of getting those until we found ourselves tripping over icy path… lol). So, we headed directly towards the rental area and got our hands on snow-appropriate-attire on urgent basis.
You can do multiple activities like skiing, sightseeing through chairlift, sledging at the mountain based on your preferences and conditions. We thought to learn skiing but our tight schedule did not allow us. Nevertheless, we opted to do the fun part and bought ourselves sledging sessions for an hour. Glad we did because mannnn it was a hell lot of fun, seriously! This was one activity all 3 of us did together and laughed our lungs out in that snowy ‘happy’ valley; E loved making snowballs and we all threw many of those on each other, made snow angels, photobombed each other’s pictures. In short, we went MAD! Haha. Have a look yourself :p
I did a live session on my Facebook page from there too, check it out:
Our alarm clock aka HI was keeping a close eye on his watch, as a result of which we had to leave the place even before our session expired, yeah… we left early 😦 though E did not want to go anywhere – she was enjoying the most of all 😀
Anyhow, we returned the rental stuff and proceeded back towards our car. Consumed the Qeema sandwiches I had made in bulk for the sake of our tummies before leaving from Auckland and progressed our journey towards our final destination of the day – Wellington!
Breaks & Bites 