Day Seven: The Temple, Lakes and Waterfalls and Fun with the Carters

Everyone should know Marcie and Kevin Carter.  They are the best people and so fun to spend time with.  They are great to talk to, laugh with, and play games.  And it turns out they are perfect to visit in New Zealand, too.  We knew them from our service in the Headquarters Mission.  They served as the zone leaders on the first floor during much of the time we served as zone leaders in the Collections Zone.  With the Hiltbrands, we started going to dinners every month or so because we just enjoyed each other.  This was the first time that we had actually spent "days" with them.  It was perfect and wonderful.  They are great hosts and shared New Zealand with us for the three days we were with them. (Have I mentioned the blessing of new friends which come as you serve a mission?)

Saturday morning, our first task was attending a session in the pretty Hamilton New Zealand Temple which was built in 1958 and became the 11th operating temple in the Church at that time.

Sunrise as we are heading around the temple.

We accidently were very color coordinated for this picture with Gary wearing his Elder Blasnek tie.

Halls and Carters

It was very interesting how they duplicated the window design in the landscape.

We then headed to breakfast at this fun restaurant which was attached to a plant nursery.  Fun things to see, the food was excellent, and we loved eating outdoors in pretty setting.

At the order counter---don't forget your pets.

The hot chocolate looked and tasted delicious!

I ordered the french toast with berries and bananas.  They baked the bananas and at first I was a bit hesitant (sometimes food is like that when it is different than you expect.), but it actually was great. Who knew--warm berries and bananas with whip cream is tasty.

In the parking lot.....Hire a Hubby car!

Then we headed home and changed clothes and headed on an adventure that the Carters had planned. We had no idea what we were going to do, but it was so fun.  We took about a 2 1/2 hour car ride--itself

fun in a foreign country...and ended up at this dam at the Waikato River.  This river is the longest one in New Zealand flowing from the east to exit out on the west coast into the Tasman Sea.  It is 425 kilometers long (about 260 miles). We passed it many times on our journey to this dam. It is nearby the town of Taupo and the lake you see behind the dam is technically the river as well..

We had tickets to take a boat ride on the lake to see Huka Falls, but first we had another fun adventure....

We all lined up along this bridge next to the dam.  The pond below is the natural flow of the water from the bottom of the lake above.  Like many dams it produces electricity.

This location has one other special claim to fame.  In the Hobbitt, the stream below this dam was used to film the famous "barrel" scene.  In the show, you see the Hobbit and friends escaping in these barrel through the raging water.  In reality, they only filmed barrels heading down the rapids and added the people later through "movie magic."  The actors never came to this actual spot. So, someone had the idea of daily releasing the water from the two large sides of the dam so that tourists could come and watch the water as it goes down the canyon below.  They do it four times a day during most of the year.

So we are here lined up waiting to watch the roaring water.  Down stream there was another view area where there was another crowd of people.  I happened to catch this guy flashing the peace sign--"posing for a picture". I teased him about it since it seemed quite far to actually see a person aiming the camera at you.  However, he said no.  He was posing for someone.  He waved and someone waved back so I believed him. They both took pictures of each other he said.  Tourists are usually friendly people to talk to.  It has been fun to meet and visit with people from different places while in New Zealand.

Gates opened for us at 2:00 pm and water started flowing....

It starts to reach the pond and in the next 10 minutes the water level will increase about 20'.

As the pond fills up, then the water is forced into the canyon below

The mouth of the canyon.  This is the beginning of where they threw in the barrels and filmed them shooting down the canyon.

It was loud and amazing to watch.  Later we watched the scene with the barrels and it was fun to know that we had been there.  Such a tourist trap---but it was free and a beautiful day to be outside. So, if you ever wondered where that fun canyon was in The Hobbit, now you know!

We headed next on our boat tour of the lake to Huka Falls.

The boat owners has bills along his ceiling from different countries. I guess the whole ceiling had been covered but due to the weather and water, many were falling apart so he took them down and is trying a different way to attach them to the roof and protect them a bit better.

A black swan taking flight off the lake....

Near the shore you could see the trout.  The guide explained that in New Zealand there is only wild catch trout.  No trout farms of any kind.  So if you want to eat trout, you need to catch it yourself.  They did that to protect the various species of trout in New Zealand.

You have to love a good "reflection" photo!  This is a bridge that is part of a bike trail along this river.

I didn't get a good photo so I will skip posting a bad one, but we passed a geothermal plant along the lake.  Because of the volcanic action in this area, there are many areas of hot springs and this plant has harnessed some of that and provides energy for New Zealand. The process was very interesting, but I didn't take notes and can't remember all the details.  It is considered a very green energy source with very little waste.

And at the end of the lake is the famous Huka Falls.  The river goes from 100 meters wide to about 15 meters creating this powerful water fall.

It is a favorite for very experienced kayakers.  You have to have permission to get in the water to run these rapids.

We were able to watch about five finish their trip through the falls.  Pretty scary from our point of view!

After our ferry ride, we hopped in the car for a short drive to the city of Taupo.  It sits on another lake which was formed due to volcanic activity.  You can see an "island" in the lake that is actually the top of one of the volcanos which had erupted many times over the centuries. 

It is a combination fishing and tourist area with art thrown in.  It was a fun place to walk around.  We were trying to find a place to buy some postcards but no luck on a Saturday late afternoon.  We did find a good place to enjoy dinner together.

 

Some of the art work around the city....

And the nature as well....long at this huge leaf

and even bigger tree (the leaf didn't go with this tree.)

Some more artsy stuff around the town

Heartland

Fishing community for sure

If you look closely over the sails you can see the top of Mt. Taupo which is how the city got its name as well as the lake.

Another swan picture with her goslings 

And a sunset picture to end the day as we headed back west to Hamilton.

Another great day and more adventures still ahead  (it is now May 4th so you can see that I am behind in the whole blogging thing, but I will keep at it.  We are moving into our house this week--and leaving the basement so life is going to be even more unsettled for a few weeks.  But we are so excited to finally get settled in our house and start "real" life, whatever that is.) :)