Road Back to Taupo

This post is about the trip back to Taupo, but I have to go backwards a bit.  On the drive down to Wellington to see Annita's mother, it rained on us most of the way.

On the outside chance that we might bring this rain back to Kansas, Annita decided to take some pictures of what rain looks like.....

While taking Annita's mother around, we went to Waikanae and drove by where Annita's grandfather built his house.  We went to the beach there and took some pictures with Kapiti Island in the background.  This was supposed to be the picture that I sent to my co-workers of me, on a beach, in a thong.  But it was colder than shit that day, so I went ahead and wore blue jeans.

I did bite the bullet and do some driving this trip.  Some examples of the roads I drove follow.

We drove over Paekakariki Hill on the way back to Taupo.  Annita shortened it and her pronunciation sounded a lot like "pie-cock" hill.  Once at the top, the view was pretty amazing.

You do have to look at the road on the right side of the picture.  I was a little intimidated driving that.

One of the places we saw on the drive up (in the rain) was the Rangatira Golf Course.  We meant to stop by on the drive back to Taupo, and maybe play a little golf.  Unfortunately, it was raining on the drive back also.

We took a couple pictures of the course.

On the drive out, I stopped and looked at the tee box for hole 7.

Here's the actual tee box.

I walked forward a bit and took this one.

I think it would take driver twice to get TO the fairway!!!

We made it to Desert Road and found some interesting signs.

I'm pretty sure that's the name of Bon Jovi's next album, a follow up to "Slippery When Wet!"

We also stopped and took a picture of Mt. Ruapehu.  It was cloudy and rainy, so the picture pretty much sucks.

It finally stopped raining about the time we arrived back at Lake Taupo.  We pulled over and took some pictures of the lake.

Just to show you what we arrived back to, I took a shot from the deck of Robert and Viv's house, overlooking the lake at dusk.

Once again, not a tumbleweed in sight.  Who could look at that?

Next post, Amy Arrives!