Lake Taupo

Sunday, February 20, 2000:  Lake Taupo

New to the area, we stopped at the Visitors Center to see what we can do on the North Island.

Doug, always making food a priority – he calls it “self-preservation” because I can get really mean when I haven’t been fed meat (must be the Leo in me) – put grocery shopping as our first order of the day.  While grocery shopping, Doug spied ads for fishing on Lake Taupo.  I hate fishing.  I don’t know enough swear words to fish, but sure, I’m always game for a good time.

Doug called out to me in the little grocery store, “Hey J…J!  There’s fishing here.  Why don’t we go for a little boat ride?”  “Ah, sure.”  The clerk proceeded to write us up for fishing licenses and the boat ride.  She proceeded to write my name as “Jay”, but we corrected her that my name’s “Judy.”

We also signed up for The Tongariro Crossing tomorrow.

We went fishing on Lake Taupo.  Well, Doug fished; I held a pole and watched the water foam.  Doug caught a large trout.  It was a catch and release arrangement, so we didn’t have trout for dinner.

Instead, we had an elegantly romantic dinner at the Grand Chateau Hotel.  We took a ferry to the Grand Chateau Hotel, watching the sunset and the black swans silently floating around our boat.  Doug stepped away to get us a drink, returning smiling with 2 flutes of champagne in hand.