Day 15 (Tuesday 9th January 24) Taupō Flight and boat trip

 On each major holiday we try to take one scenic flight somewhere significant either cultural, environmental or historic in nature. At midday we arrived at Taupo airport to take scenic flight over the Lake Taupo and surrounds. We chose Chopper Worx as helicopter company based on reviews. All reviews are 5 star, so we got ready and boarded Carl’s 4 seat helicopter. Despite being in the rear seats, we got a great view of the surroundings. 

Taupo

Edge of Lake Taupo

Our flight took us over the township at 2500 feet and across the lake at 2000 feet dropping briefly to view the local 14 metre high Māori traditional styled face carved into a cliff face on the water’s edge.

We saw got to see Huka Falls from the air, very impressive sight. Our flight certainly met our expectations, and we would recommend Chopper Worx. 

For lunch we were recommended to try Jimmy Coop’s, a lake side restaurant with plenty of holiday ambience. We shared a tasting paddle of 3 local beers and one cider, all were great to our taste.

Jimmy Coop’s 

While enjoying our burgers and beer we reviewed our photos to discover that cliff face Maori carvings were not as clear as we would have liked. After some brief research we discovered the only way to see them is by water or by air.

Harbour 

We decided, we would like closer look and proceeded down to the boat harbour to see if we could purchase some tickets. Online no one could to be found for today, so dropped into the ticket office by the wharf and a helpful lady found us a spot on a sailboat heading out at 3:30pm. 

After a quick ice cream, we joined a truly multi-national group of 12 or so passengers aboard the “Kindred Spirit”. It took a pleasant hour to reach the carvings.

The carving up close were worth the visit, very impressive. We did learn from skipper that they were not an ancient sacred artefact but instead a relatively new Maori stone craving created back in the 1970’s by a Maori artist wanting to honour his ancestor’s achievements.  

After carving visit, the younger passengers and crew took an opportunity to take a dip in the lake. The crew also fed us pizza and choice of alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks. Nicely done . 

At 6pm we reached the dock to disembark where another group waited their turn to go a journey to carvings. After a 45 minute drive back to Taurangi, we called it a day.