Mt Ruapehu

Longest driving day of the trip. According to Google map, it takes about 4 hrs 39 minutes but I am sure the actual trip took longer. As Little P drove us out of Taupo, we were treated with sight of Mt Ruapehu along the way. Little P told us that people come to Mt Ruapehu for skiing in winter. The photo above was taken in late December, to be exact, 30th December last year.

We had pit stops and there were a lot of eating activities in the car. Our first pit stop was to look for a toilet, just 45 minutes out of Taupo and we stumbled on the National Trout Centre.

National Trout Centre
I was reminded by my fellow travel mates to make a public announcement that the centre carries some similar souvenir as other shops but at a cheaper price. Fact is the trout centre offers much more than souvenirs of course. One could fish there, see some fishes and learn about trouts and water ecology. One needs to pay for an entrance fee but of course, souvenir shop is excluded from this.

Spot the fishes!

After another 45 minutes drive (according to Google map), we arrived at Waiouru. Such a coincidence, we definitely didn't time to stop every 45 minutes.

Waiouru
Waiouru is a small town and has a main attraction of Queen Elizabeth II Army Memorial Museum which we didn't go at all. It also host a camp of the New Zealand Army. Instead, we went to this very interesting pen cafe.




We were told that there are 250,000 pens collected by Jim over 20 years and about 90,000 of them are hanging. Interesting but food is forgettable.




After fueled by food, we persisted little longer than 45 minutes. I really don't remember the exact time we took but Google said after 1 hr 20 minutes, we stopped for evening tea, at Unforgetabulls. Haha.

Bulls
This town is big on puns! The town is named after James Bull and was initially called Bull Town. It had a change of name but renamed back to Bulls.


 It has a slogan of "a town like no udder" and the puns extend to library, toilets, etc. It also come with a cute little nook for photo taking. MMC made the newlyweds posed on the bench.



We needed to top up on my sugar and caffeine level, so some ice coffees and pancakes. As you can see from the photo, it is old school type of pancake.


The cafe also stocked up on cheesy packaging sugar sachets.


Little P then brought us to Wellington without making any more pit stop. We were in good time for dinner ;)

Oh and the twilight zone feel Pen Cafe's toilet came with inspirational quote.



Side note: Craving for a lamb burger with blue cheese, complete with chips of course.