Ferry Cool Carvings, Man

Last day in Taupo. I finally did what Taupo is known for - the Maori Rock Carvings.
I woke up and checked out of my super cool hotel and walked past town to the marina wharf thing (what's the difference between a marina and a wharf? legit question, please reply in comments.) to the steamboat that would take me out to the carvings! Honestly I might be more excited about riding a steam boat than about seeing the carvings...oops.
I'm there like 30 minutes early. Like 30 minutes before we're supposed to be there which is 15 minutes before it leaves, so I'm like earlier than early but whatever. It's grey and raining, of course, but instead of going in the under cover cafe I just chill with the ducks because the rain never bothered me anyway.

It's cold outside so I sit inside on the steamboat. There's like six tables so I sit at one of them and there's lots of other tables with barely any people and these stupid people come and sit RIGHT NEXT TO ME. Not on the empty bench across from me or the empty bench next to that, but literally right next to me like the lady is leaning on my backpack that's in between me and her on the bench. It's very irritating. I get my cookie and tea and try my best to ignore it but it's seriously bothersome so when I finish my tea I move but by now the other inside benches are all taken because people realized it was cold outside. So I go outside and I am not happy about the stupid people taking over where I was. It is too early to be doing unpleasing things like sitting near me and leaning all over my stuff. Like back up lady. Ugh whatever.
So I go outside and the one worker lady is feeding the ducks so they're flying like right to the boat and then taking the bread and dropping to the water. It's cool. Oh and there's these SCREAMING two children that have been screaming since they got there and the lady let's them feed some and they stop screaming for a bit yay. Then the one gets like seasick or something and has to lay down and the other one starts coloring so no more screaming thankfully. But back to the ducks. Do they have Mallards in New Zealand? Because these ducks had green heads and the girl ducks were brown and like I live in Maryland and that's what a mallard looks like but I'm all the way in New Zealand and it just seems unlikely that they would have mallards here because it's so far away from Maryland. But idk man. Wait lemme google it. Woah they are mallards! A little piece of home so far from home. That's cray man. "which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands and South Africa" (Wiki). But uh, Wiki, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile are all part of the Americas so no need to repeat them...whatevs, I didn't edit it.
We go all around the lake which is bigger than Singapore. I didn't know a lake could be so big. Then there are lots of little mini bays (but they just call them Bays) coming off of the lake, but like I feel like that should be opposite, like shouldn't the Bay be bigger than the Lakes? I dunno. It's just our Chesapeake and even Assawoman are so big, these ones are so tiny I feel they don't deserve the title of Bay. I'm just gonna post a bunch of pictures at once so just chill, k thnx.
So then we get to the rock carvings and the captain explains like what all the carvings on the face mean but I took so long writing this post that I don't really remember but I do remember that it's from Tahiti even tho most people I've talked to think the Maori came from Malaysia. So that's interesting. Then next to the big face there are 28 other carvings, including a lizard and some others. The boat is quite small so we got to get really up close to the carvings and the captain turned the boat around 360 slowly so everyone got to get super close to everything, that was nice. My camera decided to die so much that I couldn't take any pictures when we got to the rock carvings so I had to use my phone but thankfully it let me take pictures.
Then we went back on the other side of the lake so we saw like pretty much everything from the lake.

 Then after the boat ride, I still had a long while until my bus back to Auckland, but it was cold and yucky. I wandered the town and the shops as long as I could. I got my mother a present but I had planned on getting stuff for everyone, so I didn't do as good as I wanted. I almost got my daddy a animal skull for the basement but it was like super expensive but the more I think about it the more I should've just got it because it wasn't really that expensive compared to like literally everything in New Zealand, but oh well. I did get myself a shoulder brace for my poor shoulder (but it stinks major so I don't actually wear it even tho my shoulder still kills me on the daily) and nail polish because in Auckland it's like more than $9 a little bottle and in Taupo it was only $2 a bottle. But now my nails are super chipped and I don't have any remover but oh well.
Oh also I went in the Oldest Record/Music store in New Zealand, but I couldn't decide on what to buy so after like probably a half hour of just staring at all the music trying to decide what to get I just left.
I got eggs and toast at a cafe then I walked over to the iSite because I knew there was a like flower area there and I was so done with the shops. There was a museum there! So I went into the museum because it was inside so it would probably be warm and I walked around there until it was pretty much time to go to the bus.
Museum pictures:

Garden of Well Being

lol these were on display for being the fishing rods
of like 100 years ago but literally the rods I use
at home look just like this ...

 I was like 15 minutes before I was supposed to be at the bus stop, but the bus was already there and they let us on. Literally as soon as I got in my seat/row (yeah I don't like sharing. I was a spoiled kid) it starts POURING. Like super hard. Great timing. I'm so glad he let us on early.
But the reason I got there so early was because I was gonna pee first. But once I saw it was gonna start raining I just got on the bus and I'm glad I did and I wasn't gonna get off to go pee in that downpour. So I just waited until we got to Hamilton to pee. I read some more of Sarah's book but mostly just listened to music and we finally got back to Auckland.
I ate half a big bag of goldfish on the bus but I was still kinda hungry and when we got back to Auckland it literally took everything in me not to stop by Father Ted's for a steak and Magners. But I had all my stuff with me, which was a lot, so that's why I didn't stop. If I didn't have my stuff with me I would've. I love that place, man. Miss Auckland when I get back? Ah, probably not. Miss Father Teds? Definitely.

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha