what's the point?

just spent a delightful relaxing weekend away for a wedding at "The Point", a.k.a Whakamoenga Point, Lake Taupo. This favorite local swimming spot, best on the lake apparently, hides a complex of private holiday homes concealled in the native forest above. Here's the view from where we stayed...



this is the spot!

..or a bit further round, where everyone went to swim day after the wedding.

I found this pic in the Museum, showing the point when it was just a lone house (the property where the wedding took place as a matter of fact)

compare with this scale model of the place now:
the rocks in the front is the swimming point.

accessible by boat a bit further round are some Maori rock carvings done in the 1970's. here's a spooky cave we found in the forest...

and also, here's a footnote on a Museum exhibit which describes the Patu-paiarehe people as a mysterious tribe rather than mythological forest fairies.


beautiful sunsets every time. this place is def one of the best parts of Aotearoa i have found in my many travels!

more evidence of Aotearoa's pre-Maori people

thanks to the homie big Navs for sending me this link, he's heard the legends from his father and we're starting to hear that Iwi all around the country have stories about these people...

quote from that link: "Pakepakehā is another word for patupaiarehe. It may have given rise to the term Pākehā (a New Zealander of European descent). To Māori, Europeans resembled the pakepakehā or patupaiarehe, with their fair skin and light-coloured hair."