New Zealand - Taupo

Taupo, New Zealand


We stopped in Taupo while traveling from Rotorua to Wellington on Friday, March 4, 2005. As was frequently the case in small towns, the stop was just long enough to visit a couple of shops and enjoy a quick bite

to eat. Tongariro Street was the main street on which the coach parked. It was in front of a Burger King and across from a recreational park.

There were three unique points about Taupo that made it memorable for me in spite of our short visit.

In the park near Tongairo Street was a public washroom that had a

brand name on it. I am not speaking of the company that manufactures porcelain or perhaps a firm that specializes in the making of faucets, but a trademarked name on the entire washroom. In fact, I have found that Super Loo even has their own corporate Web site billing themselves as the maker of "luxury toilets" with "unique design features" that make their product "superior to other products in the market". Don't just take my word for it, surf on over to http://www.superloo.co.nz now and see for yourself.

In fairness, it appears that the town caters to frequently scheduled events such as IronMan competitions. Charging 40 cents to use a washroom equipped with showers enables the town to provide quality facilities to a large number of people. But from my perspective, our coach load of weary travelers provided an infusion of souvenir, pharmacy and small meal revenue. Charging some of us to flush a toilet just seemed, well, we'll just leave it as memorable.

Super Loo even has an employee making change in the lobby of the structure. I wanted to treat my wife to this exceptional experience, so I made change with an automatic change machine only to discover that it keeps some of your money unless you put in if you use the proper combination of larger coins. I wound up having to stand in line with the change lady just to get the coins I needed to get all my change back from the automatic change machine. I'm not sure, but something just seemed surreal about that experience. I decided to not treat myself. I used the toilet for free in the Burger King across the street.

The second memorable point about Taupo was that we arrived one day earlier of an IronMan competition sponsored by Bonita Bananas.

At right is a large banner promoting the event in front of the Taupo Public Library.

I remember our son being glued to the television for sports events such as IronMan competitions when he still lived at home. I never understood the attraction myself, but I took a couple of photographs of the banner to impress our son.

I later discovered that Taupo is the home of an IronMan training camp.

The third memorable point about Taupo was Lake Taupo. I'll let the view below speak for itself.