??New Zealand adventures part 5 ~ The world’s coolest McDonalds，hot spring spas and Blue Springs 紐西蘭旅遊篇之五 ~ 全世界最酷的麥當勞,泡溫泉及迷人小藍湖??

When I go on holiday, I always try to avoid McDonalds, not because I don’t like it, but because the point of going on holiday is to try to experience local life as much as possible. On my recent visit to Lake Taupo, I came across a McDonalds that I had to go to. Actually I didn’t buy anything to eat, I just went to take photos so I still didn’t break my no McDonalds rule. This is “The world’s coolest McDonalds”. Let me take you there.
出門旅遊我非必要也不會吃麥當勞。不是因為我不喜歡吃，而是因為我覺得去旅遊應該盡量體驗當地人的生活。最近去紐西蘭北島的陶波湖，我發現一家不能不去拜訪的麥當勞。其實我去只是拍照，沒有買東西吃，所以嚴格來說，我還是沒有破壞我自己定下的規矩。現在就讓我帶你去看看這家全世界最酷的麥當勞!

Isn’t this really cool? This McDonalds has a real DC3 plane! 覺得如何？很酷吧！這家麥當勞有一台真的 DC3 客機。

When McDonalds bought this site in 1990, the previous owner already had this plane on site so it was included in the sale. However, McDonalds never did anything with the plane until 2013, when they decided to refurbish it and turn it into an eating area. The exterior is painted in McDonalds traditional red and silver (not yellow), with their iconic lettering is just behind the cockpit on the sides. To access the plane, you have to enter the McDonalds store which is just like a normal store, go out to the children’s playground area, and go up the staircase to the rear of the plane. Here’s me at the top of the stairs by the plane door.
麥當勞在 1990年買下這塊土地時，賣家之前已把飛機停在這裡，所以飛機是包含在交易價格裡。多年來，麥當勞都只是把飛機擱置在一旁，直到2013年他們終於決定把它改造成餐廳的一部份。飛機外面油上麥當勞傳統的紅銀(不是黃)色，而它們著名的招牌寫在座艙後的兩旁。進入機艙要先經過餐廳，這跟麥當勞一般的店沒差。旁邊有一道門出去兒童遊樂場，在那裡就有一道梯級往飛機餐廳去。這照片是我站在樓梯上，在飛機門口旁邊拍的。

The red and silver theme continue inside. It has 20 red seats and 10 silver tables lined along both sides of the plane. I got there early in the morning and there wasn’t anyone around yet so I was able to take photos of an empty plane. The cockpit is locked with a clear perspex door but everything inside, like the controls, dashboard and buttons are still intact. Apparently if you ask them, they will unlock the cockpit to let you take photos inside.  Cool eh?
紅銀色主題在機艙裏延續，裏面有20張紅色椅子及十張銀色坐枱在機身的兩旁。我去到的時候時間還早，沒有其他顧客在用餐，所以能夠拍攝一些不錯的機飛機餐廳照片。座艙被一道透明門鎖上不能進去。但裏面的所有儀表板，按鍵，方向盤等等還沒拆掉。如果你真的想要拍座艙裡面，你可以跟店方要求他們會開門讓你進去。酷吧?

Lake Taupo is the largest lake surface in New Zealand, totalling 616 square km which is slightly bigger than Disneyland in California, or roughly 80% of Singapore or The Forbidden City in Beijing! The lake is actually a volcano crater created by an eruption over 26,000 years ago, but looking at this photo, it’s hard to imagine that this is a volcano crater and not a lake.
陶波湖是紐西蘭最大面積的湖，一共有616平方公里，大概是星加坡或北京紫禁城的80%，比美國加州的迪士尼樂園還要大一點點!它其實真正身份是一個火山口，在兩萬六千多年前爆發形成。你看這照片真很難想像這是一個火山口而不是一個湖。

Today Lake Taupo is still considered dormant due to the hydrothermal activity, and provides many hot springs nearby. I went to two of them as I love hot springs. This one is called Wairakei Terraces and only admits adults (over 14 years old) so it was nice and peaceful, perfect for relaxing. There were a series of pools situated in the open area, and the geothermal water which came from 1.5km underground was really hot. You can see the steam from the pool. One of the pool was by a small waterfall, this was as near to as as I could stand to the waterfall, it was hot!!!
現在它是屬於一個休眠火山而不算死火山，因為地下的岩漿熱液不時有活動，還有冒煙，為附近提供不少可泡湯的溫泉館。我很喜歡去泡溫泉所以也去了兩家。其中一家 Wairakei Terraces只招待14歲以上的成年人所以沒有小朋友在喧嘩嬉戲，比較寧靜及舒適。溫泉是外面開放式，有幾個不同的小泡湯區。溫泉水從地底1.5公里心冒出，可以看到的煙霧迷離。其中一個溫泉在一小瀑布旁邊，流下的水非常燙，我嘗試走近一點但實在太熱，馬上走開，最近只能站到這裏。

The other hot spring I went to was called Wai O Tapu and was near Rotorua, about an hour away from Lake Taupo. I didn’t take any photos inside this hot spring (actually they all disallow photos at the springs). I preferred Wairakei Terraces more as the pools there were in more natural settings and it was less crowded. Whereas Wai O Tapu pools were more man made, and in fact when we were there, there were works going on at one of the pools so it felt a bit odd.
我另外去的一家溫泉是 Wai O Tapu,，在羅托路亞附近，從陶波湖開車大概需要一小時。我在這家溫泉裡面沒有拍照，因為嚴格來說，所有的溫泉館也禁止拍照 。兩家溫泉中，我比較喜歡Wairakei Terraces因為我覺得它的環境比較大自然化，沒有那麼多人。Wai O Tapu有點太過人工化，而且我們在泡湯時，還有些工人趁冬天的旅遊淡季在進行維修工程，有點煞風景。

Before I go, I want to take you to one more place nearby. It is about half way between Rotorua and Hobbiton (half an hour each way). You need to have your own car to get there and the easiest is to park at the Leslie Road car park and then walk about 800 metres along the track. It is an easy and pleasant walk and takes about 10-15 minutes each way. This is Blue Springs, isn’t it just beautiful like a water colour painting! I took this with my Nikon camera and have not edited the first photo at all as I wanted to show you what it looks like in its original form.
最後，我想帶你去附近一個很美的地點。它在羅托路亞及霍比頓中間， 從其中任何一點開車大概要半小時。去 Blue Springs 一定要有自己的交通工具，因為沒有公車可到達。開車要停在Leslie Road 停車場，然後跟步道走800米，路蠻平很容易走。大概走10至15分鐘就可以到這個很美的小溪。你看，這是否美得像一個水彩畫?這裡第一張照片我用我的單反相機拍，沒有經任何修改，因為我想跟大家分享它原本的美貌。

The water here is an amazing blue colour and takes up to 100 years to filter up through the ground. It is so pure that 70% of New Zealand’s bottled water comes from this spring.
Blue Springs 的水是天然藍色，從地底過濾到湖面要大概一百年 ，所以水質非常清純。聽說紐西蘭有70%樽裝水也是從這個小溪來的。

There was a light drizzle that day, but I think that just adds another level of beauty to it. It was so mesmerizing I didn’t want to leave.
我到訪這天正下毛毛細雨，我覺得這把小湖的美帶上另一個層次，幾乎捨不得走。