TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK

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Our New Year Holiday was planned for 3 days and 2 nights. Included in the plan were Angie & I (hatchers of the plan), Mum & Arun were easily convinced to join, Dad & Bals were supposed to stay home and look after the house ...... or so they said. In the end everyone ended up going - we did laugh and give Bals & Dad a lot of stick over their plan. Booked a bach in Ohakune - $100 a night and sleeps eight people - score! Booked in for the night of the 31st December 2009 & 1st January 2010 - driving back home on 2nd January 2010. How the year has flown by!

31/12/2009 - Last Day of 2009

Left Auckland at about 8:30am - drove to Taupo. Stopped in Taupo for lunch. Took out the picnic basket and perched by Lake Taupo with magnificent views of the Lake and Mt Ruapehu in the backdrop. Stayed in Taupo for a while walking along the shore before heading off. Next we stopped along the Lake further away from Taupo - planned on swimming but the weather suddenly changed and it become quite windy and cold so ended up back in the car. Reversed my car into a tree 😊 Checked it out - nothing serious at all. Plan is to stop at Whakapapa village next and get all the info we need to do the Tongariro Crossing tomorrow. The drive is so scenic and breath-taking. Whakapapa Village was so beautiful in summer - definately want to come back and see it in winter. Get all the info we need and we're off. Enroute we see a sign for a 20 min return walk to Tawhai Falls - so we park up the car and take a scenic walk to the Falls. We head of to Ohakune next. Again the drive from Whakapapa Village to Ohakune is quite spectacular. We arrive in Ohakune and find our bach. The bach has a spa bath so everyone is excited and takes turns jumping in. The night is long and spent talking about 2009 and plans for 2010. What a lovely evening - spent with family in beautiful surroundings - talking, laughing, drinking and chomping. What more could one ask for - feeling very satisfied with life. The cherry on the cake would have been if hubby had been year to welcome 2010 with me. I thought there would have been no network in a small place like Ohakune but there was so Saurabh & I managed to stay in touch and wish each other a "Happy New Year" - first on mytime then on his time 😊 After ushering in 2010 with a toast and lots of kisses and good wishes we carried on chatting and went to bed at 2am.

01/01/2010 - First Day of 2010

So no one managed to get up in time for the Tongariro Crossing - we were supposed to have left by 8am as the walk in a 8-9hr journey. Still in bed and very sleepy. Woke up slowly and had a relaxing morning before heading off Whakapapa Village. Then drove past the village to the Ski Field Area - the drive was quite steep for my poor car - we were travelling at 25kms/hr and laughing all the way, we did get there eventually - the slow drive made us appreciate the scenery 😊 Once there we bought tickets for the chairlifts to go up Mt Raupehu - $23/person - this takes you up to a ski field and then you get onto another chairlift that goes even higher up the mountain where there's some snow left in summer. The first few seconds of the chairlift ride were scary, then I was okay and enjoying it throughly. Once up on the snow - the fun began and we took turns sliding down the snow on a bag so our arses wouldnt get wet. So much fun. Spents hours playing around before finally coming down. Sat at the cafe and had some cuppachino's & food to recuperate all the spent energy. Next it was back to Okahune and on to the other side of Mt Ruapehu to the Turoa skifield. Yet another awesome road to drive on. The scenery was amazing and the car slow 😊 Back to the bach for a realxing New Year day evening.

02/01/2010 - Drive back to Home

Drive back home - only one stop today as we have taken the extra long scenic route to get to our pit-stop "Orakei-Korako" - voted one of the best thermal wonderlands by Lonely Planet. Was good but I thought Wai-O-Tapu was way better. Got home at 7pm - well tired from a wonderful break.

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