22nd January 2008

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22nd January 2008
Today we have been moving camp and we have left Rotorua in the Bay of Plenty and moved into Turangi in Taupo.
New Zealand is in a sad reflective mood today as the nation says its farewells and pays tribute to Sir Edmund Hilary, one of the country's great heroes. He will be buried today after a state funeral in Auckland.
The weather has been overcast most of the day and there has been some heavy rain squalls and some strong winds. This is the tail end of a cyclone which started in the Pacific Islands. We are hoping it will have blown over before tomorrow's walk or we shall not see the spectacular views. We stopped for coffee at the top of Lake Taupo (about 55km long) before travelling on to Turangi. We drove into the Tongario National Park to check the start and finish points for our walk. We also went to the Whakapapa visitor centre and the Whakapapa ski lift station which was in full cloud cover so we could not see very much. Our main reason for stopping at Turangi is to do a walk called the Tongario Alpine Crossing (17 Km) on Wednesday. This walk is reputedly “the best one day walk in New Zealand”. We stopped at the visitors centre on the way back and I took a photo of a kiwi(stuffed of course) and the relief map of the walk.
Bob managed to get in a swim in the motel pool between the showers During a sortie to the supermarket I failed to master the pick and mix nuts and raisins dispensers and covered the floor with trail mix we were buying for tomorrow's walk -how embarrassing, the others disowned me as a silly foreigner!
The motel we are in today does not have any internet connections so this day's activity may be delayed getting on to the travelblog.

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Comments

[amy]

show us the real thing!
have you got any pics of a real Kwiw? and has dad learnt the Haka yet? and remember mine and Graeme's request for dad to don his christmas bermuda shorts on the beach or paddling in the sea. I like the nuts and raisins story, Mum you were obviously just worried you might not find your way back on the walk and were doing a hansel and gretle trail to stay safe, don't worry i would do the same thing!! Keep having fun, love from Amy

[Corrie]

planning
nice to see some serious Dark planning went into the hike... most important :)