After breakfast with Joy, and some advise on routes, we left Napier this morning en route to the centre of the North Island. Our road took us through some typical NZ scenery, rolling grassy hills populated with sheep and cows.
After an hour or so of driving we reached the Kuripapango campsite where we went for a short walk down to the river. Later on we crossed the river again; back to the single lane bridges, yipee.
The next section of the road rose up and up, giving more views of the surrounding area - we could see why the TR group have used it in the past. Great sweeping bends and steep gradients.
Eventually we reached what felt like a plateau area. Definite sheep country, for miles and miles.
We could also detect more Moari influence than we had seen in many areas.
Just before Taihape we passed this tiny church and cemetery.
Taihape is the self styled gumboot capital of NZ, I'm not sure why. They have an annual gumboot throwing competition there, and this wonderful huge gumboot made out of corrugated iron. There is also a very nice cafe in town where we had lunch. The lamb and mint pie was crammed full of tender meat and was delicious.
Soon we joined State Highway 1 again and drove north through the Rangipo Desert on the 'Desert Road'. Though not a real desert it is very barren due to all the volcanic ash which has fallen on it in the past. Tongariro National Park is dominated by three mountains, Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe. Several scenes from the Lord of the Rings were filmed in this vicinity, as all the guide books like to tell us! This was Ruapehu.
Mt. Ngauruhoe is a real conical mountain, and the Alpine Crossing trail goes round it, on the far side.
We are staying tonight at the Turangi Bridge motel, in a kitchen studio, which means we've been able to cater for ourselves for the first time since handing back the campervan. Nice and relaxing, even though it means there is washing up to be done. After checking the weather forecast we have decided to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing track on Friday, so tomorrow we can have a cup of tea in bed, then go to Lake Taupo and do some smaller walks.
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