Woke up in Taupo - handy since that's where we went to sleep - with occasional trucks on Hwy 5 below from early on. Very snuggy in bed, didn't want to get up! After all yesterday evening's deliberations and discussion, it's raining and the clouds are really low over the lake and the surrounding mountains. So maybe it doesn't matter which way we go.
All breakfasts seem to be leisurely! It's going to be interesting if/when we have to start early, maybe we should just get going and stop for brekkie later. Eventually we drive out of Taupo - nice campsite - and see hordes more motels and so on, clearly a very holiday and tourist town. The traffic thins out as we head away, stopping for diesel and food at Turangi, which is the last stop for a long time apparently. The Only Traffic Light stops us at some road works, and a fire truck comes the opposite way before it turns green - what was that about? So many stories...
The low visibility is pretty dull - the mountains are covered in mist, and we can just about see past the first line of trees as we drive up, up, up towards Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Pihanga, none of which are especially visible. This is where some of the Lord of the Rings stuff was filmed, in the plains of Mordor and Mount Doom. Sir Edmund Hillary's Outdoor Pursuits Centre has its praises sung by Tom "slip me a fiver" Kruse, and we pass lots of snow and ski oriented places. Not much traffic!
Turning north through Raurimu (means lots of rimu, a native tree), we pass the amazing spiral railway built to make the incline manageable for trains. There's even a lookout… we stop, keen to see this engineering feat. Once we're on the platform - there's a wire frame simulacrum which is pure comedy!! Is this it?? Cheesetastic… Stopping at the Spiral Cafe for a coffee and excellent date scones, the waitress tells us that you can actually see the railway, it's obscured by trees and if a train passes it'll mark it out. Cool. We sit. Eventually the kitchen hand comes out and strikes up conversation - he's a painfully skinny and toothless guy, very brown, with a Blackcomb mountain cap from Whistler. Turns out he's from Bagshot, came to NZ in 67, eventually became an adventure sport person, and got out when the H&S ergs got too hard to cope with - I wonder what his problem is, maybe he just doesn't have one! A long chat about how people get killed on these adventure/adrenalin things ensues - apparently some poor girl doing bridge swinging got lobbed off using the Mafia Toss before someone realised they hadn't tied her rope up… Not good. "It's all experience, forms and exams don't make yer safe!" How true.
The clouds stay with us. We turn at Taumarunui onto the Forgotten World Highway. This is an amazing road, with probably 10000 corners, up, down, up, down, each bend revealing new sights of the strange cone-shaped volcanic hills, with sheep dotted across them, V-shaped valleys, secret corners. Nevin's Lookout provides views across into two valleys, with the road winding around, and the passing occasional car or truck echoing across the huge space, bounded by the pointy hat hill. Apparently a busy place once, there are many tiny towns, like Whangamomona, with run-down old wooden hotels, tired faded community halls, lots of rusty corrugated buildings.
15km of the road is unmetalled, no tarmac - the van looks proper adventurous now, with beige dust and mud on the wheels and sides! This goes through the Tangarakau Gorge, which is utterly fantastic, like something out of Conan Doyle's Lost World - deep ravine, huge trees, millions of tree ferns. We stop at Joshua Morgan's grave - died at 35 when surveying the area. it all seems so far away from everything we know… The Moki tunnel, hand-hammered through the rock, is just wide enough for a truck to get through, and feels tight in our not so large van - a strange wooden roof inside it is for what? Water? Rock falls?
We stop and drive up to Raekohua Falls - presumably more impressive when there's more water, but now just a trickle over a rocky ledge of maybe 3 metres. The road itself is more interesting, with tiny bridges over the railway. And still more turns - it's impossible to count them. Lunch is over a gorge, smoked salmon rolls with humus and salad, yum. A truck full of sheep hammers past and around the curve.
Finally, exhausted, we reach Stratford, apparently modelled on Shakespeare's birth place by the home-crazy poms. Hmm. Lots of roads have names of his characters - is that modelling? The road is straight now, which is a good thing by and large. The rest of the trip to New Plymouth to meet with Scottish Caitie goes easily. In NP we're just working out how to get from there to Oakura, when I spot a The Warehouse, NZ's answer to every other cheapo dump shop, but apparently good for crafting things sometimes. We park. I turn on phone. Caitie is in NP at the supermarket, and can meet us here!! Yay! Easy!
But she has a bike race in Fitzroy, run by the bike club she wants to join, so we go with her and wait for the start. It's a pretty small affair, simple grassy course with some hills and such, 10 mins + 1 lap so everyone gets to do what they can in the categories. Caitie comes a very impressive second, which upsets the winner a bit who is apparently some representative for NZ cycling… Roger summat. Har har. It would be great if one of the spectators hadn't asked me if my daughter was experienced…
We go back to Caitie's studio basement flat, it's cool, wonderful vegetation and everything in this suburb. Van parked on kerb outside. Robin, the new boyf arrives and we go to the pub, wondering if it's too late to be served. No!! Result. Burgery stuff and beer, with chips - marvellous! Retire to bed in kerbside van, tired and pleased with the day. Suspect tomorrow will be spent chilling!
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