Day 15

Turangi to Mangahua 45km

I got off to a bit of a late start this morning after taking care of some e-mail stuff at the local i-center. I was loaded up with food and water and on the road a bit after 10:00am. It was a cloudy morning with the threat of rain. Perfect conditions for a day that was to start with a big climb. Peddallers' Paradise made the Te Ponga saddle sound a bit intimidating, but it wasn't that bad. After the day with the Wangapoua hill none of the subsequent hills have seemed all that difficult. Perahps I'm getting a bit more in shape, though I was in reasonably good climbing condition on arrival (no matter the rather pear-shaped photo from the first day). I'm still planning on crossing the southern alps three times, but I've not actually seen them yet so we'll see..

Anyway, the view of lake Taupo from to top was very nice and the trip down the other side was superb. The crossing leads to the central plateau of the north island dominated by the volcanoes of Tongariro national park. Mt. Ruapehu is particularly imposing and apparrently was quite active only 15 years ago. There were bits and pieces of old growth forest along the way that were quite beautiful. It was a wonderfully deserted road. Not a single logging truck the whole day (yeah!) There were a few drizzles but on the whole an excellent day of cycling.

I stopped just before the tiny settlement of National Park at a lovely campsite a few hundred meters off the main road near a pretty stream. This was my first DoC campsite since arriving in NZ and a pleasant change from the highly commercial holiday parks. While the showers at the so-called "motor camps" have been most welcome at the end of a long day of pedalling, the DoC site was perfect. I finally got out my camp stove and the freeze-dried beef teryaki was the most satisfying meal of the trip so far. It was just me and the birds and the bubbling brooke for several hours before a few other campers pulling later that day. I had a nice chat with a open heart surgical nurse from Montana who works in Wellington. She used to live in Dunedin on the south island where she worked at the university hospital. She had nothing but nice things to say about Dunedin. I'm looking forward to my visit there in a month or so.