Monday to Friday

The weather theme this week has been dry in the mornings then rain in the afternoons. So we have managed to get out each morning then have spent the afternoons in the resort playing table tennis, pool etc.

On Monday we took the bikes out to do the river trail. I naively thought it would be a flat path meandering by the river but no, it was a full on 2 hour mountain bike ride - different aching muscles to soothe in the jacuzzi. The next day we went on a forest walk and hiked up a hill for ages to see the view...... only the trees had grown too tall and there was no view to be had. On Wednesday we drove south for about an hour to do a recommended walk aling an old coach road which included a viaduct built in 1907. We just got back to the car when the heavens opened and it hailed and rained for the rest of the day.

When we woke up the next morning the local hilltops had snow on them. We drove to Whakapapa which is very near the mountains we walked over on Sunday. It was like a winter wonderland as they had had 3 inches of snow overnight. The DOC were recommending people only tackle the crossing if they had crampons. By the way, they found the girl who had gone missing.  It seems she had gone ahead of her group and had taken an optional one way track but instead of coming back down the same way she carried on and got lost.  Luckily the overnight temp was 1º C so she wasn't too bad when the helicopter finally located her.

We walked to a waterfall and the strong sun was quickly melting the snow so it was very wet underfoot and overhead from the trees. However it was a very pretty walk and a lovely way to spend our anniversary of the day we met 35 years ago.

Yesterday we moved to another resort for our second week in the area - north of Lake Taupo. Another nice apartment and it's got a sofa! As it was a short drive we had time to visit Huka Falls - fast flowing and really clear water.

We are only able to access wifi in the local libraries and we are in an allocated wifi room with about 20 other people.  Just now 2 maori men greeted each other with the traditional nose rubbing - completely natural just like us shaking hands. I admit I just thought it was for ceremonies.