Day 77 – Snow and lakes

Another day of getting the miles in today. The weather reports were right and as we left New Plymouth we couldn’t see Mt Taranaki at all. The road to Lake Taupo was long and very twisty, so much so that our necks began to hurt after a couple of hours.

On the journey we stopped off at a couple of places. First was the Raurimu Spiral View Point, sounds interesting doesn’t it? Well we thought so and turned off the road, parked up and walked to the viewing point. It turned out to be a view of a section of railway that winds its way up a 200 meter hill. According to the sign this was a major accomplishment. I felt they could have save a lot of effort if they’d spoken to the Peruvians who, instead of building big loops and tunnels, built simple switchbacks. We did get to see a train go through so it wasn’t as boring as it could have  been, to be honest if a train hadn’t gone through we wouldn’t have even seen it.

Second stop was the Tonganro volcano ski station. The snow line was down to the car park so walking along the path was fun in flip flops. Got some amazing views over to the lake and beyond. I wish a few of the lifts had been open and I had my snow board. Its weird being here in spring time and seeing the snow, it reminded me of what season it is back home.

Arriving in Taupo we dropped our stuff off at the YHA and went for a run along the side of the lake. New Zealand really does provide some stunning places to run.

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