Day 4 – Mordor from a distance

Well, yesterday my one real goal was to drive up the Para Para highway to Raetihi, and maybe if time allowed circle the mountains and come back down the desert road side.

The Para Paras were still showing signs of the storm in February – there were a number of places where the road was down to one lane, due to the other lane having relocated a few hundred meters down.

It was a fairly peaceful drive – a bit grey, but I’ve come to realise that even when the forcast is for fine weather, they don’t really mean it untill at least midday.
I stopped briefly at Raukawa falls to take some photos – I had remembered being able to climb right down to the foot of them, but was unable to find out how and had to settle for the lookout.
The rest of the drive to Raetihi was pretty uneventful, until one moment, having finally emerged from the Para Paras, I looked to the right and suddenly there was this bloody big snow covered mountain beside me.
I didn’t realise it was visible quite so soon, so it rather took me by suprise.
I looked for somewhere to pull over so I could take a photo, and that started off a couple of hours of driving a few metres – seeing the mountain again, and looking for somewhere to pull over.
Fortunately I managed to restrain myself enough to actually get somewhere, and after reaching Turangi, decided that there was enough time left for me to attempt to get to Taupo.

Taupo was Taupo – as fake and touristy as ever, and I only hung around long enough to pay 40c to go to the toilet (yes, it’s THAT touristy) and take some photos before turning round to try to get back to Wanganui by fiveish.
The drive back was extremely frustrating – I spent the whole time with either someone practically attached to my rear bumper whilst I was doing 10ks over the speed limit, or stuck behind someone doing 80 in a 100 zone, with 100km between passing lanes.
But I got home eventually – and even on time (I was just getting out of the car when Estelle got back from work) – and managed to get more photos of the mountains, but from the other side, and some pcitures of the Mangaweka gorge too on the way.
I also had a Near Tui Experience in Mangaweka – I was just going to go sit down for a bit after taking the photos – and right above me in the picnic table was a tui, in the branches of a Kowhai tree – but by the time I managed to get the camera out again, and turned on, it had flown away. I had to make do with just a couple of close ups of Kowhai flowers….which is a pity, because a Tui on a Kowhai branch would have been just about as New Zealand as you could get…

After I got home we pretty much turned straight round and went out to Estelle’s parents’ house for dinner.
Dinner was very nice, and very filling, and we came home and pretty much collpased.

Many mountains, lakes, rivers and sheep here.