Day 211 - Ohakune

I'm the road again. I left yesterday at about lunchtime and headed south. The last few days at Paul's were cool, we didn't end up going to the cave in the end (crappy weather, too busy - this is possibly a good thing), and instead relaxed and did some work in the garden. I've been helping Paul with an advert for the paper, and we took some yoga pose pictures. Hmmm... below right is one of mine: a triangle with Paul adjusting (yanking me into the correct posture) and directing(comments on the pose: "use your muscles, charlie chaplin feet - where are your ugly feet? " - guess I have to work on that one!)

After leaving Rotorua I went south, heading through Taupo, around Taupo lake (the sun was beginning to set by this point and the lake looked amazing), around the Tongariro National Park (then the sun was really setting - woooow). I stopped off at Whatakane, hoping to stay at the campsite there before doing the Tongariro crossing walk today, but the campsite cost a fortune so I carried on south. It began to get dark, so I stopped off here in Ohakune, staying at a posh campsite that, may I add, is almost half the price of the one in Whatakane!

Ohakune is a town geared for the winter ski season, so is full of ski chalets and snowboarding shops. That, paired with the fact that the temperature has taken a nose dive (everyone is now pronouncing it winter), makes me feel like I've somehow skipped locations to France.

Today I'm going to toss up whether to brave the weather (cold, grey, threatening rain) to walk the Tongariro crossing through Mordor and past Mt Doom :-). Or whether to do it when I'm on the way up and instead carry on south to Wellington. Hmm, think I will be choosing the latter.