Turangi

20th December 

Bit of a weird day - feeling a bit down, guilty, feeling I should be home for Christmas with my family......

wrote a poem.....inspired by the beautiful blue swallows flitting around the forest campsite & nesting in the eaves of the little hut:

 

- Waikoko Valley Campsite where I spent my second night.

........ not the greatest 😕 

Had organised to do a hike on Sunday. The 'Tongarino Alpine Crossing' - a 20km hike over Mount Tongarino. I heard about it from a guy I got chatting to at Wai-O-Tapu, waiting for the geyser to be set off. 

It's where they filmed bits of Lord of the rings - Mount doom.......(goes with my crap poem - hahaha)

You have to park your car one end, (at the finish) & book a shuttle to the start, after applying online to do the walk itself. 

On the website they made it sound extremely scary, and, to be fair, the weather up there can be harsh. They shut it if its too bad. I felt like my gear wasn't up to it really but figured I was OK in Tasmania so thought I'd risk it.

They did make it sound like you were gonna summit Everest, and I was a bit nervous all day before, which is unusual for me, for walking.

I went into the nearby town of Turangi to get shopping, & sat in the Library to charge up my phone & power banks. In there was a guide to the walk & I read up on it, plus some guide books on New Zealand. 

Went for a short forest walk, then had an early night - slightly hampered by my blow up bed deflating......I think its buggered.

It was very cold in the night!