Turangi

Trip Start Sep 02, 2007
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148
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Trip End May 13, 2009


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Flag of New Zealand  , North Island,
Monday, May 12, 2008

Getting to Turangi was fine, it only took about 4 hours but we missed a lot of the scenary because of the darkness - I still got some nice pics of lake Taupo on the way though. We arived late and pulled up at the free campsite next to the start of the treck and got an early night - the 1st without pool or beer! I needed it!!

In the morning miraculously our car started and we drove to pick up some suupplies for the day treck. We were told we need Crampons, hiking boots, a guide and all this would cost $100!!!!! We turned up at the start of the treck without any of this and walked the whole route no problem! All it costed us was $10 on the bus to get us back to the start to pick up our spaceship.

The treck is called the Tongarura Pass and it is so famous because it is where mount doom is from the Lord of the Rings. It is also ment to be one of the best trecks in NZ but it was a dissapintment for me - probably because all of my last trecks have either been in the Himalayas or the Andes - the 2 highest mountain ranges in the world - this one didnt really compete with the others. We trecked upto the top of the summit in 2 hours but once up there it was amazing - the different colour lakes all next to eachother and the snow making it look absolutly amazing - this view made it all worth while. The other lads all have trecking experiance as well so we all managed to do a 2 day walk in about 6 hours - no problems at all without the equipment.

We got the $10 bus back only 7km from our Spaceship and we were walking up to the car when we got picked up by some nice French family who had been traveling for 2.5 years in a campervan! They drove us to our car but when we tried to pull off we coupldnt start it AGAIN (this time in the middle of no where). The French guy helped us a lot, he tried for a good hour to try and get it started but couldnt - then he drove me and Edd 18km to a garage so we could buy a starter pack and back the 18km the other way - what a nice guy! He really saved us!!

We got it started, drove back to our campsite and got another early night. In the morning we once again couldnt start it but the power pack did the job. We then returned it to the garage and headed off to Wellington - where we can get the Spaceship fixed - hurrah!
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