Middle Earth Tour Day 14: mountains lift their veils and kiwis appear

Middle Earth Tour Day 14: mountains lift their veils and kiwis appear

The day was off to an early start where I was boiling in my 10 bed dorm room. Though two people sharing one small bed is crazy, but I don’t have any problems with that just its funny to hear laughter as someone like me drops their guts. Yesterday there was confusion as some people didn’t know who belonged to which bed and the hostel owners were trying to figure that out. I think it was just the heat in the room, but I was glad to be out of there and into the streets where I was going to find some breakfast. I took my handy umbrella with me that has now endured plenty with me since I have bought it especially snow that was falling the day before. I have to remember that snow when it melts is actually water so any that is sitting on you will make you wet. It wasn’t really raining outside other than being cold, but I was after food though one stop I was after was to take a picture down the road of the National Park Village sign. Another said it was 15 kms to Whakapapa so it would be an all day walk basically. Not something I really desired to do. I was chuckling away after someone asked where the village centre was ant there wasn’t really one that I could honestly say.

I had my breakfast and headed off for a walk to the train station where I wanted to see what was so historic about it and I could safely do so without having to worry about driving rain. There is actually nothing explaining why the train station is historic. The only thing I can find out is the township is the highest urban area in New Zealand and the main trunk railway line opened in 1908 and was originally known as Waimarino (calm waters). So Wikipedia is good for something and can be helpful. National Park is between Auckland and Wellington so there are other towns I can stop at too on the way where I can stay. I think next time I come here is even a nearby town I do want to hire a bike so I can get around without the reliance of others and vehicles though I think there is more to see that I havnt seen yet. I made sure I could remember my way to the bus stop and headed to the shops so that I could get a sandwich as I wont be eating anything until I get to my stop in Otorohanga. I think I will be having a quick explore at a stop at Taumarunui. The cloud cover had started to drift away revealing the mountains in their snow covered glory. I did speak to the buy in the hostel reception and he said that he had not seen the mountains for two weeks when he first came to work in National Park. All I know is that there is plenty of snow in the hills especially when it was snowing yesterday. I must really look funny walking around with a red poker dotted brolly when many people seem to be in hardcore hiking gear. I am happy to get to see the mountains in their snow covered glory before i leave for the bus, but I will be back with my camera to take pictures. So far on my trip I seemed to have taken around 2,000 photos.

It is good that I was allowed to stay in the hostel for a while longer and chill while waiting for the bus. It takes around 15 mins to walk there, but from checkout at 10 am to 1pm I had no where to go and the weather could turn nasty like cold when I am waiting. The weather is inter changeable at the moment and I have to make sure I am comfortable too in case I get sick or anything else happens. I am able to charge my computer and my camera before I take off to new and far flung places. My phone doesn’t really need to be charged, but I will do so as it has hit 89% when I put it on. I find that to be crazy as its a decent phone and I only really use it for texts and the alarm here at the moment. I havnt been using the wifi for it and I bet the phone wants to update when it can. I think I have come,  have seen and I have walked away a happy man with this trip even though the weather has not been that nice at all.

I finished up with what I was doing at the hostel and ended up taking the slow walk to the bus and hoped that it would not take too long to arrive. On the way something hit me and I looked around to see what kids were throwing at me and no one was there. All of a sudden I heard the sound of hail on the rooves of nearby houses and I was getting hit though they were the size of a finger nail so were just annoying and nothing more. It stopped after a minute or so and I was not worried by it at all. Once at the bus stop I was looking at the map and found next time I am this way I could seek where the last nail for the rail was put in. There are plenty of places to visit including the mountains again when they are sunny and clear. I ended up talking to a British girl and a Singaporean guy about tracks like I suggested Arrowtown as there are walks nearby and was funny listening to them talk about others they had met on the road especially one guy who had all the tramping gear including goggles who turned up somewhere. Once the bus turned up I found it was the same driver who I had several days ago and he told us we would be changing buses at Taumarunui. I was going oh no here we go and the bus was pretty full already and you would think it would be the younger people who didn’t want you sitting next to them though an elderly lady had her bag on the seat. Not that anyone would be harmful to anyones health.

Taumarunui was actually our rest stop and where we were all going to get our bags onto a new bus. They were going to do that after we had a snack. I already had an egg sandwich so was walking off into the town taking pictures of different things like the station, a train cafe, war memorial and several other things in town before returning to wait for the bus to be sorted. We had to move our bags around and I just waited for the Auckland people to do so. Once I handed my bag over we got a seat and waited for the bus to leave. Some of the trip had rain, but it was mostly clear and I could feel it getting warmer and it was lucky that I had decided not to wear my thermal shirt. A town I would like to visit is the one called Te Kuiti as Its slogan was where legends are born. I think its about the warrior and also world class shearing too. There is signs to Waitomo cave too that I had noticed. That was a quick toilet stop and I stayed as I was getting off at the next stop at Otorohanga. I think the trip was taking longer than expected as I heard the driver say he would be in Auckland after 7pm that night. I am happy to have broken my trip up as I have done so.

Once at Otorohanga I realised there was no road to the caravan park that I could savely cross to the park across from the train station. I had to walk all the way round and into the caravan park. I found out from the owner that I can get across as it maybe illegal, but there is a gap in the fence on the other side. I went the long way round after I had a shower and dropped my stuff in the cabin. Its a small cabin and has the bare basics. No need for a fridge or anything at all. I had booked the taxi to the Waitomo caves for the Friday morning as I thought it would be too busy on the weekend. I found an interesting thing once I got near the train station and found a Ed Hillary walk way as it had all kiwi history stuff there from Pavlova to inventions and the national flag. There are other stuff around town. I did wander around and found the kiwi house too, which I am going to visit, but does seem like a nie country town. It does have a bookshop too that I might have to visit though I am going to offload some books I have read as they are just taking up space and the one I have left from home that is unread is I Robot. I like having books big enough to put into your pocket. Tomorrow will be another day and will see what that brings especially with the cave tour. I have wifi availability within the park too so that makes everything all good too as it was something I had found online as a bonus for me to use as I don’t have to wander over to maccas to use their internet. I have never seen a caravan park with this capability before and it is interesting even though it does cost money, which would be well worth keeping up with family and friends on the net.