Easter in Turangi

Well hello - sorry it's been a while. It's been a few weeks since Easter so I'll make this a brief post. At Easter a bunch of us (11 people) headed up to Turangi, at the south end of Lake Taupo to hang out at a bach (holiday house).

Lots of hanging out was successfully done.

The weather wasn't amazing but occasionally the sun broke through and it didn't rain too much. We had a big group so we split up and did various things, but they mostly involved walking/running on various alpine and bush tracks in the area. The highlight for me was probably running the Tongariro Crossing with Neil and Frances - Neil and I ran in from the Ketatahi end to enable a car swap with the walkers coming from the other direction. Fortunately we didn't miss Frances in the mist at the top and the three of us descended through gradually-increasing views to the Mangatepopo car park. I was glad I'd been there before to see the views! I would have felt a bit ripped off if I was one of the hundreds of first-time walkers that day.

These photos are from Sylvia and Paula's run to the Tama Lakes nearby.






The next day a group visited the historic Waihohonu hut.


On Sunday we decided that group activities were in order to celebrate Easter. Of course we had the traditional egg hunt...

And the not-so-traditional lemon and spoon race.

We then went for a leisurely stroll on the Tongariro River walk above Turangi.