Driving out of Taupo we went around the lake and stopped at Tongariro National Park for a short (1.5hrs) loop walk past some waterfalls. Tada! (picture left) Then we stopped by another waterfall so those with no further will to live could jump off it and go for a swim! Funnily enough, getting into my swimsuit and jumping off a cliff into freezing water when it was
drizzling while having the rest of the people on the bus watch and hope I make an a$$ of myself didn't appeal.... guess it would have made a nice "first time I..." notch on the belt. Oh well! Anyway, TADA! for the picture of the falls that I took while fully clothed, waiting for the people to jump and make complete a$$es of themselves. :)
Then onto River Valley! River Valley is essentially a hostel in the middle of nowhere, by the side of a river. The reason for its existence is to provide a center from which you can go rafting on the river. BUT, minor glitch -- no water = no rafting.Dang it.
Never mind, I've rafted before, it wouldn't have been a first anyway... So, instead, I booked the only wood-burning sauna in the place, and proceeded to sweat it all out for nearly 1.5hrs. The Danish girl I was travelling with bravely tried the shower ooutside labelled as "cold water therapy" - it was freezing! So then we got into a rhythm of sauna/shower/sauna/shower. It was great, but I think I caught a cold... So my "something new / first" for the day was a wood-burning sauna under the stars!
Did I mention that the exhaust wasn't working properly and the smoke came back into the sauna instead of being expelled outside, thus making us smell like "smoked human" ? Ah well, minor detail! Might explain my "smokers cough" though... hehehehehhe
No comments:
Post a Comment