Cycle Tour ( Day 14) National Park to Turangi (50km)

Yesterday I was riding in the Trans Scenic Overlander from Wellington to National Park. I wanted to catch up the time I idled away in Wellington and I wanted to avoid the traffic of Wellington. As it is with trainrides, my conditioning while nearly always using the train during the weekend did it's best and after maybe one hour I was fast asleep.

Watching the astounding nature from a bus or a train is simply not working for me. I managed to shoot a few pictures out of the train, but they are not good.

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After that I just wanted to have a nice afternoon at the hostel. I did not meet any interesting people until far later, when I met Robert, a polnish guy writing his doctor thesis in Australia. But I had the opportunity for a 2.5 hours New Zealand sightseeing tour. Also named watching the Lord of the Rings Part I movie.

Today started with the knowledge I will be wet. It was raining and I knew there are only 50km to go. But still why am I doing this?


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I stopped in National Park to see the volcanoe. The highest mountain of the north island: Mt. Ruapehu.

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Essentially I have not seen all the big mountains of new zealand with my own eyes. Next time I will simply buy picture postcards.

Where was I? Oh yes. I was cycling 50km through rain today. The landscape was really cool. The first half was like on the left side green grass and on the right side brown and lilac bushes. I did not get my camera out of the backpack because it was simply to wet. So I was fighting my way uphill with headwind and rain. until I finally reach the half point. Then I was fighting my way downhill with headwind and little raindrops that feel like small needles all over my face. And there are a lot of raindrops if you try not to use your breaks.

Now. All my cycling stuff is wet and I hope it gets dry till tomorrow. I will be going to Taupo and hopefully the rain stops soon. Otherwise I won't be able to jump out of a perfectly fine plane.