Chilling at Camp Mangahuia

December 26^th, 2019

I woke up to a gorgeous day after sleeping quite well after yesterday’s long hike on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, but my body was still tired, particularly my hip flexors.  I really liked the campsite I was at for the past couple of nights.  I had my own secluded little spot, there was a river where I had a quick wash in after the hike…quick as it was cold water!  So I decided to stay for another day.

The swimming hole:

The tent area...which I thought was quite nice.

The biggest adventure of the day was heading into National Park, the little village 10 km away to try and video call my family to wish them a Merry Christmas as it was still Christmas for them.  I couldn’t get a hold of my English family but did speak with my sisters and my nieces and nephew.

I ventured a little out of town and saw a sign for a railroad spiral, more train action!  It was a uniquely designed set of curves with a few tunnels created to enable trains to climb out of the valley on a line running between Auckland and Wellington.  As I walked along a gravel path to a 3 storey lookout tower, a couple coming the other way said “Don’t expect much.”  Okay.  Well I saw what they were talking about.  At the top of the lookout was this model up on poles that looked like a middle school student had made for a project.  The tracks themselves were miles away and you couldn’t really see them.

The model...

However, I did luck out and a passenger training just happened to be coming from the north.  I saw it climbing a hill, disappear for a minute, reappear going the other way, disappear again.  Suddenly the little model in front of me was useful as I could guess where it would be next.  I kept waiting and saw it again before it must have entered the tunnel and finally it climbed out of the valley.  That was fortuitous.