Those of you that share an Applied Materials EHS legacy will remember John Blades from the Horsham group. John had been in touch before Christmas as he was planning a trip to Auckland for a visit with his daughter and to do some motorcycling around the North Island. He visited us in Taupo for a few days to catch up and check out the area. We had a great time! It was a great incentive and opportunity for Linda and I to do some ‘tourist’ things that we had not yet found time for!
Getting ready for the Jetboat rapids ride. They take photos of everyone to help identify the missing later! The jetboat driver (Shannon) was excellent, great character, great driver and full of fun details about the river.
We were placed in the back row on the boat, luckily John was in the corner – he caught the best of the spray when we did spins!
We also had a beautiful clear day for a trip up to Mt. Ruhapehu. The drive up was great, taking us past Chateau Tongariro, a lovely hotel on the West side of the mountain (seen in previous post ‘Around the Mountains’)
The landscape soon changed to something more rugged, the upper parts of the mountain are effectively a barren rock field with a few remnants of snowfields hanging on in the summer heat. We took the new gondola up to the restaurant complex high on the hill. From here there are a few chair lifts going up – not open in summer! Had we planned better we could have done a 90 minute hike to the ridgeline close to the summit. We were in sandals though….not the best for scrambling through boulder-fields! We had to be satisfied with sitting in the sun and drinking coffee. ;-D. There are a lot of chalets up here, owned by ski clubs around New Zealand, presumably members can stay in them and be on the actual runs right outside their doors!
John – The Explorer – Blades checking out the source of some unknown river a long way up Ruapehu. Looking pretty pleased with himself!
Our last adventure was a boat trip on Lake Taupo. We rented a boat – a very slow boat – to go out and visit the Maori rock carvings. Anyone who has been on a slow boat on a large body of water knows how frustrating it can be, especially when just about everything else on the water is faster than you. The carvings are pretty impressive though.
It was a great trip and wonderful to spend time with you both! It seems a long time ago now the world is in lockdown!
I’m looking forward to my next, as yet unplanned, trip to NZ and Australia but that will probably not be until after a vaccine is available so I’m not holding my breath!
Look after yourselves – I’m keeping out of trouble on my allotment vegetable garden where it’s easy to isolate myself from other people.
Now I’ve got the Ee link to the blog I’ll check back from time to time to see what you are up to!