The discerning reader will have noticed I managed to avoid having to share my prized and dwindling supply of saveloys with Carlin last night!
We spent the evening researching how to get Carlin home. Would it be bus, train or plane. He could continue south with me and take a flight from Palmerston North. However the cost was exorbitant. Whilst the main rail line goes through nearby National Park station, passenger rail travel is more a tourist activity these days. There were a number of nearby bus routes but COVID has significantly restricted the number of operating services. Eventually we realised the only viable option was to backtrack the 100km to Taupo where he could connect with a bus to Auckland and then onwards home to Whangarei.
By 10AM we were in Taupo and Carlin was on board the bus.
Earlier the same morning I had phoned an old friend I hadn't seen in nearly 50 years. Bill was an old army friend and my 'best man' at our wedding. He left the army a year after our marriage and we lost contact, only for me to find his email address earlier this year. Bill now lives in Taupo and we arranged to met in the afternoon.
Of course neither of us have changed in the last 50 years Bill has had some interesting careers and is still passionate about flying, owning three aircraft. During our conversation it transpired he had visited Perth several times as his wife has family here. Another of life's coincidences!
Late afternoon it was time to say our farewells along with promises to keep in touch. I turned the motorhome around and headed back south. My destination for the night was the National Army Museum at Waiouru. I would be skirting the eastern shore of Lake Taupo for the third time and then crossing the Desert Road to reach Waiouru.
Lake Taupo
Yes, our narrowboat was named after the place. Waiouru has figured prominently in my life. Both my parents were in the NZ Army and met whilst posted there. It was the location of my first school and I subsequently returned aged 16 when I enlisted. I was then posted back there in 1973 and 1976. There were also numerous visits for training and projects. One year I spent a summer season as a project manager building a road in the army training area on top of the Kaimanawa Ranges.
The museum was built by the NZ Army 2nd Field Squadron of which I was a member and involved in the early part of the project. Some amusing stories there.
I stopped on the Desert Road to look across at Ruapehu. The arrow points to the location of Rangipo Hut. Walking around it is one activity I won't be repeating!
Two major man-made activities have changed the environment around Tongariro National Park. One was the planting of large pine forests around the south of Ruapehu. This had the effect of raising the temperature during winter with one of the consequences being Waiouru and the Desert Road no longer experienced deep snowfalls. The other was the Tongariro Power Scheme. A project that collected water from the western, southern and eastern catchment areas of the mountain and diverting it north through a system of canals and dams to pass through two new hydro-power stations before discharging into Lake Taupo. The water then went down the Waikato River through a series of existing hydro power stations.
You may recall I mention we crossed the Whangaehu River and the potential Lahar risk on Day 2 of our walk. Because this river might turn into a Lahar the water wasn't collected as part of the scheme. Instead a tunnel was built under it.
One the left of the photo below you can see the filled in top of the tunnel with the pine plantations beyond.
I reached the museum at dusk. There is free parking for self contained motorhomes in the car park behind the museum. The museum was already closed and I settled down to cook my dwindling supply of saveloys for dinner.
Rear of the museum
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