As everyone in New Zealand tends to do, he stopped for a chat (which turned into a history lesson about Lake Taupo) - apparently it used to be a volcano and when it exploded ash spread all over the world. I feel I may have to google it though, he then spent about 20 minutes photographing his fish in various places.
Once we'd packed away and conversation about fishing had dried up, we crossed Whakapapa bridge and started the 4 wheel drive track, the 42 Traverse.
The track climbed steadily under the shelter of trees and crossed over a few small streams along the way. We stopped at the first view point over the Whanganuii river for lunch before continuing down towards the river for a knee high crossing where we had decided to stop for the day.
We lay our bags on the floor and checked maps. If we stopped here it would mean only 17km tomorrow to get us to the next camp but after catching our first glimpse of Togariro, we had weather on our minds. 17km ontop of what we had already done was probably too far but with the weather being as lovely as it was, we didn't want to take an extra day and miss out on the views from Togariro.
Luke made an executive decision to keep going so we, Renee and I, followed suit and set off once again. The first part was a steep uphill on sticky mud - I instantly regretted continuing! But eventually, the track flattened out and it was just a bit of wet mud to contend with.
I was so relieved to find the holiday park wasn't quite as far along as we thought - I was geared up for another 7km once we hit the road but it was actually probably only 2km. Luke and I both bought a cold drink and had showers before having a very big tea and indulging in a bar of Top Deck DairyMilk (milk chocolate on the bottom, white chocolate on the top) before bed.
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