Beautiful Tūrangi

After our trek across the Tongariro Crossing, we spent our last day in beautiful Tūrangi, relaxing at our lovely Airbnb and enjoying a stroll along the river. We only stayed a short time in Tūrangi as it was our jumping off point for the crossing. It is a small town with a focus on hiking and fishing and specializing in fly fishing. Our host, Carty, is an expert in tying flies (is this the correct term?) and though he is retired, he works at the local fishing shop and people from around the world request to meet him when they are visiting.

Tūrangi is surrounded by volcanoes - this whole country has constant clear evidence of it’s volcanic nature. Growing up in the PNW, I am very familiar with volcanoes and could always easily see St. Helens, Mt. Hood, and sometimes even Mt. Adam’s all around Vancouver and Portland, reminders of the potential for future tectonic activity. Here in Tūrangi, I can see 5 volcanoes just in this town, standing in one spot!

This country is beautiful and we are a little sad that we are not heading to the South Island as it has even more dramatically beautiful landscape …everyone we meet here asks if we are traveling to the South Island. This will give us a reason to come back in the future! If you love spending time in the outdoors, this is the place to be.

A slow start to the morning with some coffee and backgammon - George has borrowed my reading glasses and I thing he looks adorable :-)

One of the volcanoes we can see on our walk to town

Instead of Yield, the signs here say Give Way. It’s interesting that in many parts of New Zealand that we have visited, pedestrians are expected to Give Way to cars. We are still a bit confused about which way we have to look before crossing the street :-)

Self explanatory

A fun bridge crossing

Obligatory selfie with the volcano in the background

I tried capturing the multiple peaks in one panoramic shot

Volcanos and a beautiful river

Our host Sher and our new bestie Kaiser

The view from the bus as we head to Wellington. We got seats on the top front of a double decker bus and so had a great view all the way to Wellington.