Sunday afternoon was spent finding the remaining caches we had on our list. Two we enjoyed particularly: Major Jones Booty and Stumped Among the Needles. They were both on a beautiful track which runs on the eastern side of the river, steep in parts but great walking.
We had a lazy start to today. Marilyn wanted to wash and I was happy to spend the morning reading. After lunch, we thought we should stir ourselves so wandered over to the information centre to see what we could find to do that wasn’t too strenuous. The simple choice was between the 8-hour Tongariro Alpine Crosing or a 20 minutes stroll through the thermal area of the next village. Guess what we chose!
Tokaanu is only 10 minutes drive and is the site for the Tongariro Power Station. This is very reminiscent of the power stations in Tasmania or on the Snowy Mountains scheme. We might have a visit to the station later in the week but for now we were looking for the town’s other attraction.
We followed the signs to the Thermal Baths and checked out their facilities. We’ll be back later for a dip in a private pool at a temperature of 400 and limited to 20 minutes, but unlimited use of the public pool after. There’s also a discount for seniors.
Next to the Baths is the Thermal Walk - a gentle stroll through boiling mud and steaming pools. Unlike Rotorua, the mud here has no sulphur in it so doesn’t smell. Some particularly hot areas had been covered with planks but, in most cases these had been broken open, so we could hear the furious boiling underneath.
Back to the resort for an early dinner and to see what’s on television. We get three local channels, Sky Movies and 3 or 4 other Sky channels. There’s still nothing worth looking at so it’s just as well we brought some of our DVDs. We’re just starting to re-visit Series 1 of Numbers.
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