Road trip in North Island - Day 13

4 January 2017

Sunny day finally!!

I woke to a stunning morning, the view of the beach, outside the window, in the dazzling hot sun was a real stunner. I could hear the sound of the waves as I sat on my upper bunk bed. I dint want to move, for everything around was so beautiful and cozy. I scribbled something in my book and stayed in until I saw the girl below my bed was pulling out a placard to write her next destination.

Cape Kidnappers on a cloudy day

Cape Kidnappers on a sunny day

I asked her where she was heading. She said, she was doing the Cape Kidnappers walk and after 10 am there were low tides. I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at it again, on a sunny day like this. So we thought we could together. I checked out of the hotel and go into my car. Not far off, there were two boys waiting for a ride. They hoped in with their huge backpacks. The small car was now fully loaded and still doing quite well. They got off at Clive, not too far from where they joined but we had to turn left.

Lovely sky over Napier

From here, we parked our at the parking lot and started walking towards the beginning of the walk along the shore. The place looked completely different and so much more colorful than yesterday. The color of the sky and the water made all the difference. It's a shame, I could not do the walk as I had to drive a long way back to Turangi, but I was sure to come again to Napier and for this walk.

View along the drive from Napier to Taupo

I bid bye to my co-traveller from Canada but now a wellingtonian. I returned to Napier and then towards Taupo. I was soon joined by a french boy hitchhiking to go to Taupo. We started talking but soon realised that his English was like my French. We sat mute for the rest of the journey. The drive was so much smoother and lot more picturesque this time.

Back in Taupo, the mountains where clearly visible

Once again, I had time to stop at some lookout spots for a stretch and ate some food we had packed. I offered him some of my kichdi. Not sure if he liked it, he dint come back for more and ate his energy bar. We spoke once again, closer to Taupo, and figured out that he was also doing the Tongariro crossing and was staying in Turangi that night. I offered him to take him to the backpackers I was staying at and he was more than happy.

Taupo Lake

Back at the lodge, once again buzzing with more people this time. All the rooms were pretty booked out. We prepared some lunch for tomorrow's walk, had an early dinner and the plan was to start at 4 am from the lodge. We made groups of 8 people each, two cars, each one parked at both ends of the walk. We walk from one end to the other so that we have a car to ride back to the start and then reach back. You'd end up paying 30 NZD just for the ride otherwise.

We were off to bed super early.