Day 22 - Lake Taupo

A good sleep last night and a casual start to the day as we had decided that today would be more relaxed. Left Ohakune around 10.30am after a quick look around and a top up shop. This town has skiing and snowboard businesses all over. The first photo below was taken in the main street.

Went onto Turangi for lunch - was easy to find the bakery! The rest of the photos were as we went along as the road effectively went around Mount Ruapehu. Then onto Taupo and we are spending the night on the edge of Lake Taupo in a freedom camp which is about 5 km from town. The 4th photo is from our motorhome window. Arrived  here at 2.30pm to now relax.

An interesting stop over was where we had morning tea. It  was at the site of a memorial to the rail disaster at Tangiwai where the Express train from Wellington to Auckland collapsed into the Whangaehu River at 10.21pm on Christmas Eve in 1953. 151 people were killed as the loco and first 6 cars went into the river. The memorial is first class and includes a lookout over the site of the disaster.

A crater lake up the mountain had given way and the subsequent flood had weakened the bridge supports.

Tomorrow we will have a look around and then go to Waitomo.