Ohakune, we love you
Decision time, again. Too many decision times on this vacation for my taste, but what can you do? At least I’m good at making decisions. My body is fat and untrained and ugly and white, I don’t have any tattoos or piercings, I don’t know how to shoot a gun, I’ve never beaten a woman, I don’t smoke or drink or take pills – so I understand that I don’t qualify as male. In my dreams I’m this tall, bronze-skinned, blonde haired surf-nazi bogan, life is so easy. Drink, beat your wife, hang out with your bros, wash your car, post some nazi crap on reddit or twitter. What a great life that must be, full of certainty, being admired by others for your great body and personality and drinking skills. I’m such a pathetic loser. I fully deserve to be run over by a bogan in an SUV. What a great final moment that would be: bogan runs me over, floats his muscular, tattooed body out of his SUV, walks around his car, checks the front of his man-mobile, sees my mangled body spread across the tarmac, walks over to me … and in my final moments I see his beautiful, red, blonde-haired surfnazi face looming in my vision, he spits down in my face and curses me for making a dent in his car. With my last breath, I tell him: „Just imagine, a gay, socialist, vegan just messed up your car.“ Joke’s on me. 😀
But I’m still good at making decisions. The decisions are not necessarily right or good, but I’m good at making them. In this case, looking at the map, the path of Gabrielle’s destruction, the weather forecast, and considering the fact that we had to be back in AKL Sunday evening, there was little doubt that Tongariro NP would be the ideal and only spot to visit. I managed to snatch up a really nice house in Ohakune last minute on ABB and we said goodbye and thank you for sheltering us from the storm, New Plymouth. Except it wasn’t that easy to get from NP to Ohakune. I checked Waka Kotahi before we left and SH3 was closed … so we decided to take the Wanganui route again. This had the added benefit of being able to stock up on berries at Windermere again and enjoy some cake and ice cream. 😉 🙂
Well, turns out, SH4 was now closed as well, so we had to take the really long way round, back to Palmy almost, up SH1 and then SH49 off Waiouru. When we eventually got there, we rewarded with one of the nicest places we’ve ever stayed at. A small chalet with lots of space and privacy left and right and beautiful mountain views. And the inside matched the outside – after we’d cracked the most difficult-to-open keybox ever. Wonderful views from the bedroom and the terrace. 🙂
Ohakune itself is super nice and in my view, also very much underrated. One of the best places in NZ with so many options for the outdoors. Plus great coffee at Kombi Coffee and some really nice local shops like Strange Dog Design and Opus Fresh. For any bike or shuttle needs, Kune is the place to go (or call). Plus good muffins and (warm!) cinnamon rolls at „The Mountain Rocks“ and „Utopia“. I like this town, the vibe, the location! 🙂
The forecast for Friday was still a bit murky with the last remnants of Gabrielle passing through, so we decided to hike the Old Coach Road from Horopito to Ohakune. The friendly guys from Kune shuttled us to the start in the morning and off we went – what a beautiful walk! It’s mostly in Tongariro National Park, but the forested part, not the volcano rocky part. Wonderful forest! The track follows, well, the old coach road, who would’ve thought? There’s lots of history here, old bridges, appliances, with good explanatory signage. Really one of the better day walk options, can recommend this one wholeheartedly. The track itself is easy, so you can focus on enjoying the scenery. Also one of those walks that are even more atmospheric and fascinating when done in not-so-great-weather.
https://link.locusmap.app/r/tf5efq
Afterwards, some well-deserved afternoon „tea“ :-D, topped off with some nice sunset shots of Mt Ruapehu from our terrace. Life does not get much better than this! 🙂
