TAUMARUNUI

Taumaranui is not a touristic highlight, but is close enough to the Tongaruru National Park to raise some interest. The Tongariru crossing is THE most famous daywalk in New Zealand. You get to see 3 vulcanoes, that is, if the weather conditions are good. But as we move on from the Wai-O-Tapu Park, we see clouds gathering above us. We drive further to the south were we still hope to go tramping on the Tongariru Crossing. We contacted David and Marion Johnstom, Servas members since long. They live in Manunui, 10 km from Taumarunui and 30 km from the starting point for the famous walk. In his mail David already warns us that the weather report for the next couple of days is not good. Indeed, when we go to the visitor centre they give us a very strict 'no' for the walk. Wind of up to 100 km/hr would be of great danger, so there will be no walking tomorrow.
But the second we drive up the alley at David and Marion's, they make all our disappointment vanish. They are the nicest couple and both have Scottish roots. David did not know that until he started to dig deeper in his family's history. Now he found out that 5 generations back he has Scottish ancestors. He put all these discoveries on www.genesreunited.com, an interesting site by the way, where everyone can gather and share information about families worldwide.
I guess somehow Davids finding out his Scottish roots triggered him to go and learn how to play the bagpipes. Nice demonstration we got!
More than 30 years ago Marion came from Scotland to New Zealand as an art teacher. She met David and they got married. They have 2 adult sons, both single. So lady friends, if you're interested, just let us know. One remark though: the boys make lots of nude photographs of themselves. Them jumping in the water. Them walking on some remote street. We saw some nice asses.
Next day we did an easy 2 hours bush walk to compensate for the inaccessible Tongariro walk. That evening Ingrid made a chili con carne for all of us.
And on thurday it was still raining, so we drove to Wellington after only a little walk in on the southern flank of the dominant volcano in the Tongariro National Park. And believe it or not, just as I started walking up hill, sun came out finally!
Thank you Marion and David for letting us stay at your place, we had a lovely time.