Thwarted

After a day trip to Orakei Korako (Yellowstone lite) on Weds I finally left Taupo and headed to Tongariro Natl park yesterday.  It is a world heritage area and I really wanted to at least take some hikes there but it was completely socked in, raining hard and anticipating snow by today. So I settled for a trip to the visitors center and moved on. 

Currently am in Whanganui and although much of the drive to get here was under blue skies, it now is raining hard once again with gale force winds expected later tonight - whatever that means. I think tomorrow is supposed to clear a bit - certainly hope so. I must admit I'm getting a bit rain weary and  everything is damp.

The drive to get here was lovely.  I'll add some pictures when I get somewhere with wifi (posting this from my phone via email)

Pics as promised:

Random roadside stop:

The Wanganui river:

(History alert)

This is the first memorial erected in New Zealand. I saw it in the park yesterday and found the inscription interesting (in a politically inflammatory sort of way) and I couldn't understand why there was what was clearly an English monument to a bunch of Maori. So I asked about it at the information center.  It honors Maori lives lost defending against a planned attack against the English settlement in the early days of colonization. When the Wanganui Maori got wind of a planned attack against the settlement, they went out and cut off the attackers (a different Maori tribe) and defeated them. There were several other skirmishes in the 5 years following where the Wanganui Maori teamed up with settlers to defend the area. I've heard a couple of Maori mention that they fought amongst themselves during the time of English settlement here but this is the first example I seen. The inscription reads "To the memory of those brave men who fell at Moutoa 14 May 1864 in defense of law and order against fanaticism and barbarism" The names of the fallen Maori are listed on the other sides.

Moving on in the direction of Mount Taranaki today. I have a campground picked out along the coast about an hour from here. Weather is overcast but no rain - hope it holds so my bedding dries out!  Guess it could be worse... I got out of Wellington in time - it's flooding there.