Easter was quiet busy in this neck of the woods. Two items have been crossed off both the bucket list and list of thing’s I wanted to do this year.
The first adventure was the Bridge to Nowhere which is one of those things I’ve always wanted to do since it is so close, yet never managed to do.
We took the jet boat up to the Mangapurua Landing where you walk for about half an hour to the bridge, it looks just like the photo’s but is really quiet and peaceful out there. Until boat loads of tourists turn up that is. We were near the front of the pack walking out to the bridge and skipped the lookout on the way to the bridge which mean’t we were the first people at the bridge (other than the guide) which was pretty cool.
We had lunch on the bridge then heard about why the bridge was built and how life was for those families who farmed the region back in the good ole days. After a walk back to the landing we took the jet boat around halfway back to Pipiriki where we then got off the boat and boarded our Kayaks to get ourselves the 10km back to Pipiriki.
After seeing a couple of the rapids on the way up to the landing combined with my lack of kayaking skills (minimal to none) I was a little nervous about this trip back. We made it back safe and sound, some of us wetter than others (ahem, It wasn’t me that fell in :p) after burning 417calories in the 1hr 48mins we were in the water.
By the end of the trip I’d worked out how to keep the kayak relatively straight and don’t think I did too bad considering I’d been in a kayak for a few minutes only once before. I don’t think I’ll be taking up kayaking anytime soon but would definitely do another trip like this that involved a bit of kayaking as it was nice being in the middle of nowhere just paddling along.
Next up we tackled the Tongariro Crossing (Finally!)