Tokaanu

These pictures were taken on a short solo motorcycle trip to the Tongariro National Park. I travelled up via SH1 then onto SH4 at Bulls. I visited the Whakapapa ski resort and then travelled via SH41 to the small town of Tokaanu where I camped the night at the Oasis Motel and Holiday Park before heading back to Wellington the next day.

From a motorcycling point of view SH1 is no fun at all. It is boringly straight and passes through a seemingly endless succession of dreary towns (I won’t name them, for fear of offending the dreary) but is a great way of getting North quickly. SH4 and SH41 are much more like it and are very quiet and nice and twisty and pass through some terrific scenery.

Considering how hot it has been I was surprised to see how much snow was still clinging onto to Mt Ruapehu, which is as ever is the stunning jewel at the centre of the North Island.

The campsite was rather quiet, but very nice and terrific value for the $19 I paid. They also had some absolutely roasting hot pools.

 Mt Ruapehu from the Whakapapa.

 I took a couple of chair lifts to get here.

  Mt Ruapehu from a viewing platform somewhere on SH41.

The Bandit.