Tongariro Forest and Pirongia

A posting of combined effort.  Fran, my mom, is hiking along with me from her Imac in the states, vicariously treking with me through emails and pictures I send as well as by surfing the web and using google earth.

Pirongia national forest

 It's been quite a while since I've had access to a computer, let alone pictures of anything besides the inside of clouds.  Some of these images have been gleamed by her from the web as \she tracks my progress.

Phlip decending the steeps in Pureora

Most of the portion (Te Araroa trail) between Huana range south of Auckloand, Pirongia Forest, Waitamo and the caves, Pureora forest and Tongario have little representation on my blog, so...

What do glow worms, good architecture and dbBrad all have in common?  The Waitomo caves visitor center!!

...Fran fixes that and keeps my blog fresh in googles' sites by doing postings where she thinks I am.  It's a great way for her to stay current on what I'm doing and where I'm going.  Sometimes she knows more about where I've been than I do!

Doc (Department of Conservation) has build some amazing board walks in the Pirongia forest.

Its kinda fun to get to a computer and see pictures of where I've been.  Pictures I didn't take but that I've seen on my blog.  Thanks mom!

Some where in New Zealand along the Te Araroa trail.

Brad is now trekking in the Waikato Region, the 4th largest region in New Zealand. Tongariro National Park is within it's boundaries. Late yesterday, or perhaps early this morning, he heads for Tongariro Forest.  The following pictures of Togariro are not from dbBrads camera.  Though I spent 3 days up in Tongario waiting for the weather to break, it never did.  Until I looked at my blog and saw the postings Fran did for me, I'd never seen the lakes, craters and mountains of Togariro National Park!

Taumanuni is the town where Brad "touched down" yesterday (1/10/12). He's had limited computer time, using library computers, so hasn't blogged for a spell. When he's in towns for resupply he sends quick e-mails home to let us know he's ok and where he is on the map.

Taumanuni