2175 Aratiatia

We're on a family weekend in Taupo.  We do this once a year, take the kids sledding at Ruapehu, sit in the hot spring at Spa Park, play board games.  It's a little 'holiday' we treat ourselves to with the excuse that it's too cold to take the tent. :)

Even family holidays are not safe when there are trigs to be bagged.

After a busy mornings hill repeats, towing a snow sled up Happy Valley for a happy kid to fly back down on it, Tom and the girls drop me off at Aratiatia Dam.  I head off on the walking and biking track down the bank of the Waikato River, which will eventually take me all the way back to the bach in Taupo.   I've been running less than a km when I spot the trig high on the hill on my left.  Given recent experiences, I reckon it's a bonus to know the trig is still standing before you climb the hill!  ;)

Finding trigs like this is definitely helping my navigation skills.  I'm armed with GPs coordinates on my Garmin, and Googlemaps satellite printout, and some basic estimates of distances using MapMyRun. I reckon my Nav is getting better - able to use more sources of information, and able to check my decisions against a number of different features on the map.  For instance - for the best place to cut into the paddocks and up to the trig, I'm looking to be across from the mill on the opposite bank of the river, on a piece of track which no longer has thick bush on the left hand side, and with two large clumps of trees on my left hand.  When I get to this place, and one of the clumps of trees isn't there (obviously logged) the other 'clues' match enough that I can still follow my intended route.  And the Garmin for a sneaky backup!

The hill is too steep and I walk up it........ impressed again with my Garmin navigating me right to it.  Trig bagged, photos...........  and only a couple of km into my run.

 It's a fatal mistake, bagging the trig so quickly, as now I have no reason to run.  I even wonder if Tom will still be at the carpark, I could run back and get a ride home????

So, it's a pretty long lonely run, not in my happy place, as I head the rest of the way down the river.  It takes me much longer than anticipated to hit Huka Falls, where I am seem to be the only English speaking NZer admiring the view amongst the hordes from the tour busses.

Just 4 more km from here, and I'm trying to keep my pace up.  Yesterday, Tom discovered that the Hot Creek below Spa Park is frequented by weird sorts and nudists early in the morning, so I'm not too keen to run through there on my own at dusk.  This is the only motivation stopping me from having a walk.

As I get to Spa Park and have to run up the ruddy great hill, it occurs to me that the Waikato River runs from Lake Taupo out to Hamilton and beyond, so I've been running upstream.  Which means I've chosen to run the uphill section of the walkway.  Another piece of Nav information to add to my repertoire.  ;)