Alarm went off at 11:00 this morning, we got up, showered and got dressed. Had breakfast which was the same dry, cheesy bread Chino had for breakfast and lunch yesterday (cheapskate), before setting off on our road trip at 13:00.
Chino's intentions today was to go and visit the Tangiwai Disaster Memorial for his Dad. His Dad knows a lot about the disaster and asked if Chaggie could visit the memorial to pay our respects and get some photos at the same time. It was going to be a long drive overall, we headed off to 'Waiouru' which was a pretty weird drive. To get there we went round the west side of Lake Taupo and soon got on to the 'Desert Road', once again it felt like a different country. We found ourselves in the middle of nowhere, this is where NZ's military do a lot of training. We checked out the Military camp once we got to 'Waiouru' and had a quick look at the Military museum before stopping off for petrol.
We then headed off to 'Tangiwai' just 15 minutes down the road. We got there to see the memorial in a nice, quiet spot next to the new built bridge where the train disaster occurred on the 24th December 1953. We stopped off for a good half an hour, Chino managed to get lots of good photos and plenty of video. We managed to watch one of the Kiwi Rail Trains cross the bridge too, weird to think what happened there just over 60 years ago.We got back to Base at 17:30 this evening, weather turned pretty crap in Taupo once again. Staggie got in touch with Raymond, one of the guys we met during our time in Queenstown. He was staying in Base too so we met up with the guy from Canada and ended up watching the british comedy; 'Black Books' till late.
Chaggie x
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