On these wonderful long balmy summer days in smaller rural towns like Turangi, lacking a choice of city attractions like fast food outlets, local kids have to sometimes invent their own entertainment. Their idea of holiday fun in small-town NZ is very different from the city style. It is impossible to measure and compare the pressures from traffic congestion, long queues, and crowds on city beaches gorging KFC and Macs to this unkempt wilderness. The local Turangi kids’ activities were restricted to frolicking in a secluded pool on a world-famous trout fishing river (Duff’s Pool) and training their horses to herd wild trout. Poor impoverished kids! We hope the photos tell the story.
This is a repeat of a TRM blog from January 2016. The riders were: Rhys Valentine, Jayda Dempsey, Tova Eklund & Manaia Dunster.
Tongariro Cavalry Course
Turangi style of school holiday fun on the Tongariro River.
Usually to be let loose with all day to waste on the Tongariro on a warm (no wind) summer day when the Cicadas are drowning out the birds chirping and BIG trout waiting for me (?) is as close to heaven as I am ever likely to get. But then I discovered some others having even more fun. I hope the photos do them justice.
Yesterday morning Pumpkin guided me down the Tongariro armed with cicada patterns to find the BIG brown that I lost the day before. But we were distracted by the joyful sounds of pure glee that only teenagers are capable of. It is sad that when some of us get older (Hi SWMBO) we lose all that natural spontaneity. These kids were having so much fun I just stood there and admired their infectious enthusiasm for life in the Tongariro environment.
Auckland take note: That is what the rest of NZ is all about. Despite all the bells and whistles, Auckland would struggle to match that for pure holiday fun…
