Another fishy report?  I do try to remember to take my iPhone with me wherever I go.  So often there are interesting fishy photo opportunities which might be of interest to readers.  I need it to check the time and particularly to take images to send.  I believe you can phone on it as well although I have not mastered that yet.

So on a busy Sunday afternoon Pumpkin led me down to the SH1 bridge over the Tongariro River which can be a bit of a bottle neck for traffic.  The main road was very busy and it took a minute or two just to cross over.  Then we noticed the horse and rider waiting to cross the bridge.  First he tried to steer it across on the footpath beside the traffic but his horse did not like that.  I agreed with the horse.

Next, he joined in with the traffic queue and started to jog across followed by a build up of traffic.  Then when oncoming traffic – led by a double decker bus – arrived from the north the horse bucked and stubbornly refused.  Despite the efforts of the rider the horse shied and got all “skittery” and  turned around in the middle of the road and retreated back.

Then after a little rest he tried again without success.  The horse only got about a quarter of the way across and when oncoming traffic arrived it panicked and came back on the footpath.

By than I was about as panicky as the horse – it was carnage waiting to happen.

Just thought you might like to see how traffic delays and congestion can happen even in Turangi.  If it is like this on SH1 here it must be terrible in Auckland?  So much for your fishing report…

We often admire horses in the lower Tongariro river and they are usually having a great time exercising and showing how stable and strong they are against the current.  They could cross over in many places.  But the rider above may not have wanted to wet his flash western saddle?