Last ten reasons to visit Turangi – 41 to 50
TRM is preparing for the tourists stampede to Turangi, once the Level 4 restrictions are eased. Previous four TRM reports over the last four days have listed 40 reasons to visit Turangi and other good reasons – such as the most popular one day walk in NZ (had you noticed it had not been listed?) – still keep emerging. These were in response to a series of fifty reasons listed to encourage tourists to visit Sweden. In Turangi we have it all.
If you have survived through the 40 reasons over the last week then you get rewarded today with more short TRM videos as a special treat…
41 High Tea – A special treat, very popular with wives and partners of anglers, is to take a trip up to the Chateau on Mt. Ruapehu for their High Tea. A memorable trip back about 70 years to an Edwarian drawing room setting complete with chandeliers and everything you ever imagined a ‘high tea’ might have. Some guests hire TRM’s elderly driver to deliver them in a vintage Bentley – to make their visit even more exciting.
42 – Five minutes to everywhere – TRM had a special request from anglers from West Island to advise of any facilities within a five minute walk of TRM so the following video was prepared specially for them. Later we learnt that all they wanted to know was how far to walk to the Tongariro Tavern…
43 – Traffic congestion – Turangi does not have this word or traffic jam in their vocabulary. No traffic lights. There is no such beastly thing. To try to look modern there is a taxi stand but no taxis. The CBD is surrounded by spacious car parks that have never been full in the last ten years. The nearest we could find to a traffic snarl-up was “grid-lock”on Taupahi Road close to TRM where your usual city driving rules keeping to the left etc. were completely ignored. Welcome to Turangi rules.
44 – Local canine attractions – This was true. Some guests have visited Turangi so they can take our friendly dogs (they were supposed to be guard dogs?) for walkies down the Tongariro River tracks. Over the last year we had a local retired couple who also compete to take Pumpkin for her walk every day. It might seem insignificant but these little acts of kindness mean so much. In larger cities, people pay to have their dogs walked… Never in Turangi.
44(B) – Sadly Pumpkin is no longer with us so at the last second SWMBO had to find something unique and enticing about staying at TRM – to protect our competitive advantage? At this time of the season, even during a Level 4 lock-down, inmates are sent off with an empty plastic bag and told not to return until it is full! What is the old man on about? Wild mushrooms! The location is restricted info only for inmates at TRM. Obviously we cannot say more than that over the web.
45 – Tongariro Crossing – How amazing to get to Number 45 before listing the most popular one day walk in NZ. This clearly shows how many other activities take place in Turangi. As it is on everyone’s bucket list we provide a brief “safety” video to warn inmates to be prepared for the alpine weather when some guests climbed Mt. Doom (Ngaurahoe). Another warning. If you hope to find yourself (?) or lose yourself (?) in the alpine wonderland, this is not the place. It gets very crowded. OK?
45(B) – For the more adventurous who prefer to avoid the crowds, why not tramp the mountains in winter? Following taken by a TRM recruit (Hannah) trying to qualify on our special guides course to climb the three peaks. SWMBO can be your guide.
46 – Stress relief – Have a brief perusal at the following brief slide show of Lake O and concentrate on your pulse and blood pressure to feel the pressure just drift away. That is what Turangi is all about.
47 – Historic sites –
Located on SH 47, Tongariro Te Porere a Rereao Redoubt is the historic site of the last battle of fighting in 1869 between Te Kooti and government troops. After 150 years these man-made fortifications are still preserved waiting for your inspection.
The walk to the first redoubt is about ten minutes through scrubby Manuka to the clearing. However, it is well worth the 15-20 minutes uphill through dense bush to the second and more impressive redoubt, where one can imagine the fierce fighting that went on. I am still not sure who won?
48 – Lake Otamangakau – This is the best trophy trout fishing lake in New Zealand. Recently the Fishing & Outdoors newspaper (compulsory reading for fishos) featured an article about a TRM inmate who we called K (for Kayak). After 100 visits to Lake O since 2013 he has landed 629 trout – an average of 6.29 per day. Quite extraordinary when you also factor in he only goes at peak times over Christmas and Easter holidays. The short video is of another inmate Stuart Nicol showing how good TRM rafts are on Lake O…
49 – Other reasons – Even after reaching fifty we found other reasons to visit Turangi but the most important – the people – are reviewed in the following short video.
50 – Turangi is an international BOF’s (Boring Old Farts) meeting place. The very nature of trout fishing attracts such a wide range of diverse characters who all have different reasons to follow their addiction/sport/recreation/hobby/religion whatever. Some of the TRM inmates meet here every year on their annual pilgrimage to mecca. The Hall of Fame inmates were filmed a few years ago so apologies to more recent converted disciples and TRM evangelists who are not included.
The following short video prepared by a guest – thank you to Murray Cullen – and provides a brief impression of the up-river loop only. When we were looking for a tourist to ride the trail with Kiki we had more volunteers than we had guests. Only in Turangi…