So... coupla weeks ago I jumped on a train to do some riding from the central plateau down to South Taranaki. Not a part of the country I'm familiar with, so I was looking forward to it. I chose the Trek and the Nelson Longflap and took with me a Macpac Pinnacle down-on-top sleeping bag, a flash new Thermarest (scored for a pittance at some second hand shop in Nelson last summer) and my Macpac Coccoon bivi bag. These work well together, except I'm a bit tall for the 'ping bag which means I get cold feet. Nothing life threatening, though.
Since for some reason NZ still has a north-south train service, despite everything - personally I wouldn't mind if they ripped out the whole main trunk line and turned it into a rail trail - I took the Overlander from Wellington as far as Ohakune. I chose un 2 as the departure date koz a) it's Queen's Birthday Weekend and b) on that day the Overlander was being pulled by a steam loco between Fielding and Ohakune. Choarce! Most irregular in this age. There wasn't much difference in how it felt along the way, except that everything smelled of steamy coal dust.
Anyway, in retrospect I should have gone all the way through to National Park, as the ride between Ohakune and NP is a trifle dull and a bit traffickey. And it was overcast and raining so Ruapehu wasn't visible.
We reached Ohakune around 1:30 pm and I arrived in NP at dusk. I had an early start planned so I just setup my bags and crawled in. Unfortunately I'd neglected to dry out the insides last time I used it so everything was damp. I loaded up on some hot muesli, knocked back a shot of whiskey from the hip flask and crashed.
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