It is Waitangi Day in New Zealand, a most contentious version of a National Holiday. It is supposed to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in which a large number of Maori Tribes recognized the British Crown as Sovereign, allowing the colonization of New Zealand. The only problem was that the English text and the Maori text of the treaty didn’t exactly say the same thing. The meaning of the treaty has been debated ever since.

 

Needless to say, Waitangi Day is a political football more than a national day.

 

 

On Christmas Night of 1953, the night express train from Wellington to Auckland plunged into the Wahianoa River at Tangiwai with great loss of life.The railroad bridge had been destroyed by a lahar flood caused by the crater lake at the top of Ruapehu bursting through its side sending enormous volumes of water, rock and ash down the mountain and into the river -- and wiping out the railroad bridge.

 

At the moment, the lake is very close to bursting open once again. It is within five feet of the lip of the ash wall which surrounds it. They expect a lahar within the year, if not next few months.

 

Waitangi Day dawned cool, clear and breezy at Ohakunen ot what the forecast predicted. I didn’t realize this and blew the chance at a perfect day to do the Tangariro Crossing, supposedly New Zealand’s best one-day walk. It goes up the side of Tongariro, the volcano for which the National Park is named, past its crater lakes and down the other side. It is about an eight hour, 17 km, walk. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday.

 

Instead I rode out to Tangwai. It was not an especially long ride, about 40 km R/T, nor particularly hilly, but it was directly to windward in a 30 kph breeze. I think I managed about 12 kph on the way out. The return trip was another story. After stopping at the monument and taking the requisite photos I headed back with the 30 kph tailwind. There were stretches, not even particularly downhill where I was going 40+ while barely pedaling. It was a lot faster coming back.