Day Four: Raglan to Taupo

so today was the last day that justin was going to be able to surf this amazing break.. with the luck we had the last couple of days, we weren't holding our breath for the swell to be any good. but something must have happened over night, because today was amazing. there were perfect waves double overhead and everything was breaking. finally!! we headed to manu bay first because it was so easy to get to. its amazing watching these guys here. there were about 30 epople in the water all fighting over these 3 different waves. you could really tell the guys that road here often because they new just how to time it up and connect all three waves, this would give them about a 45 second ride! for those who dont surf, thats like amazing. a normal ride is about 15-20 seconds on average. i watched justin catch some amazing waves and was so glad that he finally got to check this off of his list to do. not that this is the only time he will ever surf here, but now he can always say he has.

ok, this last one isnt justin but i love this picture

we stayed at manu bay for a while and then headed up the road a little further to whale bay. this break was also really big, but it was a bit trickier to get into the wave. first we had to walk all the way around this cove. turns out once we got the the other side, he figured out the best place to get in is right back where we started. once he was finally in, it was cool to see three different people on the three different waves all at the same time. they really were great. i played with my camera while justin got in his surfing. we finally said goodbye to raglan and headed down to turangi which is at the south end of lake taupo. lake taupo is 260 square miles set right in the middle of the north island. at the southern end is Tongariro National Park which contains the andesite volcanoes of Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu. these mountains become the local ski resort in the winter and the tongariro river in the summer is the know as world famous trout fishing. we drove through this sleeply little town as we continued around lake taupo towards the city of taupo. we made this our camp for the next few days while we played in the area. clearly not my picture, but this gives you an idea of the national park.a taupo sunset through a rainy windowwe had bunk beds this night in the hostel, justins dream come true! we ended up taking the matresses off the beds though and sleeping on the floor.