Category: Holidays

After a tiring few weeks at work, we decided to make the most of the Easter long weekend and headed south to Lake Taupo. We set off from Titirangi on Friday afternoon and drove the 300km down to the Motuoapa Bay campsite on the south east end of Lake Taupo. We pitched our tent close to the lake and after getting eaten alive by all the bugs decided to hide in the tent and read our New Zealand travel book (thanks Mum!) and make some plans for the weekend.

On the Saturday morning we got up early and were greeted by grey clouds and pissing rain – standard camping trip for us! Fortunately the rain disappeared as we headed 40km north to the town of Taupo. Our first stop was at the Huka Falls on the Waikato river. Although the falls are a lot smaller than High Force back in the UK, the colours of the river were spectacular and it was definitely worth a visit.

After the Huka falls, we headed to the nearby ‘Craters of the Moon‘, an impressive geothermal area with lots a large craters and steaming mud. We were quite hungry after all our exploring and so headed into Taupo to get some food. We ate (far too much as usual) at a lovely little Cafe down by the waterfront and then did a wee bit of shopping in order to buy some hiking clothes in preparation for Sunday’s expedition.

Sunday morning was another early start as we got ready to do the famous ‘Tongariro crossing‘. We drove to the finish of the track and met with Rosemary and Katrina, two of my friends from work, before catching the shuttle bus to the start of the hike. Initially we were a bit sceptical about doing the walk as the weather looked quite poor, but we are both glad that we went ahead with the hike as it actually turned out to be a beautiful day.  The Tongariro crossing is said to be the ‘best one day hike in New Zealand’ and we can certainly see how it has earned that reputation. In general the hike is not particularly technical and the views are simply stunning. Particular highlights include the views of some active volcanos (including the famous ‘Mt Doom’) and the Emerald Lakes.  The hike was approximately 20km in total – it is safe to say that we have definately earned our easter eggs this weekend!

See below for some more pictures of the weekend.

 

We went to Budapest for three days a couple of weeks ago, as a birthday present from Gemma. We had a great time and really enjoyed looking round the city.

Our flight arrived around lunchtime on the Saturday. We got Budapest Cards from the airport which made getting around the city very easy. Our hotel was right next to the river and we had a really good view up to the castle and across the river to the parliament building.

In the afternoon we went for a nice walk around the Castle District, up a large hill behind the hotel. We had been worried about the weather but it was very good on Saturday and Sunday (Monday wasn’t so good).

On our walk on Saturday we overheard someone saying that Margaret Island was very good for running around, so on the Sunday morning that’s where we went. We ran up the side of the river and across to the island and then up the centre of the island. At the far end we discovered that there was a ~5.5 km running track around the edge of the island, so we followed this back to where we started. There were a lot of people out running!

The run also gave me an opportunity to try out my new Xiaomi Yi action camera.

In the afternoon we headed across Budapest to the Széchenyi Thermal Baths. They were very impressive and it was nice to relax in there for the afternoon. In the evening we had dinner on a boat cruise. We had to walk all the way across the river to pick up our tickets, only to then get a bus back to the boat which was right outside our hotel. Dinner was good and we managed to (eventually) get some decent photos of Budapest at night.

On the Monday the weather wasn’t great but we went for a walk down the river to the site Gemma raced in the World Age Group Championships a few years ago. We wandered round some other parts of the city before going to get our flight home.

We had a very good time and I would certainly recommend visiting the city.

As Gemma was working in A&E over summer she had no choice about when to take her holidays, but it worked out well that she got the week leading up to the Frankfurt City triathlon off. The weekend before the race was the final weekend of the Tour de France, so we decided to drive to Paris and watch the last stage of the tour, then drive across to Frankfurt, stopping off somewhere on the way. We planned to camp on the way and had just bought a bigger tent, which would make it more pleasant.

The holiday didn’t get off to a good start. We had booked onto a 3 am channel tunnel crossing but when we arrived there was a 3 hour delay due to migrant activity. When we eventually made it to France we headed straight for Paris where we were staying in the Camping Indigo Paris campsite. We were very happy with the campsite; there were lots of running routes and easy access to Paris. Before the tour arrived we spent a while walking around Paris. The weather wasn’t great and we ended up buying bright yellow ponchos to keep dry. It was a very good experience to see the riders racing around the Champs Elysees.

After Paris we headed to Camping du Muhlenbach on the border between France and Germany. The campsite was very nice and was in quite a remote area. We went for a couple of runs in the forest around the campsite and also got out on the bikes.

We visited the nearby town of Bitche and had a look round the citadel, which was very impressive. There was a very interesting video tour that went through lots of rooms within the castle and talked about the history of the place.

Finally we headed to a campsite in Offenthal, just outside Frankfurt. It was a very good location. When we went for a run on the first day we were there we found an outdoor swimming complex within 3 or 4 kms and so the next day we ran over to the pool and went for a swim, then ran back.

We went into Frankfurt to register for the triathlon on the Saturday and met up with the people from Langen who had looked after us last year. The race itself was on the Sunday, which turned out to be very hot! Gemma and me exited the swim at the same time (well Gemma sat on my feet all the way round and then ran across the mat in front of me) and quite near the front, considering we weren’t wearing wetsuits. The bike was tough, with quite a headwind on the first section, but the run was even harder as it was so hot. I was fairly happy with how it went as I still managed to run a lot faster than last year. It’s a great race and we would certainly like to go back and do it again.

After the race it was a bit of a rush to get back to the tunnel. We made it with plenty of time and although there was a short delay it went more smoothly than on the way out.