Taupo Travels

Lea, Caitlyn and I had a wonderful trip to Taupo last weekend. As reported earlier we travelled up for the Half Ironman where Lea did the 90 km cycle leg. It is a new experience for me to be a supporter as I am usually the one competing.

We left at 3:00 on Friday for the 4 hour trip to Taupo. I had made ham rolls to help us on our journey. When we got to Waioru we stopped for Subway. Unfortunately Caitlyn is not a good traveller and felt violently sick during the rest of the drive to Taupo with the windy Desert Rd.

On arrival at Taupo we got ourselves settled in to our unit at Birchlands Motel and had an early night.

 

Saturday dawned bright and sunny though we were up before dawn so Lea could get down early to the bike transition area. After Denise completed the choppy 2 km swim Lea nervously set off on her bike for the biggest physical challenge she had ever faced. Caitlyn and I followed her for the first 5 km until where the road was closed off.

After a few hours Lea arrived back rather happy to be finished in just over 4 hours. She tagged Rose who had a half marathon to complete in warm conditions. We had KFC while we waited for her to finish.

Later in the afternoon we decided a soak in the hot pools at De Bretts would do everyone a world of good, especially Lea who had a few aches and pains as a result of her ordeal.

 

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After a pleasant few hours we had dinner at Dixie. I had a splendid plate of pork ribs.

The next morning armed with camera I had a short run and took some shots of Taupo.

 

The trip home the next day was a pleasant drive as we were able to get some beautiful views of the volcanic plateau as we drove along the Desert Rd.

It was a great weekend and I felt proud and priveleged to have been able to support Lea in her Big Race!