It was the labour day bank holiday weekend in New Zealand. We heard the traffic was likely to be terrible so we took a ferry to Great Barrier Island for a three-day walk. Photos here.
Great Barrier Island reminded us of the Isles of Scilly. With a population of around 800, it has a small-community feel, very few roads, and a laid-back attitude to bus timetables. Fortunately we fell on the right side of this with a lovely chatty lady called Christine of Great Barrier Travel who drove us to and from our walk and was happy to stop at coffee shops and view points for us. She also took advantage of our trip to distribute fresh bread around the island, flown in that morning.
Friday - stayed at Stray Possum Lodge, cheap lodge/backpacker accommodation. We were pleasantly surprised that the landlady took us at our word when we asked for our steaks very rare.
Saturday - walked from Windy Canyon to Kaiaraara Hut, via Mount Hobson and a spectacular kauri dam on Kaiaraara Track (photo). Took 5 hours or so and included a few steep slippery bits that had us pretty well climbing down trees at the side of the path. The only other hut occupants were a lovely couple, Angie and Tim, who gave us some good pointers on where to go next in NZ.
Sunday - Kaiaraara Hut to Great Barrier Lodge via the old Forest Road, around 5 hours again. The track passes two huge old kauri trees - a rare sight since most of the big kauris were logged a hundred years ago - which made Tim very happy. (photo)
Great Barrier Lodge was lovely - a simple room with a huge comfy bed and sunny view of the harbour. That, combined with a couple of lamb racks and a big breakfast, was exactly what we needed after 2 days' walking.
Monday - 3-hour walk out to the road via the Kaitoke Hot Springs, natural thermal pools in a stream. Really cool to be in proper natural pools, though we weren't sure about the amout of wildlife we were sharing them with. (photo)
Another win for the Lonely Planet - the walk route was taken from its Tramping in New Zealand book.
2 comments:
Hi guys,
Some top photos there, that massive tree trunk is impressive, how old are those trees? 200 years?
Looks like you had a great weekend away, Soph, still hope you can make it to Sydney to see us sometime.
Caught a NZ film on the weekend, incidentally: Eagle vs Shark, quaint and hilarious. Features one of the Flight of the Conchords NZ duo, brilliant pair too.
take care,
cousin Matt.
Very likely more like 500 years. The 100-year-old trees are a mere foot or two across... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agathis_australis
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