17th May 2009: Kitesurfing

I've been meaning to have a go at kitesurfing for years and I thought that, coming to Auckland for a year, I'd finally get the chance to have a go. You see lots of people doing it on the beaches around here, and the conditions are great: warm water, regular sunshine and lots of wind. As it happens it wasn't until Fred said he'd tried it that I finally organised it, with the weather here having turned distinctly autumnal.

The place we went for lessons is on the South coast of the Manukau harbour and has a huge deserted area of waist-deep water. Perfect for learning to be dragged at speed by an enourmous kite. They look big when you see people using them, but they look even bigger when you're attached to one. We've been playing with a 3 square-metre trainer kite for a while, but there's a big step up to the 8m kitesurf kites.

The first lesson is all about learning to control the kite and getting used to the power by "body-dragging" without a board. I got on okay with this so hopefully next time I go I'll get on the board and do some kitesurfing proper.

10th May 2009: Surfing at Muriwai Beach

Mel and Dom returned to Auckland for the last few days of their holiday in NZ, so we spent the weekend with them.

Our travellers had tried surfing at Raglan on their first full day in the country and wanted another attempt. I hadn't managed to try surfing at all yet, despite it being a bit of a kiwi national sport, so I tagged along too. We headed out to Muriwai with two of my accomplished surfer-dude colleagues: James and Ken.

It seems to me that surfing is about spending a lot of time and effort battling out through waves, to be launched briefly back towards the beach. If it goes well you get a short bit of speed and exhiliration, otherwise you seem to drink a lot of seawater. Mostly, it goes badly.

I actually managed to stand up quite a few times (I surfed!) and it was good fun. I might go again!

After the surfing we flew the power kite for a while in the strong breeze, though still not strong enough for blokarts, annoyingly. Sophie's now fixed the kite twice, after we smashed it into the ground during some over-excited and under-skilled flying.

We finished off the day with some large and very delicious steaks at The Jervois Steak House, our favourite restaurant in Auckland. A good end to Mel and Dom's trip, I hope.

2nd-3rd May 2009: Mount Pirongia

The tramping tracks in Pirongia Forest Park are some of the most challenging we have walked. Our two-day tramp up Mount Pirongia and back took in two long ridges, each with a series of small steep-sided tops, and there were a fair few scrambles. Scrabbling up and down rocks is made harder if you have a 10-15kg pack on your back!

We walked up the mountain from Grey Road via Ruapane and Tirohanga Tracks, returning on Mahaukura Track, and spent the night at Pahautea Hut, a compact 6-bunk building near the 959m summit of Mount Pirongia. The last to arrive, barely before sunset, we were lucky to find exactly two beds left.

Pahautea Hut

The other beds were taken up by a very talkative homeless bird photographer who was spending a week in the hut; a couple of hunters, complete with orange camo shirts (deer can't see orange, but other hunters can); and a keen young traffic light engineer who is determinedly taking up tramping after going on an Outward Bound course earlier this year.

One of the great things about staying in the huts is that we meet people we never normally would. Sharing a single room with no heating or lighting (we were lucky someone had left a couple of candles), we chatted for a couple of hours after dark before fleeing to our sleeping bags for warmth at 9pm. All our companions were tradespeople who do manual, outdoor work, and inhabit a world I have little exposure to. It brought home to me how narrow my experience is. But then again, they have as little idea about my life as I do about theirs.

The other contrast we encountered was one we have often seen: the variety of walkers we meet. In the hut we were probably the least experienced in the group. Four punishing hours from the summit and one hour from the car park, the track got wide and easy and suddenly was busy with young families and older couples, looking faintly awed at our muddied legs and big backpacks.

24th - 26th April 2009: Rotorua & Kaimai Ranges

Our next set of visitors, Mel and Dom, arrived in town on Wednesday. We spent the weekend with them in Rotorua.

Saturday dawned drizzly, so we went for an epic breakfast at Relish Cafe and stuffed ourselves on their excellent "Bennies". After this, we had an urge to roll down a hill in an inflatable ball, so we headed to Zorb Rotorua. Mel and Dom had a two-person ride while I took the solo zigzag track.

Now cold and wet, we climbed into the car and put the heating on full blast for the short drive to Agroventures. Not nauseated enough by the Zorb, Dom, Mel and I did a Swoop together: a ride where you are winched 40m into the air and then released to swing at 130kph, trussed up in a harness that makes you look like a giant caterpillar.

To conclude our extreme sports for the day, Dom and I raced on the Shweeb. This is a monorail track with a suspended recumbent cycle. Obviously I beat Dom, but only by half a second.

From there we raced to the Sheep Show, which surprisingly was just as good on a second viewing, and then headed to Waikite Valley for a welcome hot soak. Dom and Mel spent the evening at a hangi, while Sophie and I had a delicious dinner at Bistro 1284.

The next morning Dom and Mel headed for Taupo, and Sophie and I went for a rather wet walk in the Kaimai Ranges. Starting on the Waitawheta Tramway, we were hoping to follow the Bluff Stream Kauri Loop Track, but found we would need to make a few knee-deep crossings of fast rivers. Instead we took a loop via Daly's Clearing Hut. My boots leak so I got wet feet anyway...