15th -16th August 2009: Waitawheta Hut

Saturday in Auckland dawned grey and rainy, and there was a severe weather warning for heavy rain in the Kaimai Ranges. This wasn't quite what we had hoped for, since I had planned a two-day walk there to the Waitawheta Hut with Ken and Mark. Despite it plainly being a day best spent in a warm pub, we set off anyway. We did make one concession: instead of taking the flattish route with 6 substantial river crossings, we opted for the high route in over the top from Te Aroha.

We started the walk at about noon with a 2-hour ascent up the Te Aroha mountain which, at 952m, would count as a Munro were it Scotland. With the car at 15m this was a sizeable start to the day, and it was impressively steep and muddy.

From the top, we then had 4 hours of tramping on some outrageously muddy tracks, undulating over valleys and crossing swollen streams. It was so wet, even the possums were giving up - we found one dying on the track (presumably poisoned). We had not really done our sums on the timings or we would have realised a bit sooner that we were going to get to the hut after dark. Once we did cotton on we sped up quite a bit, and by the time we'd had three stream crossings come up to our knees we were definitely getting the hang of them: there was no time for niceties like taking your boots off, we just had to wade through. We were just discussing (by torchlight) the remaining half-hour of walking we thought we had left when the hut appeared around a corner. I have rarely been quite so relieved to see a shelter.

Ken, about to cross one of the smaller streams

We shared the large and comfortable Waitawheta Hut with a group of 13 from an Auckland tramping club. Given the weather we hadn't expected to see anyone else there, and neither had they. It wasn't as sociable as some of my previous hut visits: there was some banter but as is often the way, everyone was in their sleeping bags by 9pm. Outside, it rained, all night.

The following morning we had to retrace our steps. The rain had eased, but the mud had just gathered strength. It took us about 5 hours of battling though the stuff to get back to the Te Aroha mountain. Every step was in water or mud. We couldn't face the ascent to the top again, so we circumnavigated for a further 2 hours before finally reaching the car, totally exhausted.

Ken and Mark, on our way back on day-2

It was one of the tougher walks I've done, and certainly the muddiest. All three of us had our moments of feeling dreadful, but when you're in the middle of nowhere you've got no choice but to keep on going. It's all part of the adventure - nobody is going to come and carry you out! I also took a nice knock to the head when I walked straight into a big over-hanging branch - it's left a decent mark.

More photos here.

3rd-7th July 2009: Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk

I am flying out of New Zealand for good on Saturday. I've had the most awesome year and will miss this place, but there are too many things at home to pull me back - family, friends, and a better selection of job opportunities even in recession. I'm fairly sure, however, that once I set foot back in London I'll wonder what ever possessed me to leave NZ.

Tim is staying on until early September to finish up his project work. Meanwhile, making the most of our time left together, we did the Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk over the weekend. I've now walked 4 out of the 9 Great Walks in New Zealand, which feels like a respectable total for the year.

The walk is a 46km track south of Rotorua. It took quite a while to get there. After the 3-hour drive from Auckland to Rotorua we had another 150km to go, 80 of which were on a winding unsealed road through the national park and took easily a couple of hours. Total journey time was 6-7 hours each way, which is why we exhausted the walking options nearer to Auckland before tackling this one.

We walked the track in the standard 4 days, in company with an Irish backpacker named Owen. We met him when we shared track transport at the start of the walk, and happened to have chosen the same huts to stay in. He was doing some travelling after finishing his degree at Trinity College Dublin and before training to be a teacher.

This walk was as beautiful as usual, the track easy apart from a fun side trip to the Korokoro falls. We crossed a river by scrambling over rocks with a wire to hold on to, then walking a fallen log. It had rained the night before and the swollen river made the crossing a bit more challenging than it might have been.


What was really notable about this walk was the difference from other Great Walks owing to the time of year. Cold huts (really, two-sets-of-thermals-and-a-sleeping-bag-and-still-shivering cold), much less crowded of course, and sunset shortly after 5pm. These huts did not have solar lighting so we spent the evenings chatting or playing cards by candlelight.

Two of our three huts had feeble gas heaters which, as the DOC had warned us, barely took the chill off the air. The middle night, in Waiopaoa hut, was sheer luxury with a wood-burning stove. We only had a 3-hour walk to this hut, reaching it by lunch time, after which we spent a pleasant afternoon gathering and chopping firewood, and an equally pleasant evening watching the cosy blaze we had made. I should probably regret that my childhood was not spent doing more things like that.

Huddled round the gas heater at breakfast time.
Owen is standing up in the grey jumper.

23rd-24th May 2009: Tiritiri Matangi

The bird sanctuary island of Tiritiri Matangi has been on our to-do list for months. Situated in the Hauraki Gulf, it is free of mammal pests such as rats and possums and home to many endangered bird species. Mammals introduced to New Zealand have wreaked havoc with the native birds, especially ground-nesters whose eggs are easy prey, so this is a big deal conservation-wise. Tiritiri Matangi is also the island that until recently said Ni (say the name in a high-pitched voice and you'll see what I mean).

We spent two days on the island, spending the night in the bunkhouse so that we could go out after dark looking for kiwis, which are nocturnal. But a couple of hours of peering into the dark bushes didn't yield any sightings of the elusive birds, although we heard plenty calling. It was quite windy so they may have been staying well-sheltered, or perhaps we just couldn't hear them moving over the rustling of the trees.

A bellbird

During the day we did better. Walking around we were followed several times by fantails, feeding on the flies our feet dislodged. We also saw dozens of honey-eating bellbirds and stitchbirds at feeding stations maintained by the park rangers, as well as saddlebacks, whiteheads, kingfishers, New Zealand robins, parakeets, and the more common tuis and pukekos. The best were the takahe. These football-sized flightless birds are extremely rare, but there are three living near the visitors' centre on the island who are almost overly friendly and all too keen to steal your lunch if you look away. Quite a surreal experience - somehow I expect rare creatures to be shy. Maybe this gives some insight into why they're nearly extinct.

Tim bonds with a takahe

Staying in the bunkhouse was, as ever, a fascinating experience. With us were a couple of other people on holiday and five or so volunteers and researchers who work on the island. Some had led very varied and interesting lives and told dinner-table stories that were well worth hearing. One man had been an airport customs officer, and told us about a woman who tried to take her dead father on a plane as a passenger in a wheelchair. (Do you have any idea how difficult it is to ship a body in a coffin?) Luckily he noticed before she boarded...

Tim got a lot of good pictures - see here. Of course we also threw away lots of pictures of empty branches a bird had just left :)

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...

6th-9th February 2009: Tongariro Northern Circuit

Following on from the Tongariro Alpine Crossing walk with Tim and CHPers, I stayed on the track for another two days to complete the Northern Circuit. While they walked out to the carpark, I stopped at Ketetahi Hut for the night. This was a fairly interesting place to be for a couple of hours; around 2000 people walked the crossing that day and their exit route goes across the deck at the front of the hut. The few of us staying for the night sheltered inside from sunshine and the hordes of trampers, until the rush quieted down and we could enjoy the usual peace of the backcountry.

This was my first experience of walking alone, and I expected to be somewhat bored in the evenings. I'd packed as light as possible, having no-one to help spread the load, so the big fat novel hadn't made it into my pack. However, the wardens in both Ketetahi hut and Waihohonu hut, where I spent the next night, were much more sociable than the ones we had met on the Fiordland great walks; perhaps because the Tongariro is a much less popular walk, with often only 5-10 trampers in a hut, so it's easier to get chatting in a group.

Walking at dawn

The walking was easy too, largely over flattish scrubland, and I had a great time. One part of the track has black sand and small scrubby plants, and looks for all the world as if it's 50 yards from the shore at Piha or Karekare.

My favourite people of the tramp were a lovely French couple, Jean and Françoise, who have lived in Australia for almost 40 years. They told me enough about their grown-up grandchildren, and daughter's 40th birthday, to make me most impressed that they are still hiking with big packs on their backs. They obviously make a habit of this and have done tougher and longer walks than this one. If I'm half as fit at their age I'll be well pleased.

Françoise and Jean

More photos here.

6th-7th February 2009: Tongariro Alpine Crossing

One of the things remaining on our must-do list was the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, allegedly New Zealand's best one-day walk. We walked to a DOC hut near the start point the night before to get an early start and give ourselves the time to climb one of the volcanos that the main track skirts. This also gave Sophie, newly time-rich, the opportunity to do the full Tongariro Northern Circuit, of which the crossing is day 2. We took a bunch of CHPers along: Alex, James, Luke and Ken.

Day 1 was a late start after the drive down but a short 3-hour yomp took us to the Mangatepopo Hut near the start of the crossing. We had an chilled-out evening drinking some wine, playing cards and watching the sunset.

On day 2 we left the hut at 6:50am with the tops shrouded in cloud. We reached the first saddle an hour or so later, and decided to begin the climb up Ngauruhoe (pronouced Nah-eu-ru-ho-eh or something), a nearly perfect volcanic cone towering above the area. This turned out to be somewhat more challenging than we expected, with about 700m of loose scree and sharp volcanic rocks. The views from the top made it worth it though, as by the time we got there the clouds had cleared completely.

The view from the crater of Naguaruhoe

The remainder of the crossing provided us with views of bright-red craters, emerald lakes and steaming thermal areas; a spectacular collection that really has to be seen in person to be appreciated. Our legs had appreciated enough by the last hour or so of the walk - the volcanic side-trip adds quite a bit to an already substantial outing.

CHPers and a volcano

Having now 'done' Ngaruramaramawhakahoe, next time we'll only have to do the cushy amble to the summit of Tongariro.

More photos here.

31st January - 1st February 2009: Kauaeranga Kauri Trail

We repeated the walk to the Pinnacles Hut, this time taking more people, more wine and more steak. With us were Mark, Nishan, Kate, Stephen and Luke.

Saturday was hot and humid, but the climb up to the hut felt a lot easier than the last time we did it. We arrived at the hut in plenty of time to climb the Pinnacles that afternoon and enjoyed a display of rock-climbing skills by Luke. Later we paddled and admired the reflections in the amazingly calm pools near the hut.

Not far from the Pinnacles Hut

The evening was great fun: there's something very satisfying about having carried wine and steak up a hill, that makes you enjoy it all the more. We timed Stephen (a fell runner by trade) climbing back up to the Pinnacles summit in 8 minutes to get mobile reception to call his girlfriend.

On Sunday we split into two groups. The majority opted for the longer walk back via Moss Creek campsite, while Tim, Sophie and Nishan took the Billygoat track. We had a very relaxed lunch sitting just above the Billygoat Falls (Sophie thinks this may be the best lunch spot ever), while the others bush-whacked their way out. Stephen set off alone on a detour and got properly lost for a while. It's hard to appreciate just how wild this area is as soon as you're off the track: you're many miles from help, and one bit of bush looks exactly like another. Luckily, after some swimming down a stream, he found his way back onto a track and out.

The final swing-bridge over the Kauaeranga river

More photos here.

We'll be sorry if we don't get to visit this area again, but there's so much more to see!

2nd-5th January 2009: Kepler Track

"Hello. We'd like to pick up our hut passes for the Kepler Track, please."

The man in the DOC office in Te Anau was very helpful. "Here's the forecast for tomorrow. I think they'll probably close the alpine section of the track, because the wind is forecast to reach 100km per hour above 1000m." Well, we wouldn't get to the high level section until the following day, but what would happen to all the people who weren't able to do it tomorrow? Would the hut tomorrow night be somewhat overcrowded?

"The next day the wind looks like dropping off a bit [a mere 70kph] but it's going to snow above 1200m. Also there are some trees down on the track you'll walk tomorrow. I believe it's passable though. Oh, and watch out for the falcon in the Rainbow Reach area. It's been attacking walkers on the track, so be sure to wear a hat. We had a chap in here two days ago with a great gash across his head."

Hmm. This wasn't how the Routeburn Track had started out a few days before. That was much more a case of, "Here are your tickets. Would you like a rubbish bag?"

Still, Anna, Chris, Tim and I defied fallen trees, weather and aggressive falcons, and set out the next morning on our four-day walk. Seemingly against all odds, we managed to survive it unscathed and without track closure.

Day 1 was an 800m climb in the rain. We didn't hang aboout; even brand new Gore-Tex doesn't keep you dry in Fiordland rain, so breaks were kept short to avoid getting cold. We reached Luxmore Hut by about 2pm and spent the afternoon and evening drying off our kit together with 50-odd other damp hikers. That evening we had some lovely views across Lake Te Anau - the clearest views of the walk, as it turned out.

Luxmore Hut

Day 2 is the alpine crossing, and was a day of intermittent horizontal snow. Somehow this felt more Christmassy than anything yet - snow on 3rd January makes me feel as if I'm at the right end of the world. Slightly weird to have it a week after midsummer in NZ though.


All we could see from the highest point (the 1472m Mount Luxmore) was the inside of a cloud. However, we had more luck at the last viewpoint just before dropping back below the treeline, and enjoyed some pretty partially-clouded views over Lake Manapouri. They fuelled us for the 91 hairpin bends in the track through the trees to Iris Burn Hut.

Chris and Anna walked out from Iris Burn to Rainbow Reach the next day, while Tim and I stayed in Moturau hut and walked out to Te Anau the day after. The final evening was great fun; three days of walking and some bad weather had made the hut atmosphere very sociable, and we were pleased to find we were chatting with the owners of Artisan Wines, a winery just outside Auckland. We feel it would be only polite to visit and sample their wines some time soon. Earlier in the walk we had also met a very interesting DOC employee whose uncle originated guided walking on the Routeburn Track.

The Kepler had its moments for weather, but turned out to be a great walk for wildlife. We saw a number of keas showing off the bright orange underside to their wings; fantails in the woods near Lake Moturau; a sleek stag in velvet near Iris Burn Hut; a falcon (which didn't attack us, and which we would have thought was part of a treestump had the DOC man not pointed it out); and Chris found glow-worms under a rock near Iris Burn Hut.

29th-31st December 2008: Routeburn Track

We did our first NZ Great Walk in the company of Mike, Lara, Rich, Lucy, and two boxes of wine that we hauled up the hill. All well worth bringing along.

We armed ourselves with a brand-new Gore-Tex waterproof for Sophie and a big breakfast (hurrah for gluten-free Eggs Benedict) and boarded a coach for a leisurely ride to the Routeburn Shelter. The coach ride itself was stunning, along the side of the very blue Lake Wakatipu and past a series of snow-capped mountains. We also saw the valley that was used for Isengard in the Lord of the Rings films.

By the time we'd admired the shelter and taken the obligatory start-of-trail photos, it was almost 3pm when we started walking. The first day is under 4 hours though, so we made it to the very shiny Routeburn Falls hut in plenty of time to reduce the weight of wine before the next day.

The first and last days were mostly through beech forest. The woods down here don't mess about - the trees have parasites growing on them, and both trees and parasites have a generous covering of moss and lichen. No space is wasted where something could grow.

Day 2 was the most spectacular day, with the whole day above the treeline crossing the Harris Saddle. While not as blazing hot as the day before, we had clear skies and amazing views; we also nipped up Conical Hill (a short side trip) and admired a glimpse of the far-off sea while trying not to get blown off the peak sideways.

My favourite view of the holiday was probably the one that took in the wooded valley leading down to the flat, grassy Route Burn valley bottom, with snow-capped mountains in the background. It's not everywhere you get all that in one eyeful.

Lake Mackenzie hut, the second stopover, was slightly less brand new than Routeburn Falls, but came with a warden who entertained us at length with his hut talk. Somehow the old chestnuts about weather forecasts (if you can see the hills it's going to rain; if you can't see them, it's already raining) still raised a chuckle.

The final day we had our first taste of Fiordland rain. The wet stuff in this area is legendary, but we got off quite lightly - a mere 4 hours of yomping downhill before we were back in civilisation. Lots of small streams were swelling quite impressively already, and we could see how the stories of wading through waist-deep water came about. Highlight of this day was the 174m Earland Falls; a rain-swelled waterfall we didn't so much see as experience, with the track taking us through copious spray. Tim was heard to say this was the best waterfall he'd ever seen. More on that later.

We reached the Divide shelter around 1pm and spent a chilly hour and a half waiting for our coach ride out, trying to dry off along with a dozen other wet trampers. The hip flask came in very handy.

24th-27th October 2008: Great Barrier Island

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.

9th - 10th August 2008: Kauaeranga Kauri Trail

Walked the Kauaeranga Kauri Trail to Pinnacles Hut, and from there to the Pinnacles. Walk was listed in Lonely Planet "Tramping in New Zealand" and on the DOC website. Photos here.

Day 1: Webb Creek track from Kauaeranga Valley road end to Pinnacles Hut, taking about 3 hours. Interesting walk on very well-made track (graded a Walking Track), taking in wire bridges, rock and kauri steps made by kauri loggers, and Hydrocamp (the old loggers' camp). Reached hut around 2:30pm, dumped most of our kit, and walked from there up to the Pinnacles (around 40 mins one-way). Top of the Pinnacles was completely in cloud but nice views on the way up.

Day 2: Clear morning so went up the Pinnacles again, this time for beautiful views of the Pacific and Table Mountain. Then back from the hut on Billy Goat Track (4 hours), partly along the route of the logging tramway. Found a way down to the top of Billy Goat Falls from the track, with a couple of short falls at the top which would make a fabulous lunch spot.

Hut had two bunk rooms (total 80 beds), a dining room with about 8 gas burners, and solar-powered lights. Apparently about as good as huts get. Sadly the stove heater had a blocked flue - shame, as it froze overnight. Sophie's new sleeping bag turns out to be pretty warm (still slept fully clothed though) but Tim needed more thermals.

Hut was fairly busy, including a group of scouts, half a dozen fathers with 7-year-olds, and some Irish people from Auckland. The Irish people were drinking whisky with lemons, cloves, sugar and hot water. Yum. Quite a few people had toted bottles of wine up there.

Lessons learnt:

Bring enough clothes to keep us warm in the evening / overnight rather than only enough to keep us warm on walks!
Slippers would have been useful - cold floors, and boots not allowed in the hut.
Quick, hot food was really good - cuppa soups definitely worth having. More hot drink options would have been good too since we had to boil all drinking water.
You can never have enough plastic bags.

Definitely a good one to do again, next time with some wine and meats for the barbecue.