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.

9th August 2009: Kitesurfing Lesson Three

I had another kitesurfing lesson on Sunday. This time I managed to stay upright for decent periods and almost stay upwind, quite a big improvement on last time.

I'm definitely getting the hang of it. The speed you can travel at is quite amazing. I'd guess it's 15-20 knots (fast over water), but when you get it right it's almost effortless - the harness takes all the load and you just blast along.

The most important thing I learnt this time is that you really have to watch the kite the whole time, not your feet. Otherwise, the kite crashes and shortly afterwards you crash too, usually resulting in sea water imbibage.

Kitesurfing has quite a reputation for being a dangerous sport, but having done it a few times I reckon it's actually probably safer than, say, snowboarding. As I understand it, the design of the kites made some big steps forwards a few years ago - the newer bow kites can be completely de-powered by simply letting go. It's clearly possible to get yourself in trouble, but following the safety instructions you get from lessons probably makes it pretty safe.

30th July - 5th August 2009: Queenstown

My employer, CHP Consulting, organises annual conferences where we get together to catch up, find out what the company's plans are and have some fun. Last year, the regional conference was in Port Douglas, Australia. This year everyone came to Queenstown, on the South Island of New Zealand.

Queenstown is the capital of adventure tourism in NZ and has the widest selection of crazy activities that I have ever seen in one place. At this time of year, it concentrates on winter sports, with four significant ski areas within reach (Coronet Peak, The Remarkables, Cardrona and Treble Cone). After the morning conference, we headed up to the Remarkables, where we all spent an hour snow tubing. This was entertaining, although to many of us it seemed like a bit of waste of valuable ski-resort time.

After the conference I stuck around in Queenstown with Ken, Tom and Amy for 5 days' snowboarding. I've been lucky enough to go to many of France's best ski resorts, as well as some American ones, so it's interesting to compare how New Zealand does things.

The biggest difference is scale. Most of these areas have two lifts, three at most. In comparison, Val d'Isère claims 94 on its website. Despite this, we didn't get bored. Many of the slopes were wide and over open terrain with no trees, so you could pick your own route down. It's also nice to get to know slopes well - where the jumps are, etc.

Getting to the resorts is different too - you have to drive through the valleys, before turning sharply uphill and ascending quickly to the snow-line. No ski-in-ski-out luxury here. The roads up are also mostly unsealed, which become entertainingly trecherous when you reach the snow. I am now an expert at the messy business of fitting and removing snow chains!

Of our 5 days, 3 had excellent conditions, with nightly fresh powder and sunshine. I don't know whether this is how it always works down there, but I was certainly impressed. The only dissapointment was our day at Treble Cone - many people had raved about it, but heavy wet snow and strong winds meant half the resort was closed and the rest wasn't much fun. It did seem to have potential though: huge open slopes, steep sections and loads of natural gullies. One for next time!

25th July 2009: Waitakere Ranges Walking

Things have quietened down a bit since Sophie left - we had been trying to squeeze as much as we could into her last weekends here, and I haven't had much planned since. I did manage another sail at Panmure Lagoon Sailing Club last weekend, but it wasn't much to write about.

With Ken now back on the CHP NZ team, things were bound to get busy again. This Saturday I was supposed to be having another kite-surfing lesson, but the day dawned calm so that was abandoned. Instead, Ken and I headed to Cascade Kauri in the Waitakere Ranges for bit of a walk.

Sophie and I have been here before - there are some excellent stands of mature Kauri in the area and I wanted to see some more of them. From the car park, we took the Lower Kauri Track ("for experienced trampers only"!) which had some entertainingly muddy and steep sections. We then went north to take the Whatitiri track back to the car park, which crosses some grassy fields offering, unusually for the Waitaks, a open view.

Somewhere around then we lost the track. This doesn't happen often in NZ - they're normally very clearly marked. I suspect it was when Ken went to 'play' with a flock of pukekos. We'd been wandering around for a while, and were just discussing how to make a tent out of fern leaves, and wondering what pukoko would be like for dinner, when we found the track again and our fun was spoilt.

We saw quite a few birds in that area: pukekos, fantails, red-crested parakeets, a wood pigeon, an NZ robin and plenty of tui. Not a bad haul. It's interesting how this year in NZ has turned me into a little bit of a twitcher. Only a bit though!

11th-14th July 2009: Sydney

On my way home from NZ, I stopped off in Sydney for three days. I had a new relative to meet, a few friends to see, and wanted to fit in a little sightseeing.

It turned out to be a sociable stay. Kate, a colleague of Tim's, very kindly picked me up from the airport to drive me to my hotel and waited while I got settled in. Perhaps too kindly; Sinclairs at Bondi has a quirky feel and a very friendly and helpful host. By the time he had finished showing me round and giving me maps and useful information, I fear Kate's brother may have demolished the lasagne she had left in the oven.

Bondi Beach

In the course of the next couple of days I was plied with gin and tonic, cooked dinners, and generally welcomed by Kate, her brother Jon (who cooked me a delicious roast even though I'd never met him before), and ex-colleagues Rich and Nick. I also had the pleasure of meeting my three-month-old second cousin Lorelei, who frankly cannot be real. When I arrived she was asleep; she soon woke up and spent some time grinning at me; she then had a meal and went down for another nap. Is this really what babies are like?

In between times I fitted in a few touristy things, starting with a visit to the Art Gallery of New South Wales to see the Aboriginal art. I just love those bold colours and spotty crocodiles, although I am woefully uninformed about the meaning underlying the pictures.

I also walked the Manly Scenic Walkway, which wasn't honestly all that manly, being a well-graded 10km walk that any girl could manage. It was certainly scenic though, taking in surf, beaches and the native bush of the Sydney Harbour National Park.

Tourism-wise, the highlight of my trip was whale watching. This was something I had never quite got round to doing in Auckland. I'd love to say it was because I knew it would be better in Sydney. I discovered that Sydney is situated next to a highway for humpback whales, which every year swim north to the tropics to breed, right past the mouth of the harbour. My boat - a triple-decker ferry-like affair, but fast and with plenty of viewing space - located a passing humpback in minutes. We spent at least an hour watching two of these amazing creatures rolling along, surfacing to breathe, and diving with that classic tail-flick.

Humpback whale

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.

27th-28th June 2009: Waipoua Forest

The mighty Kauri trees of northern New Zealand have featured quite prominently during our year in NZ. We first encountered them on the Pinnacles walk back in August last year, and I've been fascinated by the history surrounding these giants ever since. Their timber and gum had a huge impact on the development of NZ once Europeans arrived and started exploiting them.

To sate my curiosity, we used one of our two remaining weekends together on a Kauri extravaganza: a trip to Waipoua forest, which is the largest remaining area of mature Kauri forest, and a stop on the way at the Kauri Museum in Matakohe.

The museum has an excellent collection of all things Kauri-related apart, oddly, from a general introduction to the trees. We were glad to have known some background before we arrived. There are sections dedicated to the history of the sawmills, gum-digging and the so-called swamp Kauri: trees tens of thousands of years old that fell into bogs and were preserved. I think Sophie enjoyed the period-lifestyle displays more than I did, but there we plenty of big machines to keep me interested.

Perhaps the most interesting display was a lengthwise section of a mature tree that was recently killed by lightning. On its side, it gives a good impression of just how much timber there is in these trees and why they were so sought after. On the wall beside it there's a cross-section of the tree measuring 2m in diameter. Painted outside that are outlines of rounds of larger Kauris - some of which beggar belief in their scale.

The cross-section and outlines are on the wall behind - use the chair for scale!

After the museum we headed north to the Top 10 Holiday Park in Kaihu. Top 10s usually come across as characterless and densely-packed caravan parks, but in the uncrowded low season we were pleased with our cosy little lodge: a comfortable double bed and a bijou kitchen in a beautiful spot by the river, all for 75NZD. We had planned to go on the organised kiwi-spotting tour but rain and a nascent cold put me off.

On Sunday we headed up to Waipoua Forest itself. Some driving and walking took us to a number of massive trees: Tane Mahuta, the largest living Kauri by volume, and Te Matua Ngahere, the largest by girth. We also walked to Yakas, which is smaller (though still huge) but isn't surrounded by protected fences so you can get close to it.

Sophie in front of Yakas - the 7th largest Kauri tree

One thing is for sure: you can only really appreciate these trees by seeing them yourself!