I joined up with Sue and Tony in Levin on 7 April and on the 8th we went up to Whanganui for the night. Then next day we continued up to Turangi near the Tongariro national park where we stayed for the week.
That weekend (10th/11th April) was the Oxfam 100km trampwhich i was doing in a team of 4, my cousin Peter, Michelle, Nick and myself. We started at 0700 on Saturday april 10 and finished at 1000 on Sunday april 11, after walking for 27 hours. The first 45km we completed in 9hr 30mins, and was really good fun, the weather was beautiful, it was an interesting track, spirits were high and we made really good time overtaking loads of other teams. Unfortunately at the 45km one of our team had to retire due to a knee injury. The next leg was nightmare as it was 20km, it was the first night strech and towards the end another member of the team became very ill so it took a long time to finish. So in contrast to the first half, the last 45 km were more of a slog in the dark, one foot in front of the other, cold, no scenery etc. The sun rose again at the last checkpoint which gave a good boost to morale and so the final 13km were a bit more enjoyable. We finally crossed the line at 1000 sunday morning after being out for 27 hours.
It was a great event and i definately enjoyed it, one more great experience to add to my trip.
I spent the rest of the week in Turangi with Sue and Tony and got a few more tramps in with Sue, the Tongariro crossing was definately a highlight there.
Headed back up to Auckland on the Friday, on Sunday Chris took me on one of his customary adventures in the Waitakeres, which involved tramping, caving and swimming i the sea and the next day i explored the city and Devenport.
The rest of the week was broken up be a 2 day trip to levin for Josies funeral. The service was very good and the large number of people in attendence was a lovely tribute to Josie. It was also another opportunity to catch up with the family.
Last weekend ( 24th,25th) i went down to Mt taranaki with chris and a friend Phill for a 3 day, 2 night tramp up and around the mountain. We climbed to the summit on saturday, it was a tough climb - extremely steep with a long scree slope section as well as a bouldering/scrambling section exacerbated by heavy packs. 3/4's of the way up the cloud came in and the wind picked up obscuring the view and making the going more.... interesting. We wouldn't have made it to the top without the help of some crazy guy who in trying to break the record for the most climbs in a year was climbing it several times a week (4times that weekend), anyway he guided us to the top in minimal visibility, strong winds and a bit of rain. We had planned to go to a mountain hut the other side of the mountain but the weather forced us to lug all our gear back down the mountain and then around the mountain to another hut. The next day we checked out an impressive waterfall (and had a cold swim) and the backtracked to the summit path before heading further down the mountain to another hut very close to the car park, this meant the next day we had a quick walk out giving us time to visit new plymouth and drive back to Auckland. the tramp was fantastic and on the second day we got some superb views of the summit, it was my first experience of staying in the DOC huts and they were really nice as well.
That weekend (10th/11th April) was the Oxfam 100km trampwhich i was doing in a team of 4, my cousin Peter, Michelle, Nick and myself. We started at 0700 on Saturday april 10 and finished at 1000 on Sunday april 11, after walking for 27 hours. The first 45km we completed in 9hr 30mins, and was really good fun, the weather was beautiful, it was an interesting track, spirits were high and we made really good time overtaking loads of other teams. Unfortunately at the 45km one of our team had to retire due to a knee injury. The next leg was nightmare as it was 20km, it was the first night strech and towards the end another member of the team became very ill so it took a long time to finish. So in contrast to the first half, the last 45 km were more of a slog in the dark, one foot in front of the other, cold, no scenery etc. The sun rose again at the last checkpoint which gave a good boost to morale and so the final 13km were a bit more enjoyable. We finally crossed the line at 1000 sunday morning after being out for 27 hours.
It was a great event and i definately enjoyed it, one more great experience to add to my trip.
I spent the rest of the week in Turangi with Sue and Tony and got a few more tramps in with Sue, the Tongariro crossing was definately a highlight there.
Headed back up to Auckland on the Friday, on Sunday Chris took me on one of his customary adventures in the Waitakeres, which involved tramping, caving and swimming i the sea and the next day i explored the city and Devenport.
The rest of the week was broken up be a 2 day trip to levin for Josies funeral. The service was very good and the large number of people in attendence was a lovely tribute to Josie. It was also another opportunity to catch up with the family.
Last weekend ( 24th,25th) i went down to Mt taranaki with chris and a friend Phill for a 3 day, 2 night tramp up and around the mountain. We climbed to the summit on saturday, it was a tough climb - extremely steep with a long scree slope section as well as a bouldering/scrambling section exacerbated by heavy packs. 3/4's of the way up the cloud came in and the wind picked up obscuring the view and making the going more.... interesting. We wouldn't have made it to the top without the help of some crazy guy who in trying to break the record for the most climbs in a year was climbing it several times a week (4times that weekend), anyway he guided us to the top in minimal visibility, strong winds and a bit of rain. We had planned to go to a mountain hut the other side of the mountain but the weather forced us to lug all our gear back down the mountain and then around the mountain to another hut. The next day we checked out an impressive waterfall (and had a cold swim) and the backtracked to the summit path before heading further down the mountain to another hut very close to the car park, this meant the next day we had a quick walk out giving us time to visit new plymouth and drive back to Auckland. the tramp was fantastic and on the second day we got some superb views of the summit, it was my first experience of staying in the DOC huts and they were really nice as well.
I went back to Auckland for a few days and thanks to Peter got to go to a Vampire Weekend concert which was awesome.
I spent my last week and a half down in Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty where i managed to land a job in a kiwi fruit packing house stacking the boxes of kiwi fruit. The work was OK but it was quite sociable and had perks including free kiwi fruit and a free 55 hour a week gym session (the boxes were quite heavy!!) Tauranga was a nice town and a had time to climb Mt. Manganui which gave great 360 degree views of the coast and the land. I spent my last night at Chris's house and Peter came over for dinner, it was the perfect way to wind down my time in NZ after 5 months!!
