Hikes & tramps

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Powell hut and back

5-6 February 2020
Distance: Approximately 18km out-and-back

Vege curry for tea.
Emergency soup, lunch, dessert and snacks.
Whiskey – a great tipple on a tramp.
Paraphernalia, and white gold.
Oops. My 24 litre pack is not up to the task.
Coffee and a last pack-check before heading off.
Mountain House shelter.
Lending a helping hand.
Powell in the mist.
Shenanigans in the wind.
Photo by Deon.

At short notice we, together with friends, decided to make the trip up to Powell hut, spending the night and walking back down the next day. Since Waitangi Day was on the Thursday, we decided to make a midweek outing of it, hoping to have the hut to ourselves. This turned out to not quite be the case. Continue reading →

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Marshalling on Mt Holdsworth (Jumbo-Holdsworth Trail Race – 25 January)

24 January: Powell Hut via Gentle Annie, Totara Flat, Pig Flat and Holdsworth Track

New Powell hut.
New Powell hut.
New Powell hut.

The month of January is not even finished yet and I already felt like I needed a holiday. Luckily we had the prospect of the two days back in the Tararua Range. Since our tramp over New Year I’ve been keen to get back in the mountain, but on “easier” and more “human friendly” terrain. Continue reading →

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The treacherous Tararua Peaks Circuit

panorama4

Apart from running the Jumbo-Holdsworth Trail race in 2018 we are for all intents and purposes Tararua virgins. We have never ventured into the Tararua Ranges in the almost ten years that we’ve been living in it’s foothills at the northern-most part. This was mainly due to being scared senseless from all the news items of people who die in the mountain, and sometimes following a rescue mission with varied outcomes. Just last year a gentleman’s body was found only after eleven days of searching, after he fell down a waterfall in the Arete stream. Continue reading →

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Coppermine creek and coppermine loop track

We’ve been very slack lately with our running. More often than not, we’d skip a run. There’s always something, isn’t there? Cutting grass, tending the vege garden, raising baby guinea fowl, studies, work, and before you know it, another weekend rolls around, you’ve had one run during the week and have no plans, nor energy for your long-run on the weekend. You promise yourself you’ll start anew on Monday, and so the process repeats itself. It’s a slippery slope, but in my defence I do stick to this half-arsed routine, rather than giving up all together. Continue reading →

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Around the mountain circuit – Mt Taranaki

Date: 29 December 2018 to 2 January 2019
Distance: Approx 52km
Time: 5 days

Circumnavigating Mt Taranaki (Mt Egmont) has been on our radar for quite some time. Somehow, there’s always something else that gets priority, but this year we decided it is now or never.

Taranaki Maori legend has it that “While Tongariro was away, Taranaki wooed and won Tongariro’s wife, the graceful Pihanga. Tongariro returned at sunrise to find the guilty pair and in the struggle that followed Taranaki was banished. Taranaki retreated to the west coast of the North Island, carving the course of the Whanganui River as he went and filling it with his tears. He then moved North to his present location.

To this day, Taranaki gazes silently at his lover and his river. Pihanga still loves Taranaki and sighs when she thinks of him. Taranaki, when covered in mist, is said to be weeping for his lost love. Meanwhile, the enraged and jealous husband, Mt Tongariro smoulders with fury”. [Ref. Manky Maps] Continue reading →