tramping

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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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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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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 →

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Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk

Date: 29 December 2017 to 1 January 2018
Distance: 46km (give or take)

“The Lake Waikaremoana track has the largest area of native forest in the North Island. This region is the ancestral home of the Maori tribe Ngai Tuhoe – the ‘Children of the Mist’. Entirely within the boundaries of Te Urewera, the track mostly follows the shores of the great lake. Over three to four days, it leads you through pristine rainforest, regenerating shrubland areas of wetland, rush and herbfield and a magical ‘goblin forest’. You will also discover magnificent rivers, waterfalls and ghostly valleys of mist. Continue reading →

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A tail in three parts – Pouakai Crossing

Date: 9 June 2017
Distance: Depending on the source, 18.4km or 19km

Walking up the Razorback Ridge.
Boomerang Slip.
Gerry at Dieffenbach cliffs.
Time for a break and warm coffee.
Gerry crossing a slip.
The red water of the Kokowai Stream.
Signs at either side of Boomerang Slip, cautioning hikers to cross the slip one at a time.
Gerry making his way across the Boomerang Slip.
Ahukawakawa Swamp/Wetlands in the valley below.
Holly Hut.

Since Lonely Planet named Taranaki “the second best region in the world to visit”, while highlighting the Pouakai Crossing as “one of two unmissable attractions”, I’ve been keen to see what all the fuss was about.

Mt Taranaki in Egmont National Park has always been on the to-do list. We’ve only done short walks in the area, and “knocking off the bastard” remains on the to-do list. Continue reading →