Lake Waikaremoana - an NZ Great Walk.

What a way to celebrate the Queens Birthday!
Well we have done our first multi day trek, carrying all our food, cooking stuff,  sleeping bags etc. We didn't have to take the tent as we stayed in DOC huts for the first time - another new experience!!

greatwalks -lake waikaremoana

The walk is situated south and east of us and took about 4 hours through the largest Wilderness area in the North Island called Te Uruwera, to reach the place where we caught the water taxi. The drive is down State Highway 38 from Rotorua, 90km of which is dirt road!

We managed to get to the jetty by 11am although the road was often white with frost and had various wandering horses and pigs to watch out for along the way! Quite chilly!

 

Here we are pointing at where we started and ended our walk (we did about 1/2!) . We only stayed 2 nights as we weren't quite sure how it would go and if we had brought the right stuff etc. The DOC huts were fully booked both nights we were there and we met some lovely people - although there was a slight issue of snorers!! The first Hut was near the shore and a big party of Hunters and Fishermen were staying, and had brought masses of stuff by boat!, they had Tilly lamps, big cookers and lots of alcohol (judging by the empty bottles!), so we had good light the first night in the communal sitting room, the second night there was only candle light and head torches - all very peaceful & everyone seems to go to bed with the light and get up when it gets light in the morning.

Above is the First Hut. Firewood and a big wood burning stove is provided in all the huts, as are plastic covered mattresses - lined up on wooden platforms, long drop loos, running water (which needs boiled for 3 minutes). So all very rustic! The following photos are the second Hut, but very similar style and capacity.

We were on the bottom level! 

We did the last two huts on the walk which goes up over the ridge, so after the first night we went up from the lake shore to the Panakere Hut on the top of the ridge - it only took about 3.5 hours so we arrived at lunch time - the views were superb. Although there was still a sprinkling of snow at the top!

We walked through several 'layers' of native bush with a sort of cloud forest at the top with lots of moss and lichen covering the trees.

 

Shona's main reason for going was to see the Korokoro falls, as she has bought and framed a photograph of these falls.

 

They look pretty spectacular - as was the noise!.

 



The walk down the next day was again quite short but very beautiful and we were very lucky to have spectacular weather the whole trip - the rain started on the drive home!! Can you see the rainbow over the ridge we were on?

Can't wait to do our next Great Walk - hopefully with Rhian and Callum!

Tauranga events

Tauranga is a great place for events, sport and theatre. In the last few weeks we have thoroughly enjoyed an eclectic mix of cinema, sport and shows.

After watching the superb RSC productions of Loves Labours Lost and Loves Labours Won at the local arthouse cinema, we also experienced the ALL ACTION Mad Max ( we went to see the Namibian scenery!).

As well as the usual Thursday Yoga and Monday Body Balance classes, Malcolm has started his Winter Sailing season, including a win last Sunday - congratulations to Candida and her hardy crew.

Shona played her first game of golf in years - she was pretty dreadful, but with a sense of humour there is a hope she will get better!! Although her putting was pretty good!
The beautiful low golden autumnal light made the leaves on the trees glow crimson and orange at the Okorire Springs 9 hole course. We played in pairs and despite Malcolm's good shots we lost pretty convincingly to friends Steve and Jen. Such good fun though we will play again.
Okoroire Springs

At the local Baycourt Theatre we have also recently enjoyed (shona with earplugs!!) the Pink Floydd Experience, a superb Balinese Mask play called Kiss the Fish and Shona enjoyed a recycled and upcycled fashion show.

And last but not least we had a fun Tuesday evening at a local Quizz night at the Rain Bar with a Prendos team - we were in second place for a very short time but in the end came 6th out of 14 - so not bad for a first time!

So Tauranga is a friendly and fun place!