A Tramping Fool

If you’re tired of hearing about New Zealand, stop reading now. This story came to mind again recently because it’s one of my favorites from my time in the southern hemisphere back in 2011-2012.

---

As a refresher, my schedule for working with North Island brown kiwi in the Hauraki Gulf consisted of 2 weeks spent playing and working, followed by 2 weeks of travel time. For the first and only time in my life, I owned a car; my Nissan Cefiro station wagon’s name was Shadowfax for the simple reason that I hoped it would lead me to Gandalf. (Filming for “The Hobbit” happened while I was down there, and I even went to a casting call outside of Wellington, but that’s a story in itself.)

Although the more time I spend in the US, the more I want to get out, there’s one way in which I’m extremely American. I absolutely love the freedom to explore that comes with owning a set of 4 wheels. During my time off I drove all around both the North and South Islands, and while the gas bills piled up due to gas costing around 2.10NZD/liter (6.52USD/gallon), I wouldn’t trade my adventures for anything.

http://www.omnimap. com/catalog/images/for-road/covers/65-0788Tc.jpg

http://www.ianbrodie.net/books_files/lotr-location-guide-ext.jpg

With a full month of travel before my final stint of kiwi work, I loaded my trusty steed onto the Interislander ferry to cross Cook Strait. Throughout my travels I relied on the above books, which functioned as both blessings and curses. Wanting to go everywhere in the country and hoping to see as many filming locations as possible made for quite the excursions. (Even now I can scan through those books and re-live my adventures. Some books can be worth leaving behind; those weren’t.)

Caples Valley

About 2/3 of the way through my month, I was finishing up the Greenstone Caples tramp in the Lake Wakatipu/Greenstone Conservation Area just outside Fiordland National Park. Having just spent 3 nights on the trail and knowing I was running short on time to explore the Wanaka and Queenstown areas, I decided to skip making the 39km drive down unsealed roads to visit the Mavora Lakes Park. Just outside the park lies the area where Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli came upon the burning pile of orc carcasses. The shores of North Mavora Lake are the home of The Breaking of the Fellowship. Although The Breaking is likely one of my top 3 scenes for story line, scenery, and music; I decided I had more convenient places to visit.

As I drove out of Te Anau and toward Queenstown on highway 94, I again told myself, “Nope. You don’t have time for that side trip. Put it on the “Next Time” list.” My decision had been made. However as Shadowfax and I approached the turn-off toward Mavora, he slowed down and made a left turn. I couldn’t stop him, so there really wasn’t anything for me to do about it other than continue driving down 39km of unsealed road. At least it wasn’t a lonely road.

I stopped for a moment at the invisible pile of carcasses before venturing inside the park. Without Shadowfax’s insistence on turning, I would have missed out on the beauty of the Mavora area. The Mavora Lakes are 2 long, skinny lakes that run N-S between 2 ridges and are connected by the Mararoa River. From the get-go I was struck by the rather simple beauty of the area.

Home away from home

Shore of N Mavora Lake

Upon exploring a little around the southern lake, I discovered that I could either pay the $5 campsite fee or use my backcountry hut pass to sleep for free at Careys Hut a mere 10km down the lakeshore. Since I was unsure of whether I’d be squeezing another tramp into my time off or not, I found myself irrationally parking the car and hurriedly stuffing gear back into the backpack I’d just unpacked a few hours earlier. Besides, I hadn’t consumed a beer in a hut yet, and I just happened to have one ready to go. I’d already climbed over the McKellar Saddle and back to my car after starting the morning at Upper Caples Hut. What was another 10 kilometers of  travel?

I hit the trail right around 20:00, knowing that my daylight was quickly fading. With my headlamp conveniently stowed, I figured I’d enjoy a soul cleansing dusky hike. The trail hugged the lakeshore and flirted with the woods’ edge for the first few kilometers before gaining a little elevation and meandering through fields above the lake. As I walked along beneath the darkening sky, the stars slowly twinkled to life above me. Every now and then I just stopped to stare up at the sky and the silhouetted mountains. The only sound around was created by waves lapping lightly upon the lakeshore. I was in love.

Although I was in love, I was also growing tired. 21:30 rolled around. Probably a half an hour or so to go, I thought to myself. 21:45… 22:00…22:15. I know I’ve hiked a fair bit today, but I can’t be moving that slowly, can I? 22:20. What if I hike past the hut without realizing it? My headlamp wasn’t really all that powerful, and I had no tent to pitch if I ended up missing the hut. In retrospect I probably could have chanced just unrolling the sleeping bag outside, but I wasn’t too sure of what the weather would bring. My options were to either keep hiking and hope I’d see the hut soon, or turn back to sleep in the car.

22:25. Okay, give it up and turn around so you can get some sleep. I hated to make the decision, but I couldn’t see any sign of the hut. At that time I brilliantly thought to pull out my GPS and turn it on to measure the walk back to the parking area. As I started the long haul back to Shadowfax, I laughed at myself. Only I would be ridiculous enough to take on a second hike, walk for a couple hours, and then decide to walk those kilometers back in the darkness of night.

Despite the fact that I was mentally and physically tired, I paused to soak up my surroundings multiple times on the return trip. The utter absence of civilization was perfectly soothing. While on that hike I realized that I could easily spend a week out at the Mavora Lakes and still have no strong desire to return to town. For whatever mysterious kiwi reasons, the park had seized my soul.

As far as I recall, I stumbled up to Shadowfax around 00:40 and was in my sleeping bag before 01:00. Before drifting off to sleep, I checked my GPS to see that I had hiked ~9.5 kilometers; if I had carried on for another 10 minutes, I would have reached Careys Hut! Go figure. Although a beer in a hut would have been nice, I know my walk turned out just the way it was meant to be.

Wouldn’t my luck have it that the first substantial frost of the year fell that night? I didn’t sleep particularly well, but I couldn’t help but wake up with a smile on my face, for I had slept within one-tenth of a mile from where The Fellowship broke.

As much as I wanted to stay a week, I only afforded myself the time to scamper in the same woods through which orcs chased the Fellowship and then enjoy the scenery around Sam’s swimming hole. As always when visiting filming locations, I played the proper songs from the soundtrack to create the full experience. The shore of North Mavora nearly gave me tears. (Also, for the record, poor Sean Astin had to swim in a chilly lake, dry off briefly, and then repeat the act for multiple takes. What a trooper.)

Looking across North Mavora Lake

“Let’s hunt some orc.”

Shadowfax probably decided it was time to move on by late morning. Although my time at Mavora Lakes Park had been brief, it managed to give me a prized memory. Maybe one day my soul will wander back to that place.

 

Read Full Post »

September’s adventures

On my 4^th time off the kiwi island, which occurred back in September, Rose’s and my trip did not go as planned. This was also when everyone in Fairbanks began classes again, making me a real human being rather than a student for the first time in my life. Weird, eh?

For those (such as my mom) who has or used to have thoughts of my ferry to the island, here’s what the “ferry” sometimes carries…

Loading the “ferry”

We had intentions of going to the South Island, but Rose’s car had other ideas. About 1.5 hours out of Palmerston North, it broke down on us. I’m not going into details – otherwise Rose might read this and kill me for bringing up bad memories – but we ended up needing to use my car to putz around while mechanics looked Rose’s car over. Instead of sitting around and dwelling on the bad situation, I suggested we go for a tramp in the Ruahine Forest Park.

A talk with Sarah’s man Kyle pointed us in the direction of the Rangiwahia Hut. Other than a steep climb/scramble detour around a massive slip, the track was pretty nice! We even crossed a bridge that almost shares my birthday; it was built on December 2, 1988! The track was a climb almost the entire way, but the views, gas heater, and company were worth it. Some kiwis had to remind the Michigander of how to play euchre. (I would be embarrassed if Jeff had ever succeeded in teaching me how to play in the first place.)

Mount Ruapehu and Mount Doom at sunrise

An unusual sunset scene from the Rangi Hut

The Rangi Hut has a fantastic view of Mount Ruapehu and Mount Doom worthy of an early morning alarm for sunrise photography. After crawling back in the sleeping bag and then rising at a normal hour, Rose and I spent a leisurely day exploring the higher country on a day hike. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought I was in Alaska!

My kind of research

Rose in the Ruahines

Looking at the boot/mountain photo makes me recognize my kind of research: outdoor research. (aka what wildlife biology should be) I want the job of finding what’s beyond the next hill, mountain, forest, or plain. What wildlife is out there? How are the views? Who else can I find out there? What are they like? Was it worth the effort of getting to the view or destination? Those questions are much more fun to answer than something like “What is the standard deviation…” I seem to have lost my own interest before finishing the question. Hmm. The true question is, who will pay me to find answers to those more exciting questions?

After our visit to the Ruahines we ducked back into Palmerston North before tackling a tramp in the Tararua Range.

Nearly everyone we talked to about tramping in the Tararuas mentioned the weather…

After all, this sign was in a shelter along the Mount Holdsworth Circuit. Pardon the profanity, but I needed a photo.

I think it speaks for itself.

The track led gently upwards for awhile before becoming a steep climb and then breaking through the treeline to windy blasts on tundra. The Holdsworth Hut itself was perched on the eastern side of the range, and the winds howled all afternoon, evening, night, and next morning. Particularly eerie was the sound of it through the chimney. I’m amazed that the plants (and the hut) don’t get blown off the mountain. I guess that’s what adaptation and quality construction can do! The longdrop at the hut definitely had a nice view. Unfortunately the weather was such that we decided attempting to do the whole circuit on the ridge would be dangerous, so we headed back down and made a shorter loop.

Loo with a view towards Masterton

I just liked the angle on this forest floor photo…

Leaving the Tararuas early did mean we could take a side trip over to Castlepoint, a mysterious place a French guy told me about when I was in Thames. All I knew was that it was in the Masterton district and probably his favorite place in NZ.

After taking the 40+km drive down the road to get there, I completely understood what he meant. Within 10 minutes I was in love.

What’s not to like?

Red-billed gulls on the beach

Unfortunately to get to a cheap DOC campsite at a reasonable hour, which is what Rose likes to do, we had to leave after only about 1.5 hours there. We didn’t get to climb to the top of that awesome cliff/hill, nor did we catch sunrise or sunset.

The lighting was also pretty neat.

As much as I really, really want to make a return trip, I’m sadly starting to acknowledge I don’t have enough time to do everything once let alone try for second trips. 😦

Happy Steph!

Another view…

Since the Rugby World Cup was held here from September to October, it was impossible to live in this country without hearing about the tournament at every waking second. At first I wasn’t that interested, but then I learned the event is the 3^rd or 4^th largest sporting event in the world. I decided that since I’m here and rugby is the national religion of New Zealand, I should go to a game.

Even the kiwi get in the spirit!

After convincing Rose it would be an experience, we purchased standing room tickets for the September 11^th Ireland vs. USA game in New Plymouth. That’s a fitting way to recognize the 10^thanniversary, right? (It was strange to not hear much about such a huge aspect of recent US history.) To get to New Plymouth, we drove from the Tararuas to Taumarunui before taking the Forgotten Highway to Stratford.

Check out the name of the tunnel. 🙂

The Forgotten Highway features some unique natural features that make it worth a drive. Most people probably make numerous stops on the way, but the rain poured down for most of our trip. We did make a stop out of the country, though. What, you say? How did you leave New Zealand? Easy. Just stop in the Republic of Whangamomona.

For your reading pleasure…

No longer in NZ…

Apparently residents of the town weren’t happy with some new zoning in the Manawatu-Wanganui region, so they declared the town a republic on November 1, 1989. Every year they hold celebrations in the streets on that day!

Back in NZ…

After leaving the Forgotten Highway, we drove to the holiday park (like KOA) in the surfing town of Oakura for which we had booked a site. We had seen lots of cars with Irish flags in them on various roads in the country, and we soon learned the Irish rugby team has a huge following. I got in the American spirit by booing at cars decked out for Ireland. When we arrived at the holiday park, Rose and I walked into the office to find ourselves surrounded by 10ish facepainted and green-clad Irish supporters. Oops. I think we picked the wrong accommodation. Although I have red hair and people often ask if I have Irish blood, I’m quite American. I got a kick out of being such a minority in that office. The US doesn’t really give a hoot about rugby at this point in time, and it was obvious the Irish fans would vastly outnumber the Americans.

We could have caught a bus back to town for the game, which would have been a fun experience of listening to the Irish (who had already started to drink) sing their national songs. Instead, Rose and I drove downtown and then caught a shuttle to the park. We got the same dose of Irish pride on that short ride. It’s safe to say that was a bus ride I won’t soon forget.

The US apparently brought a small band over?

This is something like the 3rd best place to watch rugby.

Even though we only had standing room, we could see just fine. Of course, that didn’t really matter because neither Rose nor I knew what was going on. When I pulled out my binoculars, I did get to actually check out some faces of players…  We couldn’t figure out why each team kept kicking the ball back to the other or why the team that just scored would receive the kick-off. To our credit, we did know the Americans were losing. Luckily the US brought the final score to a more respectable 23-10 rather than 23-3 in the final plays.

A scrum, the strength battle between teams

Maybe I can spot a couple of Americans?

We returned to the holiday park, where the Irish likely celebrated well into the morning. Apparently one fan (probably American) had a rough night and chose to sleep in the men’s restroom. The owner of the holiday park actually brought a camera man in to film him, and I guess he’s part of the crew putting together some sort of production about fans and the World Cup! The poor dude should have picked a more private area to sleep.

Poor guy got no privacy here!

After that game our time off the island was almost up. We rocked out to the Beach Boys as we drove the Surf Highway before checking on Rose’s car in Palmerston North and then driving back up to the Hauraki Gulf. All in all, we covered some ground and tried some things we weren’t expecting, but we had a good time!

Read Full Post »

A long overdue post

My 3^rd time off the island began rather uncertainly. Rose, the volunteer from California, needed a ride to a town where she could form a plan and maybe catch a bus. I needed the internet to try to figure out my plan for our time off, and Rose did the same. Neither of us had solid ideas of where we wanted to go. End result? Steph and Rose travel together!

Rose is into birding, and I didn’t want to prevent her from hitting the places her book recommended, so our trip became a birding/tramping/camping adventure. We headed south through Hamilton to Te Kuiti, the shearing capital of the world! This farmer is just a little taller than me…

The shearing capital of the world

From there we headed to Pureora Forest Park, a site Rose had been advised to visit for some birds. We took a couple day hikes and then stayed a night in her tent… and woke up to frost. Let’s just say neither of us slept that well since her tent is not exactly a 4 season tent. NZ’s winters may not be like Michigan’s or Alaska’s, but it was still cold to wake up to frost!

We wanted to do an overnight tramp, and the 9K tramp to the Waihaha Hut seemed like a reasonable option.

Rockin’ the Xtra Tufs

Rose heard there was a chance to see the elusive whio (blue duck), a bird that lives along swift rivers and is apparently quite difficult to see. Even though the weather report wasn’t fantastic, off we tramped down the track. We knew the Waihaha Hut was our destination, so we figured we’d be able to dry off a fair bit there.

NZ is big on tramping to backcountry huts rather than staying in tents. I had some doubts about huts, but they’re rather amazing! Our first tramp was to a category 3 hut, meaning we weren’t expecting the works. To our delight, we arrived to a hut with a fire already going in the wood stove + coals to keep the fire warm all night. 3 middle age people were there and boasted about their tramping time, which was shorter than ours. To be fair, we’re not from here and were not rushing to set records. It was nice to not have to get a fire going. They also already had hot water we could use! This hut was very posh for our first, complete with extra food, pots and pans, and coal for the stove. Usually huts have no food or dishes, but apparently school groups use this one frequently and yet the price wasn’t bumped up. We didn’t mind!

Rose with the rain of the Waihaha Hut!

No blue duck sightings on that tramp, but we did hear them as we walked. Next we headed to Turangi to dry out and decide what was next. We got some advice to head to the Tongariro region for some tramping. Attempt #1 failed because the weather report we were given was not at all accurate for the park. We drove there to find snow and get odd looks from the woman behind the visitors’ center desk when we told her what we were thinking of doing. Since the volcanoes were utterly impossible to see in the conditions, we canned the idea of hiking to the Waihohonu Hut and decided to take a day tramp on the Silica Rapids walk. We had given a German guy a ride to the park, and he joined us.

As you can see in the second photo, I was rather thrilled to find snow. I hadn’t expected to find any during our time off! I felt so much more at home as soon as we encountered snow on the road.

The snow of the Silica Rapids walk

Here’s the snowman friend I found

After hemming and hawing over what to do the next day – trust the weather to clear and hold as predicted for 36 hours or head to a new destination – we decided to give the tramp to Waihohonu a shot. Finally, on my 4^th chance to see the “ooh, aah, eeh!” region of the volcanoes… it was clear! Mount Doom was visible!

The clouds slowly cleared throughout the day, and we got awesome views of both Mount Ngauruhoe (see why it’s easier to call it Mt. Doom?) and Mount Ruapehu. Luckily for me, Rose also has a Nikon DSLR and had no problems with stopping to capture far too many photos. The “hut” was pretty much brand new and is one of the Great Walk Huts. In the peak season, it costs ~$35 to stay there. With a backcountry hut pass in the off-season, it’s $15. (We got hut passes, and they are cost-effective.) Yes, Rose and I had that entire hut to ourselves! It has gas cookers, solar lighting (once it’s dark out), and a wood stove! What happened to “roughing it?”

The slopes of Mount Doom…

Really, DOC? I couldn’t tell.

The Waihohonu “hut”

A view from inside Waihohonu. Not bad!

Lower Tama Lake and Mount Ngauruhoe

Following our adventure on the slopes of Mount Doom, we headed north to Taupo and then east over to Lake Tutira and Boundary Stream Reserve, a mainland island with intense pest eradication measures. We saw some of the birds Rose was hoping for, but not the kokako. 😦

We drove north from Wairoa to Te Urewera National Park, home of Lake Waikaremoana, one of the North Island’s 2 Great Walks. Unfortunately DOC seems to think there is no off-season for that tramp, so the huts and campsites were full price. I may do that tramp later because the lake itself is pretty awesome… and full of freshwater. Not to mention the cliffs are relatively epic! (a little like the Cliffs of Insanity)

Cliffs at Lake Waikaremoana

A drive through Te Urewera did bring us to a nice tramp to Lake Waikareiti. Rose and I agreed it probably would have been more special if we had gone swimming or been able to rent one of the rowboats. As it was, the lake was pretty and is one of those cool lakes that has an island with a lake with an island in it.

The road through Te Urewera is technically a state highway, but the pavement does not stretch very far. We’ve learned NZ randomly has stretches of pavement that lead to stretches of gravel… that lead to stretches of pavement. We don’t get it either, but it makes for some good laughs when you have those bits in the course of 5K with no clear reason why!

The road north of Te Urewera is apparently one of the least visited areas of NZ. It’s a typical gravel, narrow, winding road that goes through the mountains and hills before popping out in Murupara. I let Rose have her first go at driving in NZ on that road.  We took it to Whirinaki Forest Park for a short tramp.

I’m not sure if I’m used to AK’s glacially fed rivers or what, but the water of Whirinaki River was beautiful! It seemed to glisten with that beautiful aqua color, and I could see the river’s rocky bottom. The track followed the river quite a bit, keeping me captivated the whole way.

Rose was equally captivated by the water, but she was watching the banks and rocks for blue ducks. All of our looking paid off as we saw 2 blue duck in the middle of the river! Unfortunately, somehow both of my DSLR batteries were dead, meaning I only got lousy pictures of the birds. Oh well, better than nothing? (I was pretty upset at the time. I guess it’s a lesson learned.)

Here’s my abysmal photo of 2 blue ducks

Here’s the Whirinaki Hut when we arrived…

Whirinaki Hut

And the next morning…

🙂

Yes, I was a giddy little kid when I woke up and went out to the longdrop to discover it had snowed overnight. If the firewood hadn’t been wet, Rose and I would have curled up with tea and hot chocolate, sat by the stove, and watched the snow all morning. Unfortunately that wasn’t possible and the floor was COLD, so we moved on.

When we finished up that tramp, we headed to Rotorua before taking a detour south to pick up Rose’s car. We dropped my car at Sarah’s in Palmy and then headed north to get back to our lovely incubating kiwi.

Now that was back in August. Since then we’ve had our 2 weeks on the island, been off for another 2 weeks, had another 2 weeks on the island, and are now halfway through another break. Yep, I’m a slacker. NZ is also horrible for internet access! This update courtesy of the internet at my WWOOF hosts.

Read Full Post »