Category Archives: Tramping

6. Auckland – Christchurch

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Matt T., Manning Place, Christchurch, via airbnb
Friday, February 8: Auckland: Warm and fairly sunny
Christchurch: Pretty much the same, a bit cooler

I was up as the first one this morning and got through the bathroom before everyone else. While the others were having breakfast, I finished my packing, and when I saw I. coming down I went up and took my leave of Chinara, who was very much hugs this morning.

Then it was time for my breakfast, washing up and doing the final checks. Took a couple of photographs from the deck and one of the house but noticed that I had packed the wrong camera into the rucksack. Anyhow, soon after that I was on my way to the bus stop which I reached in very good time for the first bus that I had envisaged. Continue reading →

4. Auckland

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Chinara’s
Wednesday, February 6: A little cold at first, but very sunny with clear skies
GPS Track
Happy Trampers. Auckland Guided Hikers’ Meetup, at Huia

Happy Trampers. Auckland Guided Hikers’ Meetup, at Huia

Up very early for the hike but Camila was up even earlier so she was through with breakfast almost before I started. Made my lunch and packed some bits of apple and a banana as my hiking provisions and was down at the intersection at 8:20. Mike turned up about ten minutes later and we were fairly quickly in Huia for the hike. Quite friendly bloke about my age, and meeting up with the other people showed that all ages were present. A brief round of introductions followed and then the tour leader Stephen had a couple of words to say about the hike. This was to be a bush bash, a wild hike through the undergrowth, with occasional getting lost. Continue reading →

3. Auckland

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Chinara’s
Tuesday, February 5: Sunny with a few clouds and very windy
GPS Track
Estuary, Le Roys Bush

Estuary, Le Roys Bush

Chinara had gotten into her mind to buy a Canon 450D for $100 and wanted to pick me up around lunchtime and see if the camera was performing OK so I had pretty much a free morning. Spotted a monarch braving the winds and got the camera running and succeeded in taking a few shots. As I was getting hungry I made avail of one of the apples. Continue reading →

Lost soles

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Before and after. Boot on the right after 3400 km.

Before and after. Boot on the right after 3400 km.

Ah, boots! Can’t do anything without ’em, can’t do anything with ’em.

A long time ago I had an old pair of hiking boots that were well past their prime and I seemed to have gained a couple of blisters from them and lost a couple of toenails in return on their last journey. A mate of mine, Chris Thompson, on hearing of my mishap, had bought a pair of boots that were too small for him, but he reckoned they might be OK for me, so in the style of we’re all one big family, he made me a present of them, when it turned out that they were a good fit. Continue reading →

Kiwi III, 2010

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Sunset at Sunset Beach, 2010 (bracket of 47 exposures)

Sunset at Sunset Beach, 2010 (bracket of 47 exposures)

On the success of Kiwi II, I decided that a trip in early spring (August – October) might be the next goal, at least to explore the North Island more fully. I wanted to go to White Island, Cape Reinga, and do the remaining NI Great Walks. Auckland never seems to be cold, and while it was a little wet… It also very much brought back the Augusts and Septembers of fallen-in-love. Continue reading →

GPS

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Getting from A to B on your own two feet may be becoming a lost art. Not just being able to follow a track and persevere when you think you are lost, but also crunching the kms, one after the other, to reach a distant goal. At the end, you’ll want to know where you’ve been, how far you’ve walked and what time you did it in. Continue reading →

Ticketing 2

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Hen’s teeth. Screenshot from Jan 17, showing three (!) free places on the Milford. Ready, set, go!

Hen’s teeth. Screenshot from Jan 17, showing three (!) free places on the Milford. Ready, set, go!

Well, it turned out opodo had its disadvantages after all. As I suspected, there was no Rail&Fly for the return leg; half an hour of telephone queue was necessary to order one, with a special “late fee” added. All in all, R&F might have advantages for the traveller and the environment, but in practice it sucks massively, and a discounted train ticket for the journey to Frankfurt and an ordinary ticket for the return are not much more expensive. As some research on opodo’s booking system shows, R&F can be automatically booked for a “simple” return flight, but as soon as there is a leg outside Germany (as in a Y-flight), R&F is no longer available for subsequent legs, even if they do end here. Hey, no worries, the internet was only invented yesterday, right? Continue reading →

Kiwi II, 2009

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Weka dietary education: Milford Track

The second journey in the late summer of 2009 started with my arrival in Auckland on Sunday, February 1. After picking up a small camper, a Toyota Lucinda, which was named “Juicy Lucy”, I visited my school friend Tom and his family, then it was by way of Kawhia to New Plymouth where I made my first attempt at climbing Egmont. A couple of nights at the old motorcamp in Stratford to discover the Forgotten World and make a second – still unsuccessful – attempt at Egmont from the south and then on to Wanganui and Waikanae to visit Don and Sally Matheson who were giving me their holiday house for a couple of days in March. Continue reading →

Playing with Food

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Cooker

Companions true

Long distance tramping is always challenging when it comes to balancing taking everything that you need with taking only what you need. I have a couple of formulas that I use to calculate how much food I need to take, but there is a more pressing question when most of the food you take is dehydrated in nature: How much fuel do you need to carry to cook it. My favourites of rice, instant noodles and surprise peas still need to be softened for their nutritional value to become available. Continue reading →

Green Light

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Fern

Koru – the fern leaf spiral

The go-ahead for the new adventure came late last week, after a couple of weeks of prelegal danse macabre. Anyhow, it’s there now, and the final preparations can begin in earnest.

For begun they have well before this time last year, when I was originally planning this trip. There have been plans and preparations, and prices to compare and check again. One of the most comprehensive questions covered was that of photography, although that was no longer a question of what camera to take, but rather how to deal with all of the eventualities that hacking the current set of three cameras has brought with it. Continue reading →