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.
Yes, it was very wet at times, so wet that after a couple of hours of it not raining, it seemed like something was awry. There was one gigantic storm that blew the water back up the Wairere Falls near Te Aroha and prevented the boats sailing to White Island. But eventually, after a successful last ditch attempt at doing the Coromandel Walkway, the boats sailed again and I was on one of them, and I shot 780 photos of the volcano, much to the exasperation of the tour guides.
Mountains were climbed: Pirongia near Waitomo, Mt Holdsworth in the Tararuas. The Pinnacles at Kauaeranga required a pretty vertical ascent, up ladders and over rungs set in the rockface. Fossils were found at Deliverance Cove and in the creek bed of the other Pinnacles on Palliser Bay. The sunsets at Coromandel and Sunset Beach were shot in hand-timed time lapse series. I even felt reminded of the old Palm Cove when driving from Coro to Thames. I walked the Waikaremoana Great Walk with two pediatricians from LA, Janice and Trish, who’d booked their places months in advance, and Henry and Pauline from Gisborne, on an otherwise very empty track. Saw Venus in daylight and photographed her with her companions Saturn, Mars and Mercury.
I discovered that photographing murals was an adequate task for a rainy day, with Foxton and Carterton providing willing models. Taught a lesson in the Origin of Species at Collegiate School in Wanganui. Held a talk for Skeptics in the Pub in Auckland.
Found that Twin Pines was the motorcamp at the Bay of Islands from 1975, but couldn’t decide which of the two motorcamps at Waitarere was the one we stayed at, both being of suitable vintage.
Useful things. Basket, plastic basin, mats: never included with the van.
One advantage of travelling at this time of the year was that the campers were very cheap. I could afford one that you could stand up in. On really rainy days, the rain leaked in, and I managed to break the electrical socket by hand one morning. Still, a lot of the equipment was never used and the really useful stuff had to be bought.
Even then, there were things that didn’t get done: the Whanganui River Journey and the Tongariro Crossing (two attempts). Cape Brett turned out to be closed for renovations when I tried to get on it, and tried and tried I did. Time ran out for doing the Hillary Trail. And a lot of time was wasted in the first half of the trip just getting the laptop up and running.
