{"id":819,"date":"2015-05-29T13:00:38","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skeptic.de\/blog\/kv\/?p=819"},"modified":"2016-10-27T09:50:41","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T08:50:41","slug":"30-rotorua-lake-tarawera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/?p=819","title":{"rendered":"30. Rotorua: Lake Tarawera"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5 class=\"weather\">Thursday, March 12: Rain at first, then somewhat drier, rain again in the evening<\/h5>\n<h4 class=\"sport\">Tramping: Tarawera Trail, 13.4 km<\/h4>\n<h4 class=\"acco\">Astray (BBH, $37 + $3)<\/h4>\n<h4 class=\"page_index\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#attachment_1820\">Topo<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#attachment_1831\">GPS<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/h4>\n<p class=\"opener\">The day wasn\u2019t turning out so well for a tramp, but I decided on going ahead with it anyway. By about 9:30 the car was packed and ready to go, and I was a the car park for the trail by about 10:00. The forecast had been for showers but it was coming down in a constant stream.<\/p>\n<p>I had my full-length trousers and the raincoat on right from the beginning. The path is rather narrow and the wet plants on either side were hanging over the track and transferring water first to the pants and then to the sox and boots. I made brief stops every now and then and at the second picnic place it had virtually stopped raining so I stopped for my two rounds of sandwiches and mandarine for lunch. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_1820\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1820\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/09\/Tarawera-Trail.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/09\/Tarawera-Trail-300x225.png\" alt=\"Great Walk in waiting?\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1820\" srcset=\"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/09\/Tarawera-Trail-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/09\/Tarawera-Trail.png 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1820\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Great Walk in waiting? [download id=\"1685\"]<\/figcaption><\/figure>Not many distant views to be had, but some nice large rocks, and many a valley with fern trees, some quite distinctive and large. I\u2019m not sure whether this would make this track a \u201cGreat Walk\u201d, but if it went over the mountain or had a little more thermal area than the one Hot Water Beach, then I suppose it could.<\/p>\n<p>I was up over the main climb \u2013 as with most of the time today \u2013 just under the time advertised and was down at said Hot Water Beach by about 1:30. The water in the lake along the beach was already quite warm; I stripped off and went in, but the deeper I went the cooler it became. I went along to the \u201cswimming pool\u201d at the estuary of the hot spring and nearly burnt my feet \u2013 strange sensation, couldn\u2019t quite work out what was happening at first, because the sensation was one of pain rather than heat initially. Anyway, it was very hot in the \u201cswimming pool\u201d and the water had to be mixed around; even the pebbles I was sitting on were hot, and I didn\u2019t remain in for very long.<\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_809\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-809\" style=\"width: 474px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/05\/Tarawera-Hot-Water-Beach.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/05\/Tarawera-Hot-Water-Beach-1024x164.jpg\" alt=\"Tarawera Hot Water Beach\" width=\"474\" height=\"76\" class=\"size-large wp-image-809\" srcset=\"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/05\/Tarawera-Hot-Water-Beach-1024x164.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/05\/Tarawera-Hot-Water-Beach-300x48.jpg 300w, https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/05\/Tarawera-Hot-Water-Beach.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-809\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lake Tarawera, with Hot Water Beach on the left, Mt Tarawera to the right, exposure bracketed panorama<\/figcaption><\/figure>There was a group of people here who had just come in on a motor boat. They were staying in a couple of tents, and also had a Canadian canoe parked on the beach. They invited me for a cuppa while I waited for my water taxi. I mistook them for a family at first, but am at a loss to say how they got together. Eventually some more of them turned up in a sea kayak and a further canoe, and I went down to the beach to take some photos, bracketed panoramas and time lapses.<\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_1917\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1917\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/10\/0312-Tarawera-Trail_gnd.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/10\/0312-Tarawera-Trail_gnd-300x207.png\" alt=\"Great Walk in waiting?\" width=\"300\" height=\"207\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1917\" srcset=\"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/10\/0312-Tarawera-Trail_gnd-300x207.png 300w, https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/10\/0312-Tarawera-Trail_gnd-768x530.png 768w, https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/10\/0312-Tarawera-Trail_gnd-1024x707.png 1024w, https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/10\/0312-Tarawera-Trail_gnd.png 1329w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1917\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Great Walk in waiting? [download id=\"1822\"]<\/figcaption><\/figure>All of that party were then ferried away in the speed boat to another part of the lake. By now my water taxi was late and I mistook the returning boat for it; then another boat with a young family turned up for a swim; finally a couple in another speed boat.<\/p>\n<p>By now I was debating whether to trigger the spot. It was already too late to walk back and retrieve the car from the car park (it would be locked by the time I got back). Chris, the husband of the last couple to return had tried getting cell phone coverage to call the water taxi company whose telephone number was prominently displayed on the beach but couldn\u2019t find anything; at this point I decided that the spot could be triggered as an orange alert (\u201cHelp\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>It took some time for the alerted crew to get their act together; in that time Chris and Viv Profit had consulted with each other and decided to offer me a lift back; ostensibly Chris needed some more fuel for a triple trip; I then went back to sending a green OK signal once he had decided to go. Back on land he drove me to the car park and waited until my car actually started. He declined my offer of contributing towards his fuel costs. Decent bloke!<\/p>\n<p>Back here I decided I needed to get sorted quickly and found a room at the Astray, had my pizza, emailed Michael and was happy that my actions were justified. He had seen that I was in the middle of nowhere, called the police who imagined that I would be waiting for a water taxi, and they were in the middle of organising something when my OK signal came from the surface of the lake. Michael correctly interpreted this as my being on my way to safety and further action was nullified.<\/p>\n<p>Now to the pictures.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vg07.met.vgwort.de\/na\/f5b06051a5af4150b25a190da4c38843\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" alt=\"No 1\"><script>blog_id = 'K5_30';<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thursday, March 12: Rain at first, then somewhat drier, rain again in the evening Tramping: Tarawera Trail, 13.4 km Astray (BBH, $37 + $3) Topo GPS The day wasn\u2019t turning out so well for a tramp, but I decided on going ahead with it anyway. By about 9:30 the car was packed and ready to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/?p=819\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">30. Rotorua: Lake Tarawera<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,52,5,409,6,3],"tags":[267,265,209,266],"class_list":["post-819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gps-tracks","category-new-zealand","category-photography","category-topo-map","category-tramping","category-travel-planning","tag-chris-viv-profit","tag-lake-tarawera","tag-rotorua","tag-spot-tracker"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=819"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2163,"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions\/2163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leetraynor.com\/blog.multi\/kiwi5\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}