Adventures in lesser known parts of New Zealand’s North Island
Saturday, March 30: Rather cloudy with 20 knot easterly winds on the water, a drop of rain, and a few showers in the afternoon
Kayaking: 10.8 km
Jarrad’s
Wake up call for everyone was 7:30 and our breakfast was rather simple this morning: Muesli with the fruit salad thrown in and milk. Everything had to be packed in again, and the hut swept out as best as possible.
Friday, March 29: Two bursts of rain in the night, overcast during the day, improving in the later afternoon
Kayaking: 12.4 km
Tramping: 1.0 km
Swimming: 400 m
Motukawanui Hut
Apparently everyone snored last night, but the spear fishermen were very quiet when leaving, and we didn’t get up until 7:30.
Breakfast was eggs and bacon on toast followed by the usual fruit salad. The weather was apparently not conducive to a circumnavigation so the plan was to stick to the west coast and try our hands at paddling through channels and into caves so that the helmets came on. Very beautiful, steep coast, caves and channels galore with the tide just returning from low. At one beach we stopped for a cup of tea and a biscuit, and a short time later we stopped fairly close to the north end of the island and continued up to the top of a hill on foot and returned to have lunch of salami, cheese and coleslaw on bread. Read more…
Thursday, March 28: A short burst of rain as a wake up call, overcast for a lot of the day with a bit of sun returning in the afternoon
Kayaking: 25.2 km
Motukawanui Hut (Doc, $15)
It was very dark this morning as we awoke and the rain burst sounded very hard indeed. Breakfast was porridge with muesli and sultanas, followed by fruit salad. I made avail of the French press coffee, which was reasonable. Today everything had to be packed up, as we were departing the hut on a longer stretch along the coast to the Cavalli Islands.
As usual, everything packed much better this time, and I volunteered to sweep, which was accepted. Also everything fit into the boat better, but that was possibly also due to the provisions being exhausted. We took leave of the pigs and set out on our very direct route, all except Ana who was going to reprovision and move the van to rejoin us later. Read more…
Wednesday, March 27: Becoming cloudier during the day, overcast by lunchtime with a stronger north wind
Kayaking: 16.2 km
Tramping: 1.0 km
Lane Cove Cottage
Dawn was just beginning to show around 7:00 and that is when all of us decided to get up. Breakfast was two fried eggs with tomato and mushrooms with a couple of coffees for me, and fruit salad for all at the end.
Then it was time for today’s excursion. The boats basically remained empty except for lunch, and I had my camera and the GPS with me, but they disappeared into the dry bag at a stop just before the heads because I could already see the waves breaking. Pushing off from the shore I scraped a finger on a mussel shell, a scratch which had to be attended to when we were back at the hut. Read more…
Tuesday, March 26: Sunny with a couple of clouds
Kayaking: 9.5 km
Lane Cove Cottage (Doc, $15)
We were all up at around 7:30 and I had everything together fairly quickly and had an opportunity to watch a bit of news on the telly.
Putting all of the stuff into the duffle bag/pack made it feel quite heavy, and it was not that easy to carry as a backpack. I was soon down at Anchorage Motel where we were being picked up from. The other two made an appearance fairly soon and that was followed by the kayakers. Then we were on the road to Kerikeri and Whangaroa Harbour. Read more…
Monday, March 25: Sunny and quite warm
Tramping: 6.5 km
Jarrad’s
Was up bright and early, well before the others and had my breakfast (finally finished off the hiking crackers). After that travel planning was on the agenda. Managed to get a response from the Cell Block in Whangarei and had to decide between a simple room for $45 and the deluxe version for $60. Decided on the latter and sent off my credit card details via SMS. Still have no confirmation, but we’ll take that as it comes.
Still no news from ATHop so I called them and fifteen minutes later the account was set up and I could see the balance down to the cent. Had to use the uni-hannover.de email account to get an email through at all, and even then stuff went into the trash folder. Read more…
Tuesday, February 19: A little cloudy to begin with, becoming fine & hot again, with a few clouds reappearing towards evening
Kayaking: 22.6 km
Arawa Lodge
There really was no great rush for people to get up this morning, but all of them were faster than I was. All of the eggs, salami, crackers, coffee and sugar had been used up, the muesli bars were to follow for lunch. Lent some string to Ines so that she could attach her glasses to something (she had lost one of her contacts), and the string was returned later in the day. I had all of my stuff packed up so that I required only one trip to the boat, and exchanged a word or two with Boyd about my upcoming hike of the Matemateoanga for which he offered me to stay the night @ Tieke. Will try.
I had tried recharging the “dead” batteries with what was left on the powerbank and hoped I had enough power for today, even though they weren’t full. Today’s plan was to get as far as Ngaporo and see what the final rapids might do to the gimbal, have a break there and decide about further deployment. Read more…
Monday, February 18: Cloudy to begin with, becoming hot & sunny
Kayaking: 20.2 km
Walking: 5.2 km
Tieke Kainga Marae (Doc, $32)
I had woken up once at around 1:00 and the one set of AA batteries had been charged completely. I then saw to it that the other set went into the charger. Apart from that, the combination of airbed + leaky pillow worked a small percentage of the time. Even though I was in the sleeping bag it did feel cold, although I myself was quite warm. In any case got some sleep and awoke around 6:30 to birdsong and the humming of wasps.
All the food was gradually disappearing & breakfast was quickly dealt with. Then the long trek with the stuff down to the boat, and getting ready to go. Everything worked as planned and I was quite proud of my start before 9:00. Progress was also quite rapid and I was a little surprised when “The Rock” turned up, complete with a cyclist awaiting his jet boat on top. It was much larger than what I had in memory, and much more daunting. How those dozens of Canadians managed to moor here is beyond imagination. Anyway I wanted to do the right thing and disembark at Mangapurua Stream. Had to find it first, it was perhaps a little further than the 500 m mentioned elsewhere. Anyway I was up the creek, and there was a nice landing place where I didn’t need to tie up the boat. Decided I would do some brackets of the Bridge to Nowhere, that meant dismantling the gimbal & tripod (good practice) and with lunch in the bag I set off first for the landing where I had a chat with the cyclist, and then to the Bridge itself. Quite a long walk, but fun anyway. Went to the lookout and took a couple of shots, then onto the bridge. Shots from either side, then lunch as two couples, one German, the other Belgian, then a whole troop of tourists including our cyclist arrived for their lunch with a tour guide.
Click on the image to stop/start the animation
A couple of brackets from the bridge were taken as well, then I was back along the path to the stream. By the way, the sidetrack between the stream and the main track is marked as closed (under construction) and had two very steep step sections more like ladders that had to be taken backwards on the way down. Noticed the jetboat (source of the tour guide & tourists) moored at the mouth of the stream, then set about getting my equipment working on the boat again. Boat had to be dragged a little way to the river, then I was set to go.
The river here is less vigorous, and the sweeping amphitheaters give way to milder hills. Was overtaken by three jetboats and at the first sight of real farmland (some banks look like they could be or were once used for grazing) Tieke turned up, and I was the first arrival. No sign of anyone present, although cleaning devices for the floor were propped up here and there and all the windows were open. Sent off a spot OK to Gavin, then flicked through some of the pictures. Stability looks good, contrast is quite high, position is also quite good. Dragged all of my stuff up except the tent and at 3:45 claimed a bunk and started today’s chores, which involved airing the sleeping bag, drying some sox and undies, and starting on the diary.
In the meantime the Belgian couple arrived, and bit later the warden, Boyd, who is quite a source of pseudoscientific folklore (Kangen water). Will now see about photographing the faces on the tekoteko before dinner.
More people arrived and Boyd put them all (!) into the dormitories instead of tents, so tents were dried and packed up again. He also provided a powhiri of sorts around 6:00 with little speeches of his own in Te Reo & English, then asked us to contribute a word or two & I took the lead by telling everyone about the birds that I had seen along the way and nearly everyone else followed suite. It was getting quite late for dinner, but mine (rice, instant noodles & tomato for a change) took only twenty minutes and was just as quickly consumed. Chatted away with Manfred and his wife from Zürich and am now fully considering a plan for tomorrow. One set of batteries was marked as “dead” although they must have been full, so the first step apart from boiling water will be to see what happens when I put them into the powerbank again. Then I need a shooting plan and a rapids plan for tomorrow.
Today’s timetable:
| Where | When |
| Leave Mangawaiiti | 8:45 |
| Arrive Mangapurua | 10:45 |
| Arrive Bridge to Nowhere (lunch) | 11:55 |
| Depart Mangapurua | 13:10 |
| Finish @ Tieke Kainga | 15:00 |
Sunday, February 17: Fog very early in the morning lifting to patchy cloud; quite warm & sunny by the afternoon
Kayaking: 22.8 km
Mangawaiiti Campground (Doc, $20)
Sleep was more fragmented last night; don’t quite know why. The pillow has a(nother) hole in it and the mattress is barely comfortable. Went through the stages of lying on the sleeping bag, lying under it, and then finally in it, and just after 6:00 it was bright enough to get up, have breakfast, and get packed, long before Ross & Sasha were up and about.
Technical challenge of the day was to get the camera shooting @ zoom 6 (35 mm/52°), then to get rawopint started. First, the gimbal had to be ready except for the batteries; camera, camera mount & screw ready to go. Second, get into the life jacket and spray skirt. Third, start the camera, set the zoom, switch to rawopint, attach the camera to the gimbal, level. Doing this I discovered that the camera height screw on the gimbal was loose, and had to be tightened. Now the tricky part: If the boat is level on the ground the next stage can be done there, otherwise the boat has to be put into the water. Next, put the batteries into the gimbal, activate it and switch to “follow” mode, & finally start the camera shooting. Today’s shooting was @ M size to fit more onto the card. Read more…
Saturday, February 16: The valley and surrounds were covered in fog which soon lifted; a couple of clouds, otherwise hot & sunny, stronger easterlies
Kayaking: 25.8 km
Ohauora Campiste (Doc, $20)
It seemed like no one wanted to go to bed last night until I suggested closing the windows to the bunkroom, then we were all tucked in for what was going to be a cold night after all.
And no one seemed willing to get up until it was well & truly light after 7:00. I started boiling some water then taking some photos of the fog enshrouded environs. Within a while all were up and about, Geraint & Paulina were going to call it a day because of Geraint’s cold, Kikki and Julian wanted breakfast in the Blue Duck Café. When you think of it, $4 for a shower, $20 for the meal and whatever it was that breakfast cost, it was a fairly good deal. Read more…
