July 2019 – Returning to Te Ika-a-Māui

22. Trains – Puteore (TMM 2)

Saturday, March 2: Sunny throughout, one or two low clouds

Tramping: 18.4 km

Puteore Hut (Doc, $10)

Around midnight I woke to what I thought were human voices. Didn’t think that the track was getting to me that quickly, not that I was dreaming. Got up to see what was up, and two young hunters, Lars and Jason had arrived and, seeing my boots hung up at the entrance, were having a drink before deciding on further action.

I ushered them into the hut, pushed all of my gear aside to make room for them, and they dumped their sleeping bags on the upper deck and asked whether they could bring their weapons in, unloaded, of course. With that out of the way, there was also a 24 pack of some RTD plonked on the table, the partaking of which I negated. They had started from the road end at around 7:00 and done most of the track in the dark, with Jason unable to use his headlamp because it had been switched on accidentally in their car and the batteries had run out. With those formalities out of the way we all retired to bed and slept. Read more…

21. Waitotara Road End – Trains Hut (TMM 1)

Friday, March 1: A bit cold to begin with but soon becoming warm & sunny

Tramping: 13.2 km

Trains Hut (Doc, $10)

Sleep was very intermittent last night and I was up way before 7:30. The proximity to the highway was not helpful. Anyhow I had plenty of time for breakfast (cereal, toast, coffee, and two cans of L&P in the fridge), took out some rubbish, packed my stuff together (hopefully a little better this time) and just after 9:15 went outside to await my chauffeur.

He – Dave – was there pretty much on the dot of 9:30. Among other things he had been a fire investigator with the voluntary fire brigade, which, of course, was right up my skeptical alley. And Howard had been right: He was the guy with the “golf carts on rails,” which I could make no sense of yesterday evening. Read more…

20. Whanganui – Manutahi

Thursday, February 28: A sprinkle of rain in the morning, becoming fine & sunny, wind a little cooler

Howard & Catherine’s (airbnb, $40.6)

The place was pretty full last night with the German couple (Timo & Chris) in the one room, and a woman in the other. My breakfast was the usual two helpings of cereal followed by eggs & cheese on toast, then the question of packing had to be addressed. There were also two painters present today who were sanding and painting the right side entrance so to collect my washing I went through the front door. Everything was moderately dry.

Managed to pack everything up and vacate the room before 11:00. To fill out the time until we were to be picked up for the bus I decided to have a look at what RawTherapee will be doing to the pictures. The aim here was to get the largest sized image out of the RAW file, without borders, and what level of preprocessing would it be reasonable to have it do. Read more…

19. Whanganui

Wednesday, February 27: A bit overcast to begin with, but warm, cloud becoming lighter in the course of the day

Dave’s/Brennagh’s

After the excitement of yesterday, today was a bit of a day for odds and ends. I set up VirtualDub to do a run through of a timelapse sequence – in the end it didn’t work particularly well. The Play_0 button doesn’t seem to do anything, and even downsizing the image was not really effective, as the exclusion zone didn’t seem to work. Put a couple of minutes together for Rayna to look at, though.

First shopping stop was Mitre 10 for a new gas bottle (will use up the old one on this trip and see how far I get with the new one). That was quite a hike across town. Next stop was the supermarket. Will be trying out a couple of new muesli bars this time, as well as some cheaper dried peas which will take 8-10 minutes and will be cooked with the rice. A dollar store yielded an ice-cube tray, which will be needed later for the egg cooking. Lost my shopping list somewhere after shopping, and that had the Whanganui River Adventures’ phone number on it, who I had been meaning to call to confirm that they will be picking me up, giving me a bunk bed and have something to sell me to eat. Read more…

18. Whanganui

Tuesday, February 26: Still a bit cold but almost sunshine pure today

Dave’s/Brennagh’s

Had to bite the bullet today and soon after breakfast I went around to the hunting place, but their two civilian backpacks were rather heavy even empty and the camo ones didn’t really come into question. Then it was off to Rel Computer Solutions (144A Victoria Ave) where the guy gave me the advice of resetting the laptop to a restore point by holding down the shift key during start up (didn’t work), and then to Kathmandu who had a 40 L, reasonably light (1.9 kg) pack, one compartment only, for $300, with the possibility of getting 40% off if I complained too much. Then I paid a seamstress (Sue’s) a visit and she assured me that if she could get the seam under her machine she would repair the current pack. With that sorted it was time to return & collect the gear to see what could be done. Read more…

17. Whanganui

Monday, February 25: Cooler, sunny with variable cloud

Dave’s/Brennagh’s

A morning for a bit of a sleep-in, if only the Indian gentleman from last night hadn’t been so loud. Anyway, breakfast was a smorgasbord of cereals & toast, coffee and orange juice.

With that out of the way it was time to try to solve the technical problems. First was to make aim for Technoman at 65 Moana Street in the Wanganui East shopping center and a bit of a stroll through town. A couple of shops out there, but nothing too inviting for a meal. The guy on duty couldn’t say much about using a machine with admin rights, but he could plug in the GPS device, just not read any data. I said I would come back tomorrow and later wrote them something on their facebook page, but there doesn’t appear to be much hope. Read more…

16. Mangaturuturu – Wanganui Corner (RMT 4) – Ohakune – Whanganui

Sunday, February 24: Rain overnight, snow on the mountain, clearing to partly cloudy, one hail and rainstorm, otherwise in Whanganui overcast & wet

Tramping: 3.2 km

Dave’s/Brennagh’s (airbnb, $81.3)

We all slept in past 7:00 this morning and I was in no hurry at all, so I let the others pack and leave towards Whakapapa. A bit of sun shone on the new snow on the mountain, and otherwise the day looked promising.

With the others out of the way, I tried to organise my pack a bit better, and when all was in, I swept out the hut. There are pictures on the walls documenting the hut’s construction in the late 50s, and since then one fairly open and bright annex has been added, as well as solar panels and LED lights for the evenings. Read more…

15. Waihohonu – Whakapapa – Mangaturuturu (RMT 3)

Saturday, February 23: Heavy rain overnight, overcast with drizzle in the morning, becoming fine by midday and a bit of sun in the afternoon

Tramping: 34.5 km

Mangaturuturu Hut (Doc, $15)

The party girls had gone on for a bit last night, but eventually even they were subdued and went through our half bunkroom to theirs and were quiet. Not much in the way of snoring and by 6:30 I was ready to get up and have my breakfast served by hut warden Jaime.

I had won the general prize the night before of identifying the bird on the back of the $20 bill (karearea) and had two pancakes with frozen blackberries, chocolate and maple syrup. Trevor had also gotten a prize (for knowing the exact number of Doc huts in the country: 956), as well as the medical professor, Margarete as it was her birthday, and it was all served at 7:00. The rest was packing and by 8:30 I was ready to go and see what Whakapapa had to offer. Read more…

14. Rangipo – Waihohonu (RMT 2)

Friday, February 22: Somewhat cloudy to begin with, becoming showery and, especially in exposed areas, windy

Tramping: 13.3 km

Waihohonu Hut (Doc, Great Walks, $36)

Sleep was unusually fragmented, possibly because the pillow kept on deflating. There was some snoring from the other two male inhabitants but it was survivable, possibly due to the high winds that were buffeting the hut./p>

It was also quite a bright night because of the full moon. Around dawn I was awake for the final time and noticed oranges and reds of the impending sunrise, and decided it was good enough for a timelapse. As I set my camera up I was soon joined by Trevor & then Jeff & Rachael, and it really was only 6:30. Read more…