Tuesday, February 12: Very cloudy to begin with, some drizzle, later changeable & somewhat warmer
Arawa Lodge, 43 Arawa St, Ohakune 4625 (airbnb, $50.8)
I was awake from about 5:00 onwards and got out of bed just before the alarm rang at 6:00. Not an eardrum bursting experience, but will do just in case I snooze off. Turning the thing off seemed to require going through the whole procedure.
No one else was up, although eventually Adam did make an appearance. I was concentrated on finishing the liquids, the yoghurt and the toast, and when that was done, the rest of the stuff had to be packed into the suitcase and the large backpack. I was wearing the boots today, but the shopping of the last couple of days made up for the space saved. Anyway an elephant was required again, but it all went very quickly and I was all set @ 7:15, waited around for a while and then decided to push off for the bus.
Caught one of the additional lines (774/775) this morning, so more along the lines of 7:26 instead of 7:33 as planned; in town @ 7:40 and at the central bus station at 8:00 (only 1 km, but with all the weight & waiting for green lights it took a little longer).
One fellow passenger was also there and he proceeded to chew my ear off for the next half hour. He being softly spoken, the construction across the road, and my gradual loss of hearing meant that I understood almost nothing of what he was going on about. Anyway around 8:30 the bus started loading (and I was on the manifest today) so my suitcase disappeared into the hold and I donned the earphones of the ipod and took up residence in one of the front rows to at least enjoy the view.
We did take in quite a number of stops today, but still had a quarter-hour break in Hamilton which I used to buy a mains USB charger from Noel Leeming who had double USB ported versions for $14. It had occurred to me that I needed the device in the Blue Duck on Friday to charge the batteries for the gimbal. A bit of construction work along the way and a detour into Waitomo meant that we arrived in Taumarunui just after 2:00 and had only twenty minutes for the lunch break (I had made a couple of sandwiches with the cabanos yesterday evening, and there was an apple).
Slide Show
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Then through to National Park where my podcasts came to an end, and Ohakune. This place (independent hostel) was not hard to find, although it is not on the main street, and I was greeted by Jo & shown my room. Some musical chairs among the shops in town but everything else eminently memorable.
On the bus I had had an opportunity to think through the missing COM ports problem. It didn’t make much sense to return to Auckland after here just to see if Rayna’s machine might (or not) be able to read the logger. Instead I thought I might have a better chance of finding some computer whizzbang in Whanganui, possibly before I even get there so that he could be prepared with my software. Aim would be to read the data, download and secure it, then delete it from the device so that I can record some more tracks. If I don’t get it to work on my own.
Once I had unpacked a few things & got the final battery charging going I went into town to make myself known again at Yeti (they had no up to date copy of the Whitewater book/let), then to the i-site (they had a very photo intensive & expensive book – $40 – but the only practical information was a couple of maps with unnumbered rapids – more than useless, no guiding information), but some advice on where to look, that the taxi was on holiday & to see if Gavin or Dempsey’s could take me up to the Round the Mountain Track, and that anticlockwise would be the better path to take. On the way back to the hostel stopped off for some beer & OJ and to look at a couple of menus.
Got the computer running, chatted with Rayna briefly about my new solution, then tried to get a few tips from airbnb about where to eat (not really findable), and sent Nadia a message. Eventually found the Blind Finch Hambugeria, 29 Goldfinch St, Ohakune 4625, and took off round the corner for the evening meal, an Aotearoa burger, small on a wholemeal bun with a serving for fries for $18. Fries were from high quality potatoes in their skins, but a bit fish’n’chip-shop soggy, and the burger was quite reasonable. Wonder if I will have the guts to order a big one when I get back. Oh, and I was on the menu, too, at least for one sandfly who bit me on the finger. Plenty of other folk around in shorts and otherwise bare skin, don’t know why my pinkie was chosen.
Started planning for getting onto the Trains Track.
