9. Ohauora – Mangawaiiti (WRJ 4)

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…

8. Whakahoro – Ohauora (WRJ 3)

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…


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