Trains Track – 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…

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…

Kia Ora!

Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to another journey to the other side of the planet.

This time it’s the North Island, and the dates are February 9 – April 7, 2019.

Whanganui River Journey, February, 2015, just after starting

There is still unfinished business: The Whanganui River Journey still has to be filmed after the loss of the camera on the last trip (2015). And while in Ohakune, there’s plenty to do, and escape the crowds at the same time. Why not the Round the Mountain Track this time, instead of the Tongariro Northern Circuit? And perhaps shoot some views of Ruapehu in the sunset or sunrise. Read more…