Otanewainuku Summit Track

Here’s a few photos from the walk that Linda, Robyn, Fiona, Janice and I did today.  It was a beautiful bush walk, we saw robins, tomtits, fantails, and afterwards while we had a hot drink and bikkies, we chatted to 84 year old local man Jim Pendergrast who is one of several volunteers who look after the reserve carpark – a neighbourhood watch operation. He was a fount of knowledge and stories about the kiwi and kokako that are now back in the bush as a result of the work of the Otanewainuku Kiwi Trust.   A lovely afternoon.
Lee

At the summit

North Island Robin sitting on branch near track

Some Options for 2011

Hi everyone

Below are some suggestions of trips for this year. Email me your ideas and I’ll add them to the list.  What’s below is a brief summary. If you want more details click here: Options for Omokoroa Escapees 2011 long version for a fuller document with descriptions of each tramp (from DoC).

Suggestions for trips 2011

1. Taupo – day walk, then coffee, and a bit of shopping, then Craters of the Moon if time.

2.       Kaimai Forest Park – day walks. Any of the following:

Otanewainuku (there are three options here):

• Summit Track :  1 hr 30 min return
• Rimu Loop Walk: 45 min return
• Mountain Road to Whataroa Waterfall 60 min one way

Ananui Falls – Kaimai Forest Park

4 hours return, 10 km. Start: Woodlands Road (10 mins north of Katikati)

Lindemann Loop Track – Kaimai Forest Park

5 hours return. Start: Lindemann Road (just north of Katikati)

This is uphill one way, downhill the other!

(I’ve done this tramp with the boys, but we did it as an overnighter (camped at a shelter).

Sentinel Track – Kaimai Forest Park

5 hours return, 2.7 km one way. Start: Hot Springs Road. Might be a toughie.

Kauri Grove Track – Kaimai Forest Park

40 mins return. Start: Hot Springs Road

Or Tuahu Kauri Track – Kaimai Forest Park

50     mins return. Start : Hot Springs Road

3. Te Rereatuakahia Hut * – overnight tramp to a hut in Kaimai Forest park

Time: 7 hr return

Distance: 14 km

Getting there Located on Hot Springs Road, off SH 2 (just south of Katikati).

*Alternatively we could do the tramp to the Waitawheta Hut again (nicer hut)

4. Lake Waikareiti – Urewera National Park – weekend trip

This is the trip we planned to do in May 2010, but was rained off.  I suggest if we do this trip, that because of the distance to travel, we leave late on a Friday afternoon, stay the night at the Waikaremoana Camping Ground, and do the tramp on Saturday, stay in the hut, and tramp out Sunday.

Easy to moderate walk. 4 hours one way (or 1 hour, then row across lake) to Sandy Bay Hut.

Cost: $15 for hut fee, petrol, food.

5. Mt. Pirongia – 1 day or 2 day trip.

There are various routes to the summit. These include:

Tahuanui Track

4 to 5 hours to summit. Easiest option, but still some steep bits.

Tirohanga Track

3 to 5 hours to summit. Shortest option but harder.

Hihikiwi Track (new track, part of Te Araroa Trail)

4 to 6 hours to summit. This starts on the souther side of the mountain so may take longer to travel there from Tauranga. Might be worth considering though.

We can ask someone from DoC which route they would recommend for us.

If we take 2 days we can stay in the Pahautea Hut, near the summit.

6. Disc Golf day

 

Waihaha Trip Report

Well it’s been a while since we did this trip,  but thought I’d do a quick report anyway. Let’s see what I can remember.

Four of us did this this trip on 21, 22 August – Fiona, Linda, Janice and me.

Thanks to Linda’s trusty chariot we travelled together to our destination on the eastern side of the Pureora Forest.  We planned to tramp into the 10 bunk Waihaha Hut.

We were all a bit (litote) freaked out upon arriving at the track carpark to see another large chariot had just arrived and was in the process of disembarking its passengers. Some were already milling around the vehicle, but others were still emerging.  From memory there were 16 people altogether. The Rotorua Tramping Club!

It isn’t possible to book a place in the back country huts – you just pay for a hut pass, and take your luck! It seems ours had just run out.  As our group is not that used to staying overnight in DoC huts in the middle of nowhere, and not all of us had sleeping mats,  we were a bit anxious about where we would sleep!

We briefly deliberated about whether to turn back, but as we had come this far, and it is always such an effort to get together and do these trips, we decided to continue.

The weather was a bit damp – just light drizzle I think. The bush was beautiful, the Waihaha river delightful, and the frost flats interesting. So the walk in was wonderful, although we had the constant niggle about the sleeping arrangements, which made us forge ahead a bit faster than we needed to – I think we were trying to keep ahead of as many of the other group as possible. Of course seasoned trampers will be laughing at this, as  New Zealand back country hut culture is to  share resources and space to ensure everyone has a comfy place to place their head.  And this is of course, what happened.

We had a great time at the hut, despite the constant drizzle. We connected with some of the women from the Rotorua Tramping Club who were another decade older than us – but still fit and active.  We saw ourselves in 10 years time.  AND we all had a comfy place to sleep – mine was on triple sleeping mats under the table! The hut was comfortable, and in fact too warm once the wood burner was going, and with 22 bodies inside!

The walk out the next day was equally wonderful. We drove to Taupo, and Fiona directed us to a natural hot pool where we had the most blissful soak ever. Followed by coffee at the Taupo Bungy Cafe, where we watched the jumpers before heading home.

A brilliant weekend all told.

Lee

UCAN2 and OE Planning 2011

Hi team,

UCAN2

Who wants to join me in doing this  event at the Mount on Sunday 13 February 2011?  There are various options including short tri, long tri, short and long duathlons, and fun walks of 3, 5.5 or 10k. Another option is to do the short or long tri as a team. Robyn  Janice and I did this last year, and it was lots of fun! Janice did the 300 m swim, Robyn did the 8.5 k cycle, and I did the 3 k shuffle – ha ha.

I’m planning on doing the short tri this year.

If you don’t want to do the tri or duathlon, you could do one of the fun walks?

After we’ve finished we could have a coffee at one of the nearby cafes before the spot prizes.

We have 6 weeks to train. Maybe we could get together over at the Mount or elsewhere occasionally for walks/swims or cycles?

Here’s a link for all the details:
Ucan2

There is also another UCAN2 tri on 5  March if you are keen.

Other OE events for 2011:

I’ve been gathering a few options for us, and will get back to you soon about this.  And we’ll definitely have to do more disc golf I reckon!

Do you have any ideas for what we can do? Let me know and i will compile all the info.
Let me know what you think about the UCAN 2.

I’ve sent all this info out in an email as well.

Cheers

Lee XXXXXXX

Rapurapu Track trip report

This is a beautiful track in  the Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park. The track begins about 3.5 km from the Kaimai summit on the Waikato side. It took us 1 hour 15 mins to reach the stunning Kauri trees at the end of the track.  So that makes a 3 hour return trip.  We did the walk on Sunday 27 June after a period of rain, so the Rapurapu stream was quite high. A highlight of the walk is the numerous crossings (7 one way, so 14 altogether) over the stream. Lots of fun.  We discovered Chris was totally in her element – a natural river crossing gal! The water was mostly only at knee height -but  sometimes a bit higher. This would be a fantastic walk to do in the summer and  take advantage of the beautiful swimming holes. It drizzled a bit throughout the walk, but we were prepared with our winter woolies and rain coats. Janice, Robyn, Fiona, Chris and Lee did this walk. We then met up with Steph and Debbie at Columbus Cafe in Bethlehem for hot drinks and lunch…and texted Linda so we were all involved! A very fun morning!

Waihaha Hut Tramp – August

Our next trip is an  Winter overnight tramp to the Waihaha Hut in the Pureora Forest.

Time: 3 hr to hut/campsite
“The track follows the Waihaha River through shrubland before entering dense podocarp forest. The Waihaha Hut is in a clearing overlooking the river where the Waihaha Track meets the Hauhungaroa Track (Department of Conservation).”

The tramper.co.nz website has some good photos of the hut.

3 hours drive from Tauranga to carpark. Carpark to hut – 3 hours.

Cost $5 for back country hut fee, petrol, and food.

Lake Wakareiti trip and Pink Ribbon breakfast

Hi again fellow escapees, Time is marching on and it is now only four weeks until our next escape into the bush (Lake Waikareiti in May). I hope you are all looking forward to it, I suggest you have a look at the DOC website www.doc.govt.nz and familiarise yourself with the type of bush & track we are heading for. The hut is Sandy Bay Hut which is classed as a ‘Serviced Hut’ meaning it has bunks, matresses, water supply, toilets, hand washing facilities and heating with fuel available. We should assume there are no cooking facilities meaning we take our own gas cookers, billies etc. Fiona has walked part of this track (from Aniwaniwa to the lake) and describes it as easy, check out the website for further details though. Everyone has now paid me for hut fees so it looks like we are all going….YAY

If anyone is interested I am planning to host a Pink Ribbon Breakfast on Sunday 2 May at my place. This is a new initiative as part of Breast Cancer awareness and fundraising. Check out www.pinkribbonbreakfast.co.nz to see what it’s all about We are under no obligation to raise funds, but I thought it might be nice to get together and go for a walk around the boardwalk below our house (part of the Daisy Hardwick) and then have a breakfast and discuss gear, timings, transport etc for our tramp. My plan is that I will purchase bacon, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, OJ & Coffee/Tea, and everyone could contribute approx $5 each to cover the costs. I’ll keep receipts and anything left over could be donated to Pink Ribbon (plus anything else people which to donate). It would be nice (weather permitting) if we met here about 8am then go for a walk (30 – 45mins) then back here for breakfast. Hopefully the weather will play ball and we can use the courtyard and BBQ, but otherwise we will cook & eat inside! Let me know via email or Txt if you are keen. Catch up soon. Robyn

Trip Report – Nga Tapuwae o Toi Walkway

Highlights:

• …this  walk was one of the most visually diverse we have completed. The range of scenery was a highlight, as was the accessibility of the whole walk. Thoroughly recommend this walk to anyone of reasonable fitness.

Robyn

• Not knowing exactly how long the trip was going to take - the info on the  DoC  website breaks the walkway into numerous short sections which if you add them up add up to more than 11 hours…which we knew wasn’t quite right. The 16 km walkway goes through Kohi Point Scenic Reserve, Ohope Beach, Ohope Scenic Reserve and Mokoroa Bush Scenic Reserve. For anyone else who might be contemplating doing this trip – it took us 7 hours altogether. This was going at a steady pace for reasonably fit women of a certain middle age. We had 3 breaks of about 1.5 hours altogether.

  On the Kohi Point section looking towards Moutohora (Whale) Island

• The endless steps and the numerous false summits.  The name of the walkway translates as ‘The Footprints of Toi’. Toi  (who was a great chief) sure made a LOT of footprints. Mostly upwards ones. The DoC trip descriptions say ‘some’ steep bits.  ‘Some’one has a good sense of humour. There are LOTS OF STEEP BITS!
•  Hey…maybe we went the wrong way round? We went anticlockwise. Perhaps it would be easier the other way around?
•  Being on a coastal walkway during a tsunami alert following a magnitude 7.9 earthquake in Vanuatu. At this point in the photo we had about 45 minutes to get to higher ground.

Ohope beach - part of the walkway

• Realising those big beautiful trees that looked like Pohutukawa trees WERE pohutukawa trees!   We were in a coastal pohutukawa forest afterall.
• Using Janice’s little tree book to identify Rewarewa trees.
• The STUNNING BEAUTY – this is a quintessential New Zealand day walk – beach walking, rock hopping, native bush, oustanding coastal views…and the start of the walk is 1 minute out of Whakatane.
• Enjoying freshly brewed coffee in the forest whilst listening to birdsong
• Fine company, we had a lot of laughs, and it was a great day out. But we missed the other Omokoroa Escapees. Next time girls!

                  more photos over on flickr…

Lee

Nga Tapuwae o Toi Walkway

We are going to do this walkway on Thursday 8 October. More details can be found here: on the Whakatane District Council Website or here on the Doc website. Should take between 5 and 6 hours. Some parts are an easy walk, some parts are coastal, and there are some steeper parts in the bush.  YIPPEE! Who wants to come? Text Fiona, Robyn, or Lee.

Bring the usual gear for a walk which involves the NZ Bush. Robyn will bring the jetboil and coffee. Bring a cup and tea/milk if you want it.

 

 

Photos from Little Manganuku tramp

On the Manganuku bridge

Just about to heat water for a hot drink using Robyn’s jetboil gadget

Here are a couple of photos from this tramp. There are more over on flickr…