The rest of January...

Saturday 17th Jan – Thursday 29th January
Goodness, it's hard catching up on the blog and makes me realise how important it is to do this regularly....still here goes.

Lin here, writing this on 30th January and having trouble remembering what we did!! We think that today we moved on along the East coast. We came across several Maori meeting houses, called Maua. These are quite beautiful and as we travelled along on this Saturday morning many of them were being used. This area of the North Island had come recommended by several Kiwis: it is predominantly Maori and we certainly noticed a difference: finding stopping places was difficult – when we finally found a spot, which seemed idyllic right near a beach in shaded forest, I was attacked by the dreaded sandflies: these tiny insects are driving us mad. The females suck your blood and I can tell you it's quite painful! Then where they have bitten begins to itch. I seem particularly sensitive to them and have had some nasty raised weals on my skin. Needless to say we didn't stay there for lunch! When we finally reached the campsite we were aiming for it was so hidden that we drove straight passed it! We turned around at Te Araroa, where the road to the most Eastern lighthouse in the world is found. Going there would have added a good 20k to our journey, so instead we headed back to the campsite. Our initial impression was that it was a bit run down, but it turned out to be well shaded and we met some more friendly kiwis there. There was a large group of friends in one corner. They'd set up a game of volley ball and had built a fire in a purpose built shelter there. In another area several families had met up and the kids were having great fun... reminded me of the days when we went camping in our trailer tent with our good friends. Just as we were going to bed, at our usual time of 10pm!! a family arrived at the cabin just next to us... all the sites here seem to have these and they look good, but are a bit expensive for us at around $NZ100 a night. Their daughter was very excited to be there, especially as she hadn't realised some of her friends were already there.

Sunday 18th Jan
Next morning at 6am we were awoken to the excited calls of all the kids who were already up and about. We didn't mind at all as we'd had our beauty sleep but the parents of the kids kept coming over and apologising to us for their kids behaviour!! Before leaving the site we walked over the marshy area to see the beach, which was quite a good one...then around 11am it was back on the road. Once again we struggled to find a place to stop. but when Brent was preparing our lunch at pull in – sandwiches and a cup of tea, 2 wild chickens appeared. They were pretty mangy and clearly determined to share our lunch! One of them was very aggressive and was charging at Brent. I came to his rescue with one of my walking poles and we managed to eat in peace. As for the beaches: some were right on the roadside, with free camping available in one area, whilst others were
quite inaccessible. We reached our destination – Gisborne, the most Eastern city in the world and set up camp at the town site, near the river, just a short walk from the centre. The site was very busy and we had to pitch right near the road opposite the amenities block, which proved to be very busy and noisy. However I was pleased to be able to speak to Alec, my son, on his 26th birthday, and we enjoyed following the historic walk around the city, which was very pretty. Along the riverside there were lots of statues: this was one of the areas where Captain Cook landed and his statue was one of them.

Monday 19th Jan
Today we spent some time in the good library in Gisborne, where the internet was free. We changed our flights from Fiji to Tonga and enjoyed being in quite a busy city. We also made friends with a lovely couple and their little girl Sophie, who were camping next to us. He was British but had lived there for some years. Once again we found them really friendly and helpful. We decided to move on the next day – I'd felt a bit wheezy for the first time in ages and actually used my inhaler. We reckon it was being so close to the road.

Tuesday 20th Jan
After a morning in Gisborne we headed onwards to Mahia beach. We arrived late afternoon and after a fish and chip supper ...which we had a long wait for! around 7pm had a wander down to the lovely golden sand beach. As we neared the shore Brent thought he saw a fin in the water near to where some children were playing, up to their thighs in the sea. It turned out to be a resident dolphin! We read the sign about her: she arrived in the bay at Easter 2007 and has stayed. We watched her playing with a group of kids, clearly enjoying the attention. We were quite gob smacked! Had a chat about her to an American woman and her husband, who were from Colorado.

Wednesday 21st Jan
Another glorious day dawned and we planned to do a local walk in the bush. Before leaving we headed for the beach just to see if Moko was about. We ended up staying the whole day on the beach! Moko appeared some way out to sea and we swam out to see her. Unfortunately just as we arrived so did a boat and Moko swiftly followed it out to sea. Dissappointed we went back to the beach only to find that in minutes she was back playing with a surfboard. Linda decided she was going to go out and see if she could get closer. She swam out to find the board whizzing towards her but pleased to be close to the bottle nosed dolphin. Meanwhile I was feeling a little jealous so when she came back tried to swim out too. I was lucky enough to get close enough to touch her – much to the annoyance of Linda. Soon after she was taken out to sea by following a boat.
In the evening we went into a local bar for a drink. Not much atmosphere more like a youth club!

If you'd like to read more about Moko have a look at these websights:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/animals/news/article.cfm?c_id=500834&objectid=10548964

http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/e080312.html


Thursday 22nd Jan – off to the start of our one and only Great Walk at Lake Waikaremoana
Left the campsite this morning, calling goodbye to Moko. Stopped for a look around Wairoa and visited a really nice little museum there, with lots of Maori artefacts as well as an exhibition of art from a local art class. We laughed to see the teacher's comments, which read like school reports! We knew that the last part of this trip was on a gravel road, but were surprised when this started quite soon after Wairoa. It was pretty awful as the sun was boiling, the air con on the car wasn't working and lots of 4 x 4 vehicles kept speeding past us kicking up a load of dust. We were terrified that the windscreen would be broken...but our luck held out. It was also impossible to stop as picnic areas were few and far between. When we finally managed a stop we realised that we were just a short way from the Waikaremoana holiday park, where we were staying! We arrived around 4.30 and Brent rushed off to the DoC office to book our walk and hut and campsites while I put up the tent. He arrived with just 7 minutes before closing and got pretty confused by my notes about where we should break the walk up...we'd thought we'd do the walk over 3 days and 2 nights, but he ended up booking 3 nights / 4 days! As you'll see this turned out to be a blessing!!! We got off to bed and slept well in preparation for our trek!

Friday 23rd Jan
The start of our Great Walk adventure -
We got up bright and early and sorted our backpacks ready for the tramp. By the time we'd sorted the water taxi and changed our camp booking it was about 10am before we left. 2 lovely Maori guys dropped us off at Onepoto, the start of the walk. We were left on a rocky outcrop and as they left I turned around to get a photo of them and managed to knock my backpack into the lake!! Brent jumped into the brink and to the rescue, soaking his boots through...what a start! Another boat was pulling in and one of the group took out his video camera to capture me wringing out my sweatshirt. We followed their example and had a swim in the lake, hoping that my stuff and Brent's boots would at least start to dry out. Finally we set off about an hour after the other group, at midday. It was a beautiful morning and we were glad of the shelter offered by the bush. We knew we had a climb ahead up to the Panekire Hut, where we'd booked bunks for our first night and set off full of anticipation. A few hours later and we reached what we thought was the top of the climb: the view was stunning, but a bit scary in terms of the sheer drop in front of us. Our exhilaration at arriving soon turned to horror as we realised that this was just the first of several summits we'd need to climb before we reached the trig point at 1180 metres where the hut was sited. We wondered how the children in the other group were coping and soon came across them. We all introduced ourselves: 2 brothers and and 2 sisters – Russell and Alex were farmers and their sisters, Margaret ( a doctor) and Elizabeth with her 3 daughters, aged about 7,9 and 11. We were so impressed with those girls! All of us agreed that the climb was demanding and all felt that the guideline of 5 hours was totally unrealistic when carrying packs. This proved to be true! It took us 7 gruelling hours to get to the top and some parts of the path were really difficult. At one point we had to scramble on all 4s over huge boulders and tree roots. At several points the path narrowed right near to sheer drops... it was really scary! In the end we got to the hut about 20 minutes after our new friends, who greeted us with wonderful mugs of scotch. They were really lovely and shared with us their dinner: Russell had shot a deer a couple of days ago and they'd cooked the fresh venison to perfection. It was the first time we'd eaten Venison and we loved it. Olivia, the middle daughter was delighted to finish off our cheesy pasta, but we definitely got the better deal!! We spent a fun evening chatting to them and all enjoyed foot massages...much needed! Other folk were staying there, including more children.

Saturday 24th Jan
Oh dear! Not a good night's sleep! I was sure that someone had fallen off the path en route to the toilet, but we found out this morning that some of the girls had spent the night puking up!! We'd heard Margaret and Alex chatting in the middle of the night, but hadn't realised what was up... how awful! Alex made us smile this morning ... he didn't fancy a cuppa from their billy can as it had been the sick bowl during the night...yuk!! Anyway we managed to dry our most of my stuff and headed off just after 10 for our 2nd day of tramping. The main downhill section was quite demanding and once again we found it a long day. It was, however, much easier than yesterday, with some lovely sections through the woods. We arrived at the Maratui hut, where Alex and co were spending their second night, and were boiling hot. It was a much smarter hut, with lovely new bunk beds, right next to the lake. We couldn't wait to get into the water. Brent rushed down to the lakeside and was immediately attacked by sandflies...bloody hell! When I came to look for my swimming cossie it had disappeared! I must have left it on the rocks to dry when we last swam... oh well! I had to swim, so put on my shorts and a tee shirt and went in anyway. Who cares? (I later found my cossie...I'd put it in a different pocket of my rucksack!) After a good rest and a cup of tea, we ploughed on to the korokoro campsite where we were staying our 2nd night. This was a lovely spot and there were just 2 other tents there when we arrived. We quickly got talking to our fellow campers – David was a nice guy, who was staying on at the camp for a good look around. After dinner he lit us a great camp fire, where we all sat around chatting. Carol and Jane were lovely. They'd met on Great Barrier Island and this was Carol's first tramp with a backpack. Jane was English, but settled here some years ago. She has done lots of tramping. We really enjoyed their company and helping them finish off a crossword. It would be great to keep in touch.

Sunday 25th Jan
We both fell asleep pretty quickly but in the middle of night Brent woke me up in a panic: someone was shouting for help! It turned out to be David having a dreadful nightmare. We were able to give him a torch and he seemed to settle down. We felt badly for him. This morning we enjoyed reading the passed on weekend paper, with British news...until...a/ we realised how miserable the news was and b/ we realised how much time reading it was taking... we'd had a lie in!! Jane, Carol and David were already up...with the women enjoying their toast...were they well equipped!! After our muesli and banana breakfast I wandered over to chat to 2 French lads who'd arrived late last night. They were clearly very fit and doing the walk over 2 days!!! We said goodbye to Jane and Carol, who we hope to keep in touch with, and headed out of the camp at 10.10. David was staying for another night and exploring the area. He recommended a swim in the lake from some rocks about 2 and half hours walk away. Unfortunately we'd mis-read the map ...not alone in this. It really was confusing... and decided we couldn't afford the time to stop, but needed to get further than our pre-booked campsite, Maranui, if we were to get to the water ferry on time. This was a pity as the walk to Maranui was a pleasure and the site itself quite idyllic. We did stop for lunch though and met up with a lovely young couple. He was kiwi and she was from Monteray, California..remember that Gaz and Al? His parents were kayaking the lake while they were doing the walk over 3 days! Needless to say they'd found the first day exhausting and like us were worrying that the last day might be equally hard. They headed off b4 us and welcomed us around 7pm when we arrived at the final campsite, next to a newly renovated pair of huts. As we approached the noise was amazing and upon arrival we discovered 2 groups of sixth formers were staying in the bunkhouses....we were really glad that we'd chosen to camp!!! They were pleasant enough and really enjoyed lighting a lovely campfire. We headed for bed around 10 aware that most of them had gone to bed.

Monday 26th Jan
What a terrible night! I was so knackered that I fell asleep, despite the goings on outside, but Brent couldn't switch off and was aware that a few lads from one of the school groups were out shooting possum with airguns...probably under the influence. Around midnight I woke up when a torch lit up our tent. It was pretty scary... we both felt very vulnerable: what would happen if we stuck our heads out??? We decided against this, but did ask the lads to get to bed... well I think Brent's words were: “ get to f___ing bed... some of us are trying to sleep here!”. This didn't work and an hour later, around 1am we heard a terrible cracking sound, followed by a frantic cry of: “ Are you Ok?”... then running to the main hut and a raised alarm. Minutes later we were asked if we owned a boat moored nearby... the lad was seriously hurt. We later found out that he'd broken his leg and had to have his ear taped up! How lucky that boat was there! As there was no signal the leaders couldn't make contact with the rescue services and the lad was clearly in trouble. He was lifted onto that boat and taken to the nearest landing with telephone reception.

Around 7am we got up and saw 2 dead possums near the bonfire. I chatted to the female leader of the D of E group, who told me the lads involved were from the other group. Their leader was very apologetic, but we both understood the situation having taken away groups of teenagers ourselves...we just felt sorry for all of them... hope the lad is ok and learns from the experience. We were ready to leave this last stop-over just after 9am and couldn't believe how easy the last stage of the tramp was: we almost strolled through peaceful woodland and stopped at the last hut for a nice pasta lunch ( same as previous nights!) and a swim in the lake, before getting to the water taxi pick up point. It was lovely to see our 2 Maori friends return and safely get us back to base...what a sense of satisfaction.

Notes following this, our one and only Great NZ walk:
We really feel we should contact DoC and point out that the timings given between the stages of this 46k walk are not at all accurate for anyone carrying a full backpack. We did meet some young, fit lads who were keeping to the schedule. However we met many more, young and old, who found the times completely unrealistic. In fact had we had better guidance we would certainly have spend at least 5 days on the walk. This would have given us time to really appreciate the beauty of our surroundings and to take all the opportunities, particularly towards the end of the walk, to swim in the lake.

Tues 27th Jan
Awoke to a cloudier morning! This was good news as we had been dreading the 60 mile gravel road. This still proved a challenge, but Brent was up to it...yes!! About a third of the way along the road we came across a man traveling in the opposite direction in a pristine hire car. As we got near he stopped and wound down his window. “ ow much further does this road go?,” he said, in a positively Northern accent. Brent turned off the engine and wound down the window for a natter: it turned out the chap was from Blackburn and clearly hadn't got a clue about the road he was on. In fact he thought he'd turned off the main road...understandable actually. Poor chap! We got close to Rotorua and spotted a sign for a thermal valley. We arrived just in time to complete the distance from the visitors centre/ entrance to the main lake, where a bus brought us back to the start. We were advised to miss out part of the walk -but knew we were fit enough to do the whole thing and managed it easily. We had to pay NZ$36 dollars each to do this, but were blown away ( fortunately not literally!) by what we saw: first a pool of turquoise water, then a bubbling lake, surrounded by steaming hillside, then an emerald green pool...all a bit scary – we were actually walking through a volcanic crater, which had erupted for the last time in 1974, although in the early 1900s a more serious eruption had occured, when 2 tourists were killed when a geyser spurted its boiling, noxious gas over them!! Needless to say we got a move on at this point! When we arrived at the lake we found quite a crowd of people waiting for the bus. I went to dip my feet into the lake, where we got chatting to 2 Austrian lads, who were spending a few months in NZ and were very friendly.

We finally arrived in Rotorua and headed for one of the many motels there. We chose one with a studio type accommodation. It seemed quite luxurious after all the camping and at NZ$105 a night, seemed very cheap...that's about £46... It had a nice double room upstairs, with a kitchen/ living room, smart bathroom and courtyard with hot spa. All very nice. By the time we'd been shopping and got a meal it was quite late, but we still managed to fit in a hot tub before bed.... what a treat!

Wed 28th Jan
Lin here... well I expected to get a great night's sleep on a very comfy bed, but was awoken at 2am: a light was on downstairs and Brent was on the laptop – unable to sleep. Needless to say I was not very happy as it then took me ages to get back to sleep, whilst he was snoring!! Anyway we had a really nice, chilled out day, enjoying the space of the motel studio. In the morning we emptied the car and sorted out our stuff a bit – we intend to donate our pots, pans etc as well as some un-needed clothes to a charity shop here in Rotorua. Around 4 we headed into town and enjoyed a walk to the lake in the sunshine. We found lots of bars, with music (!), an alternative cinema and one of the many spas here. We got laundry done back at the motel and enjoyed a cordon bleu meal prepared by moi: steak aux champignons a la sauce fromage bleu, avec legumes varies, cuits en ail...delicieux! (made a change from Brent's lovely pastas!)

Thursday 29th Jan
Had a pretty quiet day today. Really sorted out our stuff and packed up our packs ready for the move. Took lots of our camping stuff into town to a charity shop and visited the recycle centre with our empty bottles etc. Around 11 am we took some time out to head for the luge – which had been recommended by Lindsey and Mr Wood ( the couple we met on the Great Walk). We took the gondola up the hill and sped down on wheeled plastic chariots...great fun. We had 3 rides and would have loved to stay all day! This has been a lovely few days: the wireless internet has been very efficient and we've finally worked out how to use skype to make cheap phone calls! It was lovely to hear from Carol, one of our Great Walk crossword friends and we managed to phone her tonight. We are now ready for the off and glad to have discarded even more of our clothes... we're getting good at this!!!