Well guys thought I should post up again, since it has been another full on few weeks.
Did the lake waikaremona great walk… What an awesome experience. If you ever get the chance it is an absolute MUST because it makes the soul feel good. A wee word of warning though, the one and a half hours of windy gravel road before you begin is absolutely AWFUL!! I’m guessing it does probably have to be one of the worst roads in NZ. Pretty classic though, it’s like you are driving on someone’s farm. Horses, pigs and cows, greet you and they are all just cruzing around on the main road…
With packs full of food, and loaded up with water, Hamish and I started the tramp at the Onepoto end, and proceeded up the bluff on the first day. Not to bad a walk and the views are absolutely breathtaking! We then kept going to the Panikiri hut about 1000m high and we hung out in the clouds! You can defiantly notice the difference it altitude, was much colder and damper up there. The vegetation was like I’d never seen before, the trees had buggar all leaves, and because of the dampness, moss was the main vegetation.
It was quite fun cooking on the little cooker, and playing cards in the hut, and camping out like you would if you were at school. Meet a great bunch from the hospital in whakatane and ended up playing so many games of five crowns with them, that I actually dreamt I was playing cards in my sleep.
Day two was pretty horrible. From nowhere the weather turned shit, and well.. I forgot a raincoat and I had to wear a couple of thermals to try stay warm and dry. Because of the rain, the track was pretty slick, and I ended up bailing quite a number of times and getting massive $2 coin sized bleeding blisters on my feet... what did Hamish like to call it? oh that’s right… “Character building”… ha. Sensing my despair he gave me his raincoat, and he wore a low-cost rubbish sack and the day improved from there.
We went to an amazing waterfall, which was a highlight of the day, by the time we reached Manauiti Hut that evening the weather had improved, and the drizzle had stopped. The day of tramping was about 8 or so hours and man did the food taste good that night!
The hut was right on the water, and it was bliss to be able to swim in the lake. It felt so good to be so far removed from day to day stuff, and there was something so refreshing about getting into the bush and away from everything. The third day to the water taxi pick up point was about a 6-hour tramp, and was a pretty easy stroll, and our packs were way lighter as all the food and water had gone. SO Yeah that was waikermoana.. goodtimes and character building. I know next time to go prepared for anything oh and will totally take a bottle of wine.. After tramping almost 50km in 3days you need some sort of reward! Hope everyone is back into the swing of things at work..
Can’t believe its mid Feb already! xx
