East Coast Adventures

East Coast Roady - Anzac Weekend 2008 - Hamish Roper
This is my debut blog entry, so I better make it a good one... It was a bright sunny Anzac day the beginning of a long weekend! So we loaded up the T.H.C. car and headed east to the beats of MC Tiki.

Leg 1. Ohope --> Opotiki --> Te Kaha. Highlights:

• The white stallion with the large equipment (which particularly fascinated Sarah).
• The freezing works, east coast styles. Fron end loading tractor hoisting a gutted and skinned beast, all the locals standing around salivating.
• The scenic bays.
• The secret waterfall.
• Yarning to some of the locals at the Te Kaha store whilst eating icecreams.
• Lowlight: Forgetting the cooker.

Leg 2. Te Kaha --> Lottin Point --> Hicks Bay

• Almost getting stuck in Lottin Point.
• Surfing at bay over from Hicks Bay.
• Salami and Cheese sandwiches for Lunch.

Leg 3. Hicks Bay --> Te Araroa --> East Cape Light House

• Preparing for a Party in Te Araroa!
• Gravel roads out to the light house.
• Weather rough out at sea, amazing colours...!
• Climbing all 760 steps up to the light house.
• Setting up camp at the Waipapa Camp ground. Slept in the bohemeath (The coulters humungous tent). 45 minute history lesson from the camp ground owner.
• Early night after beating SK at quiddler again...

Saturday: Leg 4. East Cape --> Ruatoria --> Mt Hikurangi

• Early start, mint sun rise, first in the world to see the sun, I went for a quick dip in the sea.
• Rolled into Ruatoria, SK's home town! Almost got busted by a speed camera!
• Ruatoria is a different world, got a few stares from the locals in the local 4 square. Most of them were sporting full faced moko's!
• I must say Ruatoria had some pretty flash public toilets. Sarah went for wiz number 21 since the start of the trip.
• Drove inland to Ruatoria, wandering stock on the road, large rivers and lots of one-way bridges with humps.
• Started tramp 9 am. First part was 10 k's straight up over farmland, pretty boring. Got to the hut for lunch, talked to a father and son expedition. Carried onto summit, very steep, circled around mountain before clambering up rocks and boulders to a steep ridge which led directly to summit.
• Conditions were 'testing' on the ridge. Very windy and cold, with poor visibilty. Sarah and a freak out moment and almost didn't make it to the top. But in the end we pushed on to the top! woohoo 1780 m!
• Down by 5 pm, did a wee bit of jogging to speed it up.

Leg 5. Mt Hikurangi --> Te Puia Springs --> Tokomaru bay

• Wet, cold and tired we rolled into Te-Puia Springs looking forward to a hot soak and a beer at the local.
• Alas the pools were closed, so we carried onto Tokomaru bay. Stayed in cabins.
• "Big eats" went down a treat for dinner. Crashed early, exhausted.

Leg 6. Tokomaru Bay --> Tologa Bay --> Gisborne.

• Up early (much to Sarah's disgust!) and explored Tokomaru Bay, Old wool store / freezing works. Old wharf.
• Back to cabins for a bowl of Cremota, mmm yum.
• Gapped it to Tolaga Bay.
• Time for a coffee at the local in (good coffee). Saw a work mate (random). Explored the famous Tologa bay pier, took a few snappy's
  
• Cooks cove walk (very muddy and windy), Hole in the wall.
• Back to Tolaga bay for fish and chips, weather very dodgy.
• Shot over to Gisborne 2.30pm. Caught up with my grandparents, hung there and chatted / played quiddler most of afternoon.
• Fish pie and apple crumble for tea, awesome. Ate till we burst.
  
  Leg 7. Gisborne --> Waiwoeka Gorge --> Ohope
  


• Dodgy going through gorge, saw a car that went into the river.
• Sentence game was classic. Although Sarah's mind was filthy!
• Home by 9 p.m, exhausted. Back to work tomorrow for a REST!
• Top weekend, highly recommend the trip to anyone...

leahs wedding

what a day... Leah and Jim - two beautiful people, getting married in the most vintage sweet ceremony. The gardens, old avenue home, art deco patterns, friends and family.. unlimited food... everything was just perfect. We felt so privelaged to be part of something special, words cant even describe.
The day was so romantic, and the booze flowed all day long... speeches were classic, and had everyone in stiches! xx

the rotorua run!

well after lots of training and preparing.. i entered the 10km, and Hamish did the 21km. i was freaking out thinking i would come last, but yeah both did suprisingly well... i came 86th out of a pack of 400.. (11th in my catagory) and hamish got 26th out of about 650 people.. (11th in his catagory)... we were both pretty stoked.. felt it was not to bad going for my first adult running race. hmm now need something new to train for... london half? anyone else keen?

bad TASTE indeed

Ohope outdone itself with the worst outfits imaginable for nat's going away party... what an awesome night.. booze and ugly costumes, can't top it!

Easter - Jack Johnson, Frisbie, big surf, happy hour & family

had a tip top easter! Lots of Wines, chocolate, beach - chilled times, and sweet sweet music! 

We went down to Taranaki for Jack Johnson, and spent the long weekend with Hamish's family in Fitzroy.  Had a few days to chill out before my family came to stay, and the flatties from ohope.  We had the meeting of the parents for the first time, which went no worries, and they got on like a house on fire. (My stressing was for nothing.)

The concert was AMAZING! Hamish's mum had organised a tasty picnic for all of us enjoy, and when Jack came out, he turned it on bigtime. He just cruzed out in his jandals and played his songs, and it was all so relaxed and chilled. 

Spent a heap of time showing everyone the Naki sights, loads of time at the beach and indulging in happy hour. The surf got up to about 7foot while we were there, and the boys braved it. The surf is really different down there! huge dumpy waves.. not really my cuppa, so played lots of frisbie and games of touch on the beach. It was a sweet weekend, was cool to have that time with the family before boosting, and show the boys around Taranaki. 

xxx

Mount Edgecombe Tramp, and the Lake Tawarewa falls

What a weekend - bananna chips, BBQ's, Bush whacking, and Beach extra large wines.

Well... after almost a year of driving down to Ohope, and seeing Mount Edgecombe, WE finally did the day tramp up to the top. In true us style, we got a weeny bit lost, and a 2 hour walk took a good five. We ended up bush whacking, without a whacker... hmmm... not fun! got totally scratched up and was pushed to breaking point! Views from the top were unbelievable, and was totally breathtaking, and amazing to have done... howewer I'm beginning to wonder about tramping, i dont think it agrees with me at all, so it may be the last for a while!
After the mission down, we did another short tramp to the Lake Tawarewa falls. Pretty outstanding as well, and after the morning was great to jump in the lake and have a swim.
x

Matakana - Kama's wedding and Auckland

Another awesome weekend, this time up in Northland for Kama's Wedding, and Auckland catchups. Weather was absolutly miserable, and poured down almost the whole time! lots of coffee's in the cafes avoiding the wind and rain!

Boosted up on Friday night, and spent the weekend in Hamish's family appartment. Such a sweet spot! It's right in the heart of the city, which is pretty cool that everything is such a short stroll away.

Went up to Matakana on Saturday with Koren and bloody hell we were late because she had been boozing to hard the night before! We only saw the 'I do's', how embarrasing!
Felt very Auckland with high heals on, and sinking into the mud, beautiul place though, loads of vineyards, and rolling hills. Love it.
She got married in a quaint little church because it was wet, and was followed by a reception at the local hall. So beauts to see her, and little Tegan. Aww...

Sunday was lazy and hungover for both hamish and I - He went to the Auckland races with some boozy uni mates, and got on it hard!

One of the bfm summer series concerts was on in Albert park on sunday, so we went and chilled for the avo and watched MC tiki do his stuff! Was mean. That sort of treat makes me miss the city.

Had an appointment on Monday and opened our UK bank account.. wheels in motion now, things are slowly and surely coming together!

Zzz 24th birthday

well.. hi there all!

cheers for all the thoughts, texts and emails from you guys on my birthday. i felt super special and had the most awesome day! On the 13th I had to go to work which was better than expected... wrangled an extended lunch break, and popped over the road for a pub lunch... then got back to work and they put on a yummy caramel cake for afternoon tea which was a treat!

Hamish took me out for dinner that night, and completly Spoilt ME, totally got wined and dined!

On saturday night a decent crew all made the effort to come and out and celebrate in style, which was pretty humbling! Was a bloody good night out in Tauranga, it had been ages since everyone had caught up, and was tops to see everyone! We Started at Amphora for dinner. Everyone took full opputunity of the BYO wine, and enjoyed all the pasta for dinner.

After a few hours of boozing, eating and catching up On to town we went. The strand was in FULLSWING! the pubs were all packed, and ozzing onto the street, so we found ourselves on the street outside the usual suspects dancing and drinking jaga bombs.. it was loads of fun! lots of laughs and goodtimes. cant remember what time we got home.. i just cooked up hotchips and crashed before eating them!

24 is going to be a bloody good year... ive decided its the year of New Experiences... oh yeah!

xx

The Lake Waikaremona Great Walk

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