Heading Home

Almost three months ago I arrived in New Zealand to hike the countryside.
I knew before I started that this journey would be more then just walking.
Over the past few months I have experience and enjoyed so much Kiwi hospitality,
and have seen some of the most beautiful, ever changing scenery. Its really difficult
to pick out a favorite moment or event because I have enjoyed it all. I have made it
to Wellington from Cape Reinga, roughly about half way, and have decided to end my
hike and go back to Lake Tahoe. I would like to thank everyone that has helped us
along the way. It has truly been a humbling experience. So, being my last entry
I want to wish Dennis and Alice the best of luck and blue skies on the remainder
of the hike.

Lane

P.S. These are a few pictures that have been the highlight of my trip.

Halfway!

We've made it halfway! We're in Wellington at the bottom of the North Island hanging out for a few days enjoying the sunshine before starting on the South Island. But, I get ahead of myself, there were five days of walking before we got here.

After Levin we headed back into the mountains to the Tararua Ranges. Our first peak was Mt Thompson which we almost didn't make it to due to a little discrepancy on our map. We were heading along a forest track and came to a fork in the stream. Both our paper map and the map on our GPS showed that the trail we wanted was directly opposite this river fork. So we crossed over and when we didn't see anything obvious we started hunting around. About an hour later, feeling scratched up from the bushwacking and very frustrated we decided to head back to the road and walk around. A little ways back down the trail we saw a separate fork that we had missed earlier which turned out to be our intersection. It wasn't the first time our maps have been less than accurate but it's still frustrating.

After a few days in canoes then another four walking along the beaches, it'd been a while since we'd had to walk up any hills. We sure made up for it with the walk up to Mt Thompson. It was endlessly steep, and one of the hottest days we've had yet. Sweaty back syndrome was at an all time high. But we were rewarded with amazing views back to the coast where we'd been walking a couple of days earlier.

After some more forest and farm sections we were on to the Southern Crossing of the Tararuas. This is one of the most popular routes through the Ranges. It was a fun few days with lots of elevation changes, stunning views (sometimes) and cool mossy trees that made me feel like I was in some kind of enchanted forest. We stayed the first night at Field Hut. I've really built up huge respect for all the pioneers of the tramping tracks around New Zealand. This hut was originally built in 1924, pit sawing the wood on site. It certainly makes our journey much easier with ready-made huts, light gear and an established track.

The next day we were heading over the 'tops', a razorback ridge above the treeline where the trail dropped sharply away on both sides. Over the previous few days the weather had been overcast in the morning, with the sun coming out and burning off the clouds by lunchtime. We were expecting some stunning views over to the coastline on both sides of the island so we had a late start to wait for the clouds to disappear. We reached the Kime Hut for lunch and decided to hang out for a bit because it wasn't clear yet.

After a long while and lots of snacking the clouds actually started rising back up again so we decided to go for it. We reached Mt Hector, the highest peak, and had a stunning view into nothingness. Just as we were heading off the summit the craziness started. The clouds started moving faster, the wind started whipping and it got a whole lot colder. Even though we didn't get a view, the winds actually made it really fun. I was keeping the boys amused with my drunken looking stumble along the ridge. The winds were so strong you had to lean right into them to stop yourself been blown off the ridge one way, but then you'd reach a calmer spot and almost topple over the other side without the constant resistance of the wind. It was great, although we could see how unprepared trampers could easily get caught out without the right gear. We did get the occasional glimpse out to the eastern coast, and yes, it did look gloriously sunny out there.

We came into Wellington along the Hutt River Walkway and even managed to come across the Lower Hutt Christmas Parade. I think that's about as Christmassy as we'll get this year. Who knows where we'll be for the actual day. Probably in the middle of nowhere, treating ourselves to an extra serving of dehydrated vegetables.

We're staying with some of my relatives in Lowry Bay. We had our first swim in the North Island at the beach by their house. So far whenever we've been by water the weather hasn't been warm enough to inspire us to jump in. Thank you to the Lynskys for having us to stay. It's always nice to have a place to relax on our days off, and one with such an amazing view of Wellington harbour is even better!

It'll be a while before you hear from us again. We have a nine day section between towns at the top of the South Island, our longest yet. Not looking forward to putting on our heaviest pack yet for that one. Lane's leaving us now to head back to the States. Lane, it's been fun. Good luck for the winter and get lots of powder days in for us.

Alice

Pictures:
Alice on the trail up to Mt Thompson and views back to the west coast
Dennis on the Southern Crossing trail
Kime Hut with the rising clouds
The track we followed along the ridges
Lane and Dennis, their first New Zealand swim

No more long walks on the beach

As Alice alluded to in her last post, it was a touch windy on the final two days of canoeing. Apparently two houses had their roofs blown off in Wanganui. I'm not a wind guy by trade but that's windy.

Can't say that I'm joyed to leave the sand. This section was quite nice. It started off in a pumpkin. Literally. There is this park in Wanganui called Kowhai Park which is full of giant concrete fairytale structures. We actually had an interview with the Wanganui Chronicle inside it.

We left Wanganui for the beach. The beach walking differed from our really, really long walk on 90 mile beach because it had a few more things along the way for visual stimulation. Yeah it had it's fair share of dunes and waves but also had many people along the way to stop and talk to. I learned about how fishermen use these things called Contiki's to fish for sharks from the beach. They're kind of like mini submarines that take your line out 1-2 kilometres into the sea so you don't have to cast from the shore. Also learned about whitebait and how the locals call it white gold because there's never enough caught to fill the demand.

We enjoyed a few really nice days strung together. Hardly any clouds, just sun. Not even any wind which was nice.

There was only one difficult part, the river crossings. When Alice and I planned the route we had to go on information that wasn't so up to date. The rivers regularly flood which means they change from season to season. There were three large uncrossable rivers, so big that we would need a boat to get across, or did we?

We knew they were coming up so along the way we would ask the fishermen on the beach if they had any local knowledge. Wow, did we get some differing answers. Take the Whangaehu, where it meets the sea its 90m wide at high tide. One guy said "Yeah, the Whangaehu, I know it. I drove my 4WD over it no problem." Another said "Oh no way, it'll be over your head. You'll be swept to sea. One of the strongest currents in the world, it'll take you to Brazil." How do you decide with those two answers? You don't, ask more. We were trying to get a consensus either way, not possible. I don't think there were two answers that were the same, or even similar. To make a long story short, we took a look, decided it was too wide, deep and fast moving to cross. We ended up detouring around, was an extra 25km and an extra day but worth it. We were told the next day that the river was extremely acidic due to the lahar runoff from Mt Ruapehu, "It sustains no life". Maybe that explains all the dead cows we came across on it's banks. Huh.

Unfortunately there was no easy way round that one. The next two large rivers were much easier thanks to the help of two boats. Walked up to the Rangitikei river bank, saw a boat, waved frantically, and got a ride from the 'Brown's Bunch'. At the edge of the Manawatu we waved at a few boats and jet skis over the course of an hour or so with no luck. Finally got the attention of a passing boat and jet ski. The guys from the Manawatu Coast Guard came over and gave us a lift across. Thanks so much to both boats for the lift, you have no idea how much it helped us out.

Fitting end to the beach: a bonfire, nice sunset and now we're off to the Tararua Range. See you in Wellington.

Dennis

Pictures:
Dennis by Whangaehu Highway Bridge crossing
Brown's Bunch
Ultra light plane over the beach near the Rangitikei River
Manawatu Coast Guard
Bonfire on beach at sunset

On the river

We thought we'd go for a change of pace for this section. We were coming up to the Wanganui River and our options were walking down the road next to the river for three days, or canoeing the river for three days. The second option sounded much more exciting, and we decided it wasn't cheating because we were still using our own power.

We rented canoes from Yeti Tours in Ohakune and along the way picked up a fourth person for the journey. Kelly is a guide for Yeti Tours and hadn't done the lower section of the river yet. It was refreshing to have someone else along, conversation can get a little stale when we're all together 24/7.

The first day was great. We'd been warned that the section from Pipiriki to Wanganui was boring and had no rapids. Well, there weren't any rapids but there was decent current, good weather and the scenery was way better than expected - lots of big cliffs, steep hills and small canyons along the way. We cruised 40km and stayed in Downes Hut, a really cool and rarely used hut along the way, made even better by the fact it was painted magenta.

That night it rained, and rained, and rained. The next day, the 14th, was my birthday. I had visions of spending the day floating down the river, beer in hand, the sun on my face. It was not to be. We waited out the rain in the hut and left late morning when it finally stopped. The good news was that it didn't rain again. The bad news was that the wind started. Now, this wasn't your typical headwind. This was by the far the strongest wind I have ever experienced on a river. At one point Dennis and I were in the middle of the river, the wind blowing spray into the air, and we were trying to paddle to the side. It wasn't happening. We tried to go one way but the wind was too strong, we tried to go the other way and the wind was even stronger. Eventually we battled our way to the relative shelter of the side. This was way too much like hard work and we were threatened with capsize a few times.

It was a good birthday though. We weren't walking on the roads, Dennis had bought me some surprise presents in the morning including some very classy umbrella straws to put in our Tui cans, and we had an amazing dinner of burritos and chocolate brownies at camp that night - oh the joy of not having to carry it on your back.

We got started early on the last morning to avoid the wind. It worked well at first, we even had a tailwind for a while! We made the most of it, doing some of the cruising we were hoping for the day before and we came across the coolest swing ever. It was a 15m pole at a 30 degree angle out from the hill for maximum swing over the river edge. You could get some serious height. We started off swinging from the base, but kept uping the stakes, swinging from higher and higher points, eventually jumping from the top of a massive fallen tree - well I didn't go that far but Dennis and Lane did. It was perfectly placed for our mid morning snack. And a welcome break because our last 10km into Wanganui was similar to the day before - fighting the wind, using all our energy just to stop the canoe floating back upstream. But its all fun, and we made it, even if we are a little pink from the windburn.

Thanks Kelly for coming along, and thank you also to Gill and Jeff Brock, our hosts here in Wanganui. We'll happily help you move your El Pacas around anytime.

Time for bed, till next time,
Alice

Pictures:
Three of us in the canoes
Getting fancy with umbrella straws on Alice's birthday
Three of us and Kelly with our canoes
Dennis on the swing
Lane enjoying the swing

A day in the life, part 1

So we thought we'd start a new series for all our dedicated fans out there which gives a bit of a glimpse into our life on the trail.

The first of the series is camping, what we do when we get home from the 'office'.

Once we've decided we're done for the day and we've found a spot that looks reasonable flat the first item on the agenda is usually setting up the tents. Then we cook up something fabulous from our choice of three meals that we rotate (more on the cooking front on future posts - we've got to give you something to come back for after all).
Once thats disappeared, which doesn't take very long, and the dishes are cleaned we're faced with some exciting choices. Should the three of us cram into Alice and Dennis' tent to play cards? Should we get into our cosy sleeping bags and write in our journals? Maybe start a fire to sit around? And thats about it. At least now its light later so we can hang out outside the tents for longer without freezing to death.

Pictures:
Dennis is darning his socks wearing his stunning 'round camp' attire of long johns and boxers, and crocs and socks.
Lane is cooking up a delicious meal.
Alice is packing her pack while trying to not let her sleeping bag touch the sheep poo on the ground.
We're enjoying dinner with Ruapehu in the background.

The Mighty Crossing X3

Pictures:
Whakapapaiti Hut with Mt. Ruapehu (Dennis on roof)
Lane and Dennis on "Round the Mountain Track"
Alice and waterfall
Waterfall and Mt. Ruapehu
Silhouette of Alice on rock

ps - you can click on the pictures to make them larger.

The Mighty Crossing X2

Pictures:
Alice and Lane above Emerald Lakes
Alice and Dennis climbing Ngauruhoe
3 of us at Ngauruhoe Summit
View from Ngauruhoe Summit
Ngauruhoe at sunset

The mighty crossing!

So we finally reached the part of the North Island that I've been meaning to do for years, the Tongariro crossing, and it was everything I had hoped for. We started at the Ketetahi side and headed up through the bush, walking past silvery sulphur streams that were overflowing because of all the recent rain. It was amazing once we got above the tree line. The rain had changed to a perfect blue sky day, it almost felt as though we were back in Tahoe, so we could see forever. Most of our previous summits have been thwarted by cloud and fog so it was so cool to be able to see over to Lake Taupo and Rotoaira and look at where we'd been walking over the past few days.

We finally got to see and walk over snow for the first time since May. I think it made all us excited to be back in a mountain environment again, even to the point of eating snow cones made with as thick a solution of Replace as possible. They weren't quite like the real thing, and the wind was whipping at about 80km an hour outside but it was worth it. The next day it was so cold there was ice and rhyme all over the trail.

On our actual crossing day the weather was good to us. For those of you who don't know the weather around the mountains in the central North Island can be pretty volatile, there are three volcanoes that are in the middle of a barren plateau so any clouds or weather just sticks to them like glue. We've heard stories of people crawling across the mountain passes on their hands and knees because the wind was so strong, or not being about to see more than a few metres in front of them. For us, the sky was a little grey but there was great visibility and no wind. The landscape is stunning, at first glance it looks barren and rocky but there is endless diversity in the many colours and textures of the rocks and alpine foliage.

We saw another unique feature along this section too - people! And lots of them. We have hardly seen a single person along our trail sections so it was kind of a surprise to feel like salmon swimming upstream through all the tourists, the majority of whom walked the crossing from the other direction.

We summitted Tongariro and Ngauruhoe, which at 2287 metres is the highest we've been yet. Getting up Ngauruhoe is hilarious. Theres not a set trail. Its more an hour long scramble up loose rocks to the top and a 15 minute in/out of control run, slide, skid to the bottom. It was a ton of fun and we got some amazing 360 degree views from the top.

We then headed into Whakapapa Village and walked a section of the Round the Mountain Mt Ruapehu trail. We still saw other trampers but that trail is a very cool alternative to the crossing. There is endless dramatic scenery, unique landscapes, rocky cliff bands and waterfalls everywhere you look. That also meant lots of stream crossings too. I don't have Lane's leg length or balance ability so while he was jumping over the rocks I sometimes had to ditch the boots and wade through glacier cold water with my rain pants hiked up to the top of my thighs.

So I'd have to say that this section has probably been my favourite so far. It is such an awesome feeling to be doing this hike, especially now we've hit the 1000km mark. It makes all those months of endless planning and working ourselves into the ground to save enough money totally worth it.

We arrived in Ohakune yesterday with amazing views of Ruapehu behind us. I can't wait to go skiing again, even if I could see the icy glean of Turoa shining like a beacon from ages away. We're staying with Graeme and Barbara Wheadon at their mountain house. Thank you so much for your generous hospitality and great food. We loved meeting you.

Alice

Pictures:
Trail up to Tongariro
Lane by North Crater Lake
Dennis and his snowman
Central Crater
3 of us at Central Crater

I Was Told That It Rained In New Zealand

Well rest day in Te Kuiti was much needed, and enjoyed. From there we headed south on a river walk section that was supposed to be very cool. Unfortunately were turned around at the start by the police. No we weren't in trouble, but there was a search and rescue going on, and we were not able to do that part. Instead we hit the road. We met the guy who sold Alice her boot in Hamilton on the road. He was part of the search and rescue. We missed an old steam engine that day too. We heard it blow its whistle and saw puffing smoke, but it was just out of view. The road section continued till Pureora where Dennis found a new friend. There was a dog that followed us to camp the second night. Dennis decided to call him Henry. We wondered if he would follow us into the mountains. After a night filled with barking and pig chasing I think that it was for the better that Henry didn't follow us. We summitted Pureora and Weraroa on this third day of this leg. It was a long cold day. It rained, and there were no summit views. We were very excited to see the Waihaha Hut that night where we dried our selves and gear by a coal stove. Nice and toasty. Our track out from the hut followed a river that gave us some awesome views and a beautiful place to eat lunch. All was going well until some logging roads that existed who knows how many years ago existed no longer. That made for a longer road section to Tongariro. We had our first camp fire during this leg. It was nice to enjoy the light and warmth of it. The day into Tongariro was filled with rain, rain, and more rain. As luck would have it there was a nice little camp ground with cabins just before the Tongariro Crossing. We were able to dry out and resupply. Bev and Rene were running the camp ground, and they again showed us the Kiwi hospitality. Bev drove us into town to buy food for our next five days, and they both sent us off in the morning with a care package. They gave us a package of chicken and veggie stir fry to have that night for dinner. Yumm it was very good and much appreciated. Well i think thats all for now. I hope everyone back home and in Tahoe is doing well. This trip is very exciting. I will have lots of stories to tell.

Hiking, Lane

Pictures:
Lane walking on road
Pureora Summit in a cloud
Lane by waterfall
Lake Taupo
Alice and Dennis crossing bridge

Mud dances and track finding

So, we've made it to Te Kuiti. It took us a day longer than expected and we had some interesting trail adventures along the way. After leaving Hamilton we headed west towards the Karamu track. It was officially the coolest farmland we've walked through yet. Amazing views out towards the Coromandel, crazy rock formations and steep valleys. Those sheep just don't know how good they've got it. We came across a farmer docking lambs tails - those cute little lambs may get their tail chopped off but they're living in paradise.

We then headed up Mt Pirongia. At 959m it was the highest we've been so far. After walking uphill for about 3 hours on a fairly well maintained track, it all of a sudden turned into boot high mud, then for the last couple of kilometres wooden boardwalks started appearing out of nowhere, leading to a very fancy raised platform at the summit. Very civilised and totally unexpected. Even though it was only 4, we decided to cut our day short and stay at the Pahautea hut just past the summit. It was great to have some books to read, get out of the howling wind that has plagued us for days, plus we also didn't think we could make it out of the bush by dark - not a comforting thought on steep muddy trails with nowhere flat to pitch a tent. We did laugh at some of the comments about the mud in the hut book - 'mud mud mud', 'need more boardwalks! Too much mud!'. It seems as though a NZ track isn't really an NZ track without copious amounts of mud and having to perform fine balancing acts on top of mossy tree roots, submerged rocks and grassy tufts to avoid sinking in above your boot line. We actually though this track wasn't too bad.

After heading south on some closed trails - all the open ones went north which is a little counter-productive to our aim, we headed back into farmland. We had our first real adventure with getting lost, well, not totally lost because we knew exactly where we were, but the trail was another story. The track had started from the road with no sign but clear typical trail markers - orange triangles and painted styles. We easily followed that until we checked the GPS to find we were totally off track. Now the GPS has been great and so far had been totally accurate. We decided to bushwack up a steep ponga covered hillside to find the trail that was supposedly 83m away. After wrestling with vines and grabbing onto rotten ponga trucks that snapped off under your weight, we came to the site where the trail was meant to be, but there was no sign of it. After searching around for a while we decided to head back to the last trail marker we'd seen and see if we'd missed anything. After a couple of hours of walking in circles, trying to find alternate routes out of very isolated and hilly countryside we finally figured out that the co-ordinates of the route on the GPS wasn't placed properly so we were actually running parallel to the track we wanted the whole time. We struggled back, found a subtle entrance to another trail that we'd missed earlier and finally started making some positive progress again. The weird thing was that at the end of the trail the markers started up again. Someone had obviously gone through and taken out the whole middle section of markers, a disgruntled farmer? We're not sure.

Now we're having a rest day in the sun in Te Kuiti before heading off on a 10 day section over some high mountain passes to Ohakune. It might be a while before you hear from us again.

Alice

Pictures:
Sheep on horizon
Farmer herding Sheep
Ponga Silhouette
Us on the summit of Pirongia
Dennis and Lane at the Pahautea hut