My 3^rd time off the island began rather uncertainly. Rose, the volunteer from California, needed a ride to a town where she could form a plan and maybe catch a bus. I needed the internet to try to figure out my plan for our time off, and Rose did the same. Neither of us had solid ideas of where we wanted to go. End result? Steph and Rose travel together!

Rose is into birding, and I didn’t want to prevent her from hitting the places her book recommended, so our trip became a birding/tramping/camping adventure. We headed south through Hamilton to Te Kuiti, the shearing capital of the world! This farmer is just a little taller than me…

From there we headed to Pureora Forest Park, a site Rose had been advised to visit for some birds. We took a couple day hikes and then stayed a night in her tent… and woke up to frost. Let’s just say neither of us slept that well since her tent is not exactly a 4 season tent. NZ’s winters may not be like Michigan’s or Alaska’s, but it was still cold to wake up to frost!

We wanted to do an overnight tramp, and the 9K tramp to the Waihaha Hut seemed like a reasonable option.

Rose heard there was a chance to see the elusive whio (blue duck), a bird that lives along swift rivers and is apparently quite difficult to see. Even though the weather report wasn’t fantastic, off we tramped down the track. We knew the Waihaha Hut was our destination, so we figured we’d be able to dry off a fair bit there.

NZ is big on tramping to backcountry huts rather than staying in tents. I had some doubts about huts, but they’re rather amazing! Our first tramp was to a category 3 hut, meaning we weren’t expecting the works. To our delight, we arrived to a hut with a fire already going in the wood stove + coals to keep the fire warm all night. 3 middle age people were there and boasted about their tramping time, which was shorter than ours. To be fair, we’re not from here and were not rushing to set records. It was nice to not have to get a fire going. They also already had hot water we could use! This hut was very posh for our first, complete with extra food, pots and pans, and coal for the stove. Usually huts have no food or dishes, but apparently school groups use this one frequently and yet the price wasn’t bumped up. We didn’t mind!

No blue duck sightings on that tramp, but we did hear them as we walked. Next we headed to Turangi to dry out and decide what was next. We got some advice to head to the Tongariro region for some tramping. Attempt #1 failed because the weather report we were given was not at all accurate for the park. We drove there to find snow and get odd looks from the woman behind the visitors’ center desk when we told her what we were thinking of doing. Since the volcanoes were utterly impossible to see in the conditions, we canned the idea of hiking to the Waihohonu Hut and decided to take a day tramp on the Silica Rapids walk. We had given a German guy a ride to the park, and he joined us.

As you can see in the second photo, I was rather thrilled to find snow. I hadn’t expected to find any during our time off! I felt so much more at home as soon as we encountered snow on the road.

After hemming and hawing over what to do the next day – trust the weather to clear and hold as predicted for 36 hours or head to a new destination – we decided to give the tramp to Waihohonu a shot. Finally, on my 4^th chance to see the “ooh, aah, eeh!” region of the volcanoes… it was clear! Mount Doom was visible!

The clouds slowly cleared throughout the day, and we got awesome views of both Mount Ngauruhoe (see why it’s easier to call it Mt. Doom?) and Mount Ruapehu. Luckily for me, Rose also has a Nikon DSLR and had no problems with stopping to capture far too many photos. The “hut” was pretty much brand new and is one of the Great Walk Huts. In the peak season, it costs ~$35 to stay there. With a backcountry hut pass in the off-season, it’s $15. (We got hut passes, and they are cost-effective.) Yes, Rose and I had that entire hut to ourselves! It has gas cookers, solar lighting (once it’s dark out), and a wood stove! What happened to “roughing it?”

Following our adventure on the slopes of Mount Doom, we headed north to Taupo and then east over to Lake Tutira and Boundary Stream Reserve, a mainland island with intense pest eradication measures. We saw some of the birds Rose was hoping for, but not the kokako. 🙁

We drove north from Wairoa to Te Urewera National Park, home of Lake Waikaremoana, one of the North Island’s 2 Great Walks. Unfortunately DOC seems to think there is no off-season for that tramp, so the huts and campsites were full price. I may do that tramp later because the lake itself is pretty awesome… and full of freshwater. Not to mention the cliffs are relatively epic! (a little like the Cliffs of Insanity)

A drive through Te Urewera did bring us to a nice tramp to Lake Waikareiti. Rose and I agreed it probably would have been more special if we had gone swimming or been able to rent one of the rowboats. As it was, the lake was pretty and is one of those cool lakes that has an island with a lake with an island in it.

The road through Te Urewera is technically a state highway, but the pavement does not stretch very far. We’ve learned NZ randomly has stretches of pavement that lead to stretches of gravel… that lead to stretches of pavement. We don’t get it either, but it makes for some good laughs when you have those bits in the course of 5K with no clear reason why!

The road north of Te Urewera is apparently one of the least visited areas of NZ. It’s a typical gravel, narrow, winding road that goes through the mountains and hills before popping out in Murupara. I let Rose have her first go at driving in NZ on that road.  We took it to Whirinaki Forest Park for a short tramp.

I’m not sure if I’m used to AK’s glacially fed rivers or what, but the water of Whirinaki River was beautiful! It seemed to glisten with that beautiful aqua color, and I could see the river’s rocky bottom. The track followed the river quite a bit, keeping me captivated the whole way.

Rose was equally captivated by the water, but she was watching the banks and rocks for blue ducks. All of our looking paid off as we saw 2 blue duck in the middle of the river! Unfortunately, somehow both of my DSLR batteries were dead, meaning I only got lousy pictures of the birds. Oh well, better than nothing? (I was pretty upset at the time. I guess it’s a lesson learned.)

Here’s the Whirinaki Hut when we arrived…

And the next morning…

Yes, I was a giddy little kid when I woke up and went out to the longdrop to discover it had snowed overnight. If the firewood hadn’t been wet, Rose and I would have curled up with tea and hot chocolate, sat by the stove, and watched the snow all morning. Unfortunately that wasn’t possible and the floor was COLD, so we moved on.

When we finished up that tramp, we headed to Rotorua before taking a detour south to pick up Rose’s car. We dropped my car at Sarah’s in Palmy and then headed north to get back to our lovely incubating kiwi.

Now that was back in August. Since then we’ve had our 2 weeks on the island, been off for another 2 weeks, had another 2 weeks on the island, and are now halfway through another break. Yep, I’m a slacker. NZ is also horrible for internet access! This update courtesy of the internet at my WWOOF hosts.