Tararua Southern Crossing

There are many classic walks (or tramps as they are colloquially known here) in New Zealand. One of the lesser known ones - but very popular with Wellingtonians is the Southern Crossing of the Tararuas. I have since found out that there are many versions of the route - but we started at Otaki Forks and headed southeast to Kaitoke in the northern Hutt Valley. The problem with many of these crossings is organising transport, as you start in one place and end somewhere else. Aaron kindly volunteered to drop off Sam, Barbara, me and Rata (the dog) and pick us up, as he is still injured and couldn't carry a pack.

We set off after work on Friday - after a quick stop in Paraparamu for fish and chips. The walk in to the Field Hut for the first night takes a couple of hours. We set off at 7pm and got to the hut just after it had got dark at about 9:30pm. Just in time for a cup of tea and piece of cake. Surprisingly the hut was not very busy and there was still plenty of room (it sleeps 15 or so)- we had brought our sleeping mats just in case we had to roll them out on the floor. Rata has to carry her own stuff in her saddle bags - including water, food, her lead and her blanket to sleep on outside the huts.


Helen, Barbara, Rata (the dog) and Sam about to set off


Field Hut where we spent the first night - the oldest hut in the Tararuas

The second day is a walk along the ridge above the treeline. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky, and we were rewarded with 180 degree views from Taranaki all along the coast to Kapiti Island, the north of the south island, Wellington and over to the Wairarapa.


Kime Hut - one of the few huts above the tree line, we stopped briefly and refilled water bottles


Sam and Barbara at the top of Mt Hector


Barbara and Rata walking along the ridge

There were a couple of sections where the ridge gets pretty narrow and you wouldn't want to negotiate them on a windy day. We had the opposite problem with no wind and quite warm - so we had to refill water bottles at Kime Hut. Rata also took any opportunity to drink and cool off in little tarns along the way.


On a hot day any little tarn was a welcome dip for Rata to cool off

We reached Alpha Hut, just back below the treeline at 4pm. We had taken our time along the ridge, enjoying the views. At about 5pm we had a bit of excitment as the rescue helicopter landed in the clearing near the hut and a policeman came in and asked us if we had seen a hunter and his dog that were lost. There are quite a few hunters in the Tararuas, hunting deer, pigs etc.. so quite a few of the huts have kennels for their dogs - so Rata got a nice kennel to sleep in at Alpha Hut.


Alpha Hut, our second night just back into the trees again

The final day of the tramp is through "Hell's Gate" and down the Marchant Ridge. For some reason the Marchant Ridge has a bad reputation for being long and boring - but no one we spoke to had actually done it! We didn't find it too bad. It was nice to be in the trees to keep a bit cooler than walking along the ridge. The track was pretty rough in places.


Last day was walking along the Marchant Ridge through the trees - which provided lots of good shade



Last proper view from the top of Mt Marchant

We had arranged to meet Aaron at 6pm at Kaitoke. He actually walked up the path to meet us, but we made it to the car park exactly at 6pm. We had pretty much run out of water and Rata was finally tired! We stopped for the compulsary ice cream on the way home.

The walk is only 35.4 km, with 2,250 m ascent, 2,475 m descent and it took us 19 hours (with lots of breaks) - so we were averaging less than 2 km an hour! They do this route as a race each year - the fastest time is 4 hour and 27 minutes - but I'm guessing they don't have many stops to admire the view!

Scorching Bay Triathlon

For some reason Kiwi's like to give places completely misleading names. There was nothing "scorching" about the bay at 7:00am in the morning. Despite participating in various team triathlons in Canberra I have never attempted to do one by myself. So I decided that this summer I would give one a go and conveniently enough Scorching Bay is about 5 km from our house and the course is where we often ride, so I knew what I was letting myself in for. Unfortunately I haven't been doing much training - I think I have managed about 3 swims and 3 runs in the last fortnight and one long ride (on top of my normal commuting)! I figured the lack of training would be a good excuse if I didn't do very well and I would use this first one as a practise run, especially with regard to transitioning between the different disciplines. I also opted for the medium or sprint length triathlon - which is 750 m swim, 20 km ride and 5 km run.

The weather was pretty much perfect with no wind and no rain and a flat calm sea - apart from the ferry wake that went through when I was swimming! Standing at the start was a little nerve wrecking as there were a lot of very fit looking people who all seemed to know what they were doing. It was good to get into the water and start swimming, and wasn't as cold as I was expecting. It was certainly nicer to swim in than Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra. Swimming in a wetsuit in salt water was also very buoyant and I felt like I was totally floating on the surface. I am still not a big fan of being surrounded by other people kicking their legs and swinging their arms around in close proximity! I survived the swim and wasn't quite the last out of the water. I did have a few issues with getting my wetsuit off in transition and had to ask a random spectator to un-velcro me!


Swim

I set off on the bike, which was probably the most fun part of the race. I felt pretty strong and I was happy to be drinking some water to take away the taste of the salt water that I had swallowed in the swim. I found myself overtaking quite a few of the other women on the ride, especially up the hills and when we were heading into the very weak southerly.


Bike

Unfortunately all those women I had overtaken on the ride proceeded to overtake me on the run. It might not have helped that I couldn't find my stuff at the transition and faffed around a bit. I also found it pretty hard to run initially as my calves felt tight after riding and it took a while for them to loosen up.


Run

My aim was to complete the whole thing in 1 hour and 30 minutes - my final time was 1 hour 33 minutes - not too bad as I hadn't estimated any time for transitions! However, plenty of room for improvement.... so I might have to give another one a go. I'm not sure I will be attempting the full length triathlon any time soon - a 10 km run at the end just seems like an impossible task, 5 km was painful enough.


Finish

New Years Day Picnic

Wellington Harbour


Butterfly Creek

Snorkelling at Princess Bay

Yesterday was quite warm and so we decided it was time to brave the water on Wellington's south coast. The water is still quite cold and despite the number of kids splashing around in just swimmers we donned full wet suits. It was quite cold.... I was wishing I had a fancy hood like Dave and Kareen. Princess Bay is within the Wellington south coast marine reserve so has some pretty good wildlife. We saw lots and lots of seaweed and kelp. Quite a few fish and a couple of Paua (abalone) which locals often dive for their dinner - but not in the reserve.


Kareen and Dave ready to get in.


Helen's silouhette.


Kelp.


Paua Shell (abalone) on the pink coralline algae and surrounded by seaweed.

Boxing day paddle

Woke up on Boxing Day and the water in Evans Bay was glassy - perfect day for a paddle. Unfortunately Aaron is not able to kayak at the moment - so I rang a friend who came over. We loaded up "Betty" on to the car and drove over the hill to Worser Bay. We then paddled along the coast in and out of the rocks and amongst the seaweed and kelp forests to Scorching Bay. We had a quick stop to admire Jo's daughter Neve's sand castle (she went to the beach with dad while we were enjoying the paddle). We then carried on around the Miramar Peninsular to Evans Bay.


Scorching Bay, looking out towards the Wellington Harbour entrance


Jo in the front of "Betty" paddling the glassy calm Evans Bay, Wellington Harbour

On the way back the wind picked up a little - a light southerly - so we had to put a little bit of effort in to paddling. We timed it perfectly.

Christmas orphans

We had a very relaxing Christmas with some friends. The pouring rain finally stopped early in the morning and the sun came out around 11am. Various other Christmas orphans turned up at different times of the day and we spent the day sitting on our deck eating lots of yummy food and playing games!

This is our attempt to burn off some of the calories - playing an energetic game of twister. Aaron unfortunately was not able to join in due to his painful back, but he helped out eating the goodies!


Playing twister on the deck - Kareen, Helen, Dave and Steve.

Gardening success!

So my potatoes started to die back - which according to mum meant that they are finally ready to dig up. This is two potato plants worth of pink potatoes - and I found a few more in the soil later as well. They were very tasty just boiled with some butter and salt.


Pink potatoes

My carrots on the other hand were a little less impressive - some would even say alien like - supposedly the result of too many stones in the soil...


Freshly pulled out carrots


Alien carrots!