Monthly Archives: April 2015

GPS Tracks, New Zealand, Photography, Topo Map, Tramping, Travel Planning

21. New Plymouth – Whanganui: Dawson Falls

Tuesday, March 3: Very cloudy at first, becoming fine in the course of the afternoon

Tramping: 1.4 km

Hikurangi StayPlace, 1 Mount View Rd., Whanganui 4500, tel.: +64 6 343 3333. Single room with shared (1x) bathroom & toilet (BBH, $40 + $3)

Under the volcano
Under the volcano. Topo set: [download id="1677"]

Couldn’t sleep the last hour or so, so I was up at 8:00 and had a very frugal breakfast of muesli bars, crackers and coffee. The car had to be properly organised for the rest of the trip and that took up the next 2 hours. The case was reserved for the rest of the books and fresh clothes, the pack takes on the computer and diaries in the main compartment, and the vanity bag in the bottom one, the chilly bin is packed full of spoilable food and other stuff that needs to be kept cold, and there is a shopping bag with non-spoilable food and the large shampoo etc. bottles. The camera bag is now loaded with batteries and cards; one A470 is ready to go in the glove box, and the SX120 is in its pocket in the pack. A notebook with pen is with the glasses & ipod in one of the open compartments on the passenger side. Almost 100% ready to go. Read more…

New Zealand, Travel Planning

20. Raglan – New Plymouth

Monday, March 2: Quite cloudy at first, becoming fine & warm

Sunflower Backpackers, 33 Timandra St., New Plymouth 4310, tel.: +64 6 759 0050, triple as single (BBH, $45 + $5)

Robert was up earlier than me and the table was already laid out for breakfast. The usual fare: Cornflakes, banana, two poached eggs on toast and coffee. Then the packing had to take place – got most of the stuff into the rucksack, and the chilly bin is now fully functional with two frozen water bottles.

Decided to make Robert a present of the book and he insisted on an inscription (he had given me a print of one of his paintings the night before) and then the obligatory picture had to be taken for his collection. Fiddly mobile phone camera. He was also very pleased that I had gotten his ancient XP machine to run a little faster by clearing caches, deleting zombie files, killing a few processes, installing a few updates and eventually reducing the processor load to less than 100%. We swapped emails and no doubt he will find me on facebook. I’ll check to see if he has had his hip replacement surgery if I pass through Hamilton at a late stage in the journey. Read more…

GPS Tracks, New Zealand, Photography, Swimming, Topo Map, Tramping

19. Raglan: Bridal Veil Falls and Ngarunui Beach

Sunday, March 1: Warm and sunny with barely a cloud

Tramping: 1.7 km

Robert’s

I had gotten a fairly good night’s sleep and was up and about just before Robert, and we had breakfast together: Cornflakes, a couple of poached eggs on toast, and coffee. After getting the stuff together that I needed for photography, I set off for the Bridal Veil Falls for the walk and photo session #1.

Bridal Veil Falls
Bridal Veil Falls
The turnoff is a couple of kilometres down the road, and then a farther turnoff into the Kawhia Road led to a car park. Unfortunately the road is a dead end, otherwise I would have considered taking it to Kawhia, just to see the town again after 2009. Will have to see what alternatives there are.

Bridal Veil
Short stroll, map detail. GPS: [download id="1739"], map: [download id="1691"]
At the car park there were plenty of cars and not many signs of break-ins, so I took off in crocs as it was an easy walk. The waterfall is quite high (55 m) and the track starts at the top where the water disappears over the edge. There are a total of four lookouts, two at the top, one in the middle and one at the bottom. I started taking photos at the bottom with a time lapse of about half of the falls (first without, then with the filter) and repeated at the middle lookout (where the shooting had to be portrait orientation to capture the whole image) and at the top I got a time lapse of the water disappearing and a single shot of the “No abseiling” sign, although it is strangely out of focus. Read more…

New Zealand, Travel Planning

18. Auckland – Raglan

Saturday, February 28: Clear and sunny, and very warm with a couple of clouds

Robert’s (airbnb, $50)

Couldn’t sleep much beyond 8:30, and there was not much to pack this morning, so I got some breakfast (muesli, coffee), then transported my stuff to the door, woke Chinara and said goodbye to her, then marched along the street to the bus stop. Had thought of leaving my stuff there to begin with & collecting it later, but the roads were already chock-a-block and I was glad I had all my stuff with me, and didn’t have to drive back through town.

The bus was rather full as well (one bus later than planned, and it was apparently the planned bus that had failed to turn up). The driver let me leave my suitcase up front. When we were in town I was quickly at the stop in Albert St, and the next bus that I was able to catch was the one bus earlier. So much for Auckland’s public transport timetabling. Read more…

New Zealand, Travel Planning

17. Ohakune – Auckland

Friday, February 27: Cloudy in the morning, clearing on the way north, just a bit of rain in Taumarunui, which we missed, and rain visible in the distance around Hamilton

Chinara’s

Was up before 8:00 to finish off the bread from yesterday with what remained of the ham, and a can of Watties baked beans with sausages for breakfast. Simon called over with a final loaf of bread which I saved up for the bus trip.

The rest of the morning was spent packing and transcribing another two days of the diary. Managed to transfer €500 from a savings account to the Visa card, and with a daily limit on cash withdrawals of €600, I should be able to get the $1200 for the car together in cash for tomorrow. Read more…

GPS Tracks, New Zealand, Swimming, Topo Map

16. Ohakune: Old Coach Road

Thursday, February 26: More or less cloudy the whole day, increasing in the afternoon, but no rain

Cycling: Old Coach Road, 30.1 km
Swimming: 1200 m

Danni’s

GPS Track/Topo Map

Got up closer to 8:00 than previously the case and had breakfast before Simon turned up with his daily bread. That was the last of the eggs, so I will have to go shopping in the afternoon for something for tomorrow morning.

The Old Coach Road as a mountain bike trail was on the programme for today. I was ready to go just before 9:30 and cycling down Railway Row I seriously considered going back and trying on the breast mount for the camera. That wouldn’t have been such a good idea. Read more…

New Zealand, Photography, Swimming, Travel Planning

15. Ohakune

Wednesday, February 25: Changeably cloudy throughout most of the day, and still warm

Danni’s

Slept almost completely through until 8:30 when Simon knocked on the door with a fresh loaf of his bread. Breakfast had to be improvised from what else was to be found apart from the eggs & butter I have over from last week. Some wheatbix were found, some milk and sugar, so the day could start.

The butter, it must be remarked here, was rock solid out of the fridge and still maintains its buttery appearance and taste despite living for 10 days in my sealable plastic container and melting at least twice during the kayak trip. This must be the test of tests for all concerned, both butter and container. Read more…

GPS Tracks, New Zealand, Photography, Tramping

14. Oturere – Tongariro Crossing – Mangatepopo – Whakapapa: Tongariro Northern Circuit 3/4

Tuesday, February 24: Rain overnight clearing to foggy and then sunny with patchy clouds

Tramping: 20.9 km

Danni’s ($200 for 3 nights)

Nick had taken one bed of the triple that I had occupied and, unfortunately, he snored – mainly when on his back, so waking him & telling him to turn over produced a significant improvement. Towards morning the snoring also started in the side position, and not much else could be done, but poke him every now and then.

Tongariro Valley
Looking back over the Tongariro Valley at sunrise
Just before 6:00 people started getting up. Two dormitories were separate from the kitchen but not by much and the third was in the bedsitter, so to speak. I boiled some water for coffee and had some salami, cracker and muesli bars for breakfast before packing my stuff outside. It looked like I would be starting the tramp today with Nick & Slater, all the others except Khalil were going in the other direction.

We pushed off around 7:30 and looking back from the first hill was a photo opportunity for another time: Sunrise over the Tongariro Valley, with fog covering the river and the sun from behind. What a pity that we had to push forward. After a longer plain we reached a lava tongue and from here onwards it was pretty steep uphill until the Crossing was reached. I left the other two behind at this point as I was coming into stride. Read more…