Day One: Our first Great Walk, fully loaded with four days supplies: water, food, warm clothes, sleeping bags and waterproofs; the bags were heavy and we were straight into 5 hours of hard uphill tramping! We had some excited nerves, especially as the weather had forecast gale force winds! Eek!
Immediately we were in some of the most intriguing forests we have ever seen...
As we reached a lookout the massive task ahead of us - circling the lake - became apparent!
Back into the crazy hairy trees, we felt like we had stepped into Fangorn Forest... "What madness drove them in there?"... Dave was convinced that at one point he saw one of the trees open an eye!
The wind was so strong up here that the ground moved as the trees battled against it (the roots lifted around 6 inches making it feel like we were in an earthquake), this also resulted in the tops of the trees swaying so much that some of the trunks knocked together creating an eerie BOOMING!
The views from the top demonstrated the vastness of the Te Urewera National Park. Awesome.
We really can't capture in pictures just how strong the wind was... as it turned out we were glad of our heavy packs to keep us grounded!
It was a great first day but we were relieved to escape the weather when we reached the first hut:
Day Two: We were back into the goblin forest! The rain set in early doors and didn't let up all day... as a result we got to fully test our waterproof gear, thank goodness (or thank Vic & Jord) for waterproof trousers. Unfortunately the rain meant we didn't take many photos :-(
Day Three: The rain eased up on the whole, which is a good job as this day turned out to be an epic!
We took a detour off the main route to see a waterfall, worth the extra km's as it was a lovely spot.
With just the sound of birds for company we could have spent the day there but we had a long distance still to trek.
Every now and again we crossed swing bridges, the bounce of the bridge, particularly in the middle, added to the sense of adventure - Dave's quest, it seemed to Mel, was to ensure each crossing was as adventurous as possible!
Te Urewera National Park is home to some of New Zealand's oldest forests, everything seemed prehistoric, even the trees had scales!
After 6 hours we reached the hut where we were due to spend the night, to find it home to a party of fisherman/ hunters. It was pretty crowded/ smelly and we didn't fancy the look of all the riffles and ammunition strewn about, so we made the decision to strap the bags on again and smash out another 2 hours...
...In total we walked 18.3 km's across undulating terrain for over 8 hours. A beast of a walk but a awesome day! As a side note: we arrived at the next hut to find it occupied by the NZ Navy - the snoring was immense!!!
Day Four: Final day, the Navy had had enough of the tramp and phoned in the water taxi at dawn (lightweights), Team Yates (slowly) bashed out the final 4 hours in beautiful sunshine. Hurrah!
With tired legs and lack of sleep we were glad to reach the picnic bench that signified the end of the trail and our agreed pick up point for the water taxi.
1 Great Walk down, 8 more to go! We love, love, loved every minute of this challenging but rewarding experience - a truly "Great" way to explore raw NZ; bring on the next one! :-)
Fantastic pictures and reminscent of the lower slopes of Mount Taranaki on the west side of the North Island. The forests really are intriguing. I've never seen anything like them anywhere else I've travelled. It's no wonder that it was chosen as the natural site for 'Middle Earth'. They do feel alive and the 'booming' sounds the trees made could only have consolidated that feeling.
ReplyDeleteThe lake looks beautiful and, although it's obviously great to have seen it on Day 4 in the sunshine, being out in the storm of days 1 & 2 almost helps you appreciate its living nature and adds to the atmosphere.
Really great you're having such a good time - can't wait for some more pics and the next stories! It would have been good if you were at my retirement do - but even better if we had been with you on the walk!
Dad
xxx
Mum's posting some comments too as she hasn't got a gmail account.
Hi Dave and Mel,
Wow, what amazing photos again! Dad and I are trying to decide which ones would be best blown up. Sounds like you are both having an amazing time and that NZ is living up to your expectations. Wish we were there with you. We missed you at Dad's retirement but were thinking about you. Can't wait to see the next round of photos. Keep on having a great time and looking after each other. We'll catch up soon on face time. Lots of love Mum xxx