Rachel Grindlay

Yet again the weather forecast leading in had been unfavourable, but by the time the day arrived things were looking good. Our bus/train/bus combo got us to Paraparaumu Beach in time for a coffee before we sailed to Kapiti Island. (Only because we chased the bus across the Coastlands car park until we worked out where the bus stop was!).

For those that don’t know Kapiti Island is a predator-free nature reserve and as a result has a large population of bird life.

I don’t think the water could have been flatter for our trip across and so we arrived ahead of schedule. We got an interesting talk from the ranger and then we were free to explore until our boat left that afternoon.

Tom & I decided to walk up the Trig Track (ascent-only use), only I got about a third of the way up and realised I’d left my camera in the toilet so I got some extra ascent/descent for my day. And Tom got some slow track walking time to try and get bird photos.

Tūteremoana, the highest point on Kapiti Island, is 521m, so it was another big hill for the trip. We enjoyed the views from the elevated platform at the top before nabbing some shade for lunch.

The Weka was clearly used to people lunching and was out and about hoping for anything he could find. A young lad at the summit said he “wished that the weka would come that close to me” as the Weka was making a nuisance of itself under my feet. I assured him it probably would as soon as he started eating lunch. That was the only bird I bothered photographing – you’ll have to wait for Tom’s photos for all the good bird shots.

Our trip back a bit choppier and we got to watch some tractor rescues at the beach on our return. The rising tide playing havoc with a smaller tractor that was too far out. There’s no jetty and so all launches seem to be done with the aid of tractors.

We stayed the night in Paraparaumu Beach. With a deteriorating weather forecast we got away early the next day to do the Escarpment Track (but not before the best coffee I had in NZ – shout out to The Common Room). We had a much more successful bus/train connection getting to Paekākāriki and it wasn’t long before we walking.

Ooooh we were also doing part of the Te Araroa. Apparently some people get a kick out of that!? Frankly if I was doing the Te Araroa I think this section would just annoy me as it has so many stairs and you’re walking alongside a train line…

The views are pretty good – but they are much the same for the whole walk. And the whole thing is very exposed so we were glad to have got two-thirds of the way along (and past some of the more dodgy sections) when the rain/wind came in.

We encountered a number of groups coming from the other direction looking like drowned rats in a variety of jackets – not many of them what I would consider raincoats.

The kilometre at either end of track which takes you to/from the stations is particularly uninspiring, but on a nice day you would forgive that for the rest of the outing. While the highpoint was only 220m, I think we went up and down enough to say we got another pretty good hill workout.

A great mini-break on the Kapiti Coast.

We had hoped to the do the Tararua Southern Crossing but with an uncertain weather forecast and too many logistics we ended up going with a logistically-easier option in the Remutakas. We carried our overnight packs for both days, even though for the first day we didn’t need to. Good thing we did though as our legs were definitely telling us about the lack of pack walking in the last few months.

It was a drizzly day when we got dropped off. The forecast said it was going to clear so we opted to start with the Orongorongo walking track with the hope that by the time we got up on the ridge later in the afternoon we’d get some views.

After fun times playing with the wind-up bird calls near the start we soon got underway. I could soon see why this is “one of New Zealand’s most popular walks”. The forest was delightful and largely kept out the rain. A most enjoyable morning of walking before morning tea at the confluence of Turere Stream and the Orongorongo River.

The weather didn’t seem to be going anywhere as we set off up Cattle Ridge Track.

Another stiff ascent (this time ~400m with packs) rewarded us with absolutely no views. And the track got more overgrown as we went, so by the time we started descending Butchers Track our shoes were sodden.

The campsite was not designed for walkers in mind – another few hundred metres down the road before we found the entrance. We found a nice spot in the small tent area that I’d reserved – though when we were arrived we were the sole occupants of the whole place so we really had our pick of anywhere.

We were glad to find a large covered area (well large for 2 people) where we could dry out. The rain largely let up and we got a little bit of sun.

We were beginning to think we’d be the only ones for the night when around 7pm various parties began arriving. We watched on fascinated as a family pulled up in their new-looking ute and proceeded to pull out what appeared to be brand new camping gear. And then blow up their tent – no poles required it seems? Who needs television.

Our second day involved walking out to Wainuiomata where we could get public transport. Five Mile Creek Track also had wind-up bird noises so that delayed us getting going. Five Mile Creek Track was an enjoyable ascent to where it met the Clay Ridge Track. From there things got a bit steeper – but that was what we were there for – getting hills in our legs. Eventually we walked over the summit of Mt McKerrow (706m) – though there is just a knee-high metal pipe to mark the spot. We were fortunate that the cloud lifted enough for us to get views on the occasional spots where the forest opened.

Unfortunately once we started descending off Mt McKerrow the track deteriorated into bog. Every time I thought we might be through the worst of it we hit another patch. I’m not sure which surface I dislike walking on more – sand or mud – either way they are very close to the bottom of my least favoured.

Eventually the mud reduced and we made good time in the bottom section fortuitously popping out at Hine Road 5 minutes before a bus was due.

Nearing the longest day of the year and being a fair way south meant we had a lot of daylight to play with. So arrival at our accommodation at 5pm (somewhat delayed) was the perfect time to go for a 3 hour walk! (well… 1.5 – 3 hrs depending on who you believe) After all the dinner reservation wasn’t until 8:30pm.

We hadn’t been able to get as much walking (particularly hills) into our legs as we would have liked in preparation for this trip. And didn’t the Queenstown Hill Track let us know. The footpath out of the town centre and up to the official part of the walk was probably the steepest bit. Queenstown lies at 310m above sea level, and the Queenstown Hill Summit at 907m. A tidy 600m climb before dinner if you don’t mind.

Drizzle came and went as we powered up and in the end we got some lovely views over The Remarkables.

The next day we had hoped to do some climbing in the Remarkables but with a dodgy weather forecast we concluded an early-ish walk up Ben Lomond was a safer option. Early turned out to be not so early as the first gondola wasn’t until 9am. We decided with over 1,000m ascent even with the gondola skipping 400m we were hardly making it into an easy day.

Despite the weather forecast the morning was absolutely stellar. This track doesn’t give you a let up – you are almost always ascending, until you’re almost always descending. Good thing there’s so many views to stop and look at!

With the weather forecast to close in and deteriorate from mid-afternoon we thought we might be some of the last to summit. For whatever reason there were not many people arriving on the summit after we did and we had it largely to ourselves for lunch. I was subsequently surprised to start encountering plenty still trudging up as we got about a third of the way down. The weather never really got foul so they would have been ok, and this was the start of our distrust of the weather forecasts for the trip…

On our third day in Queenstown we cycled from Arrowtown to Gibbston (all we had time for before our flight). I don’t have any photos of that though as I left my camera with our luggage. Oops.

I wasn’t feeling it when the alarm went off. I still wasn’t feeling it when we started walking (though I was feeling severe DOMS in my hamstrings from two days earlier). Not helped by my walking pace for some reason being considerably slower than Tom & Jon so I kept getting left behind. And I can’t even blame my leg length! However, having endured the rough drive in* which I had no desire to ever repeat I figured I better make the most of the opportunity to explore this part of the world.

*some (most?) wouldn’t consider it that rough. But I dislike rough dirt roads. Particularly ones which I think we could get stuck on. I was glad to be in the back seat and stare out the window and pretend I didn’t know what the state of the road was.

Once we got off the old fire trail and into the off-track walking I had no problem keeping up with Jon and Tom. We started getting some cliff edges and the top of the rocky-ridge was an excellent spot for morning tea. Though as it turned out just below where we stopped would have been an even better spot. Apparently we were making good time as our morning tea spot had been Jon’s lunch spot on a previous trip.

All too soon the rocky scrambling came to an end and we were plunged into some pernicious mountain holly. I’m not sure if mountain holly is just what Tom & I call it – I tried googling it when I got home and found very little in the Australian context. Anyway, Tom assures me the scientific name is Podolobium ilicifolium – the inspiration for this blog post title. This was some of the largest stands of it that I’d seen in a long time. Fortunately it didn’t seem to co-exist with the Hardenbergia – that would be a combination from hell. The holly while prickly wasn’t tooooo bad to push through. After we left the thickets of holly we then had swathes of Hardenbergia – pretty but pretty annoying to get through.

By the time we got down to Bowens Creek I was hot! The day really felt like summer was on the way. I had a very quick swim – the water was bracing. But what a great spot for it.

After lunch we headed up a side creek which was surprisingly (to me at least – who hadn’t looked at any maps) vertical. We had some fun scrambling before exiting up another side creek.

Fortunately Jon found us a way out at the top of the creek – I had gone traversing looking for a break in the cliffs – which were always promising but didn’t deliver. A couple of exposed moves got us ‘out’.

Well, they got us through the cliff line. We still had a way to go to get onto the top of the ridge. Here we encountered more mountain holly, which then gave way to more Hardenbergia. Some way up I mentally ran out of steam and relinquished the lead to Tom. It was that sort of vegetation where you don’t even know where to go because everywhere is just a tangle of Hardenbergia and you have to fight for every metre.

It was only once we got to the saddle which had a gentle breeze I also realised how stifling it had been on the ascent up the slope. Fortunately the narrow ridge meant the vegetation thinned out and the next section was far more enjoyable.

I had been somewhat concerned we were going to get hit by a storm. Well, let’s be honest, I was more worried that the road out was going to get hit by a storm – and given how much I’d not enjoyed the drive in, a wet road going out was going to be even worse. But we didn’t get any rain. Back at the car Jon commented on a couple of drops of rain on the windscreen but that was it…. until we got to the gate. When Tom got out to open it we could see streams of water flowing everywhere. It seemed a cell had dumped there but missed us only a couple of kilometres away. The next 50m of road was the dodgiest – and not helped by having just been saturated. Jon’s car managed to get us up the slight slope on the second attempt and from there I could relax as we were back on the ‘good’ road. I was very grateful that we had taken Jon’s car and not ours.

We finished off the day with excellent Thai in Richmond. Today was a reminder of how rewarding day trips can be – though a little part of me felt ripped-off that we couldn’t hang about on the creek and enjoy it for a bit longer. I want to say another time… but I really don’t want to drive that road again.