Te Aroha Mountain Summit: Day hike

Beth, Paula, Mike, Peter, and I

It has officially started. What? Our getting ready for the Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk that is. A portion of the Ninja Tortoises is going to head out and tackle the 46km track over the 3 day long Labor Weekend. We have been discussing this outing for several months. We have booked our hut spots and are anxious to go, but there are a few with limited experience. So we have planned a few outings before hand. Our conversation is really just a continuation of the same email thread that we kick around all our group activities. Did you know that Google will only allow 100 consecutive responses to an email before it spins it off to its own thread?

Any way, Peter, freshly returned from his trip to the US on Friday afternoon, was picked up by Paula and Mike in Auckland early Saturday morning while Beth and I left Kinloch to a foggy start. We met in Te Aroha at 9:30 am  and departed right from the iSite. The plan was to summit the 952m track via the direct path up, located behind the local spa pools, and then taking the longer ridge track back. Shortly before getting to the Whakapipi lookout, we were already stripping off excess layers. We would be adding/removing the outer layer most of the day. This would be a common story all day as the weather fluctuated all day long. After leaving the lookout, the conversation dried up as the heart rates increased along with the steepness. This was only a temporary set back as we stopped for snacks and the trail leveled out a bit.

At the trig station

 We heard all about Pete's trip to the US, where he downhill mtb in Alaska. He ended up having some medical issues on a flight to Boston. He ended up passing out 3 times on the flight and ended up "getting off" the flight in Chicago. He ended up driving to Boston with strep. Evidently the congestion prevented his body from equalizing and he passed out. Mike and Paula talked about celebrating their meeting at flight school. With a flight school reunion in Matamata. We ate lunch at the trig station and talked more about the Great Walk.

Bearded Pete in surprise

We talked about what gear we have/could share on the trail. A good discussion was our trail recipes for tramp meals. For previous trips, I've made Beth and I a combination of couscous, dehydrated peas, Parmesan cheese, chicken bullion cube, and canned chicken for dinner. For breakfast, I had porridge with dried fruit. For my daily snacks, as I typically don't eat lunch, is salami and cheese. Beth opts for English muffins with cheese.

 We joked that we should have a color-coded spreadsheet of equipment people would be responsible to bring. We are now planning an over-night planned trip in a couple weeks. We will find a tramp that has a decent distance and an available hut for our next adventure. It is good to break in the others with a gentle day hike, followed by an over-night trip, and then a multi-day walk.

Is this thing on?

Whirlwind US review

It would be an understatement to say we're just tired. Not only have we been bouncing from airport to airport to get back to NZ, but we also spent several weeks back in the US. The trip was a whirlwind of seeing friends and family that I have not seen in several years. The last time I was back was 2.5 years ago. That was a whirlwind trip as well because after I got off the flight I had an email with a job offer that started in 2 weeks. So I didn't get to reconnect with that many people as it was packing house and trying to stay on the New Zealand clock.

Anyway, back to this trip. We tried to see our friend Steve right away in Saint Louis, but it didn't pan out. He is currently living in Missouri and interning during the week in St Louis. I could retell the tale of how a lot of rib places close early and that I didn't get ribs until Sunday.

  It was one of my desired meals in the US. We then picked up Sara the following day before heading to the Moll family reunion. There ended up being just under 40 people in attendance. It was also roughly 100 degrees and very humid. It probably felt worse to us as we just left a high of 50 and some frosty mornings.

We flew to Minneapolis on Sunday and were greeted by Jake, Asa, and June at the airport. The kids have changed quite a bit since I've seen them last. Asa was working on a loose tooth, but the entire time I was back, it didn't come out. We loaded our bags and picked Becky up before eating dinner at Punch. After which we dropped Beth off to see some of her friends at her former local watering hole in NE Minneapolis, The Palace. We then topped the night off with Izzy's ice cream and playing tag in a park.

The next morning we drove out to South Dakota to see the rest of the family. As well as some friends. We had a lovely dinner over at my friend Melissa's house where her husband grilled for us. Her sister Miranda and her boy even showed up. Their father used to teach me Taekwondo. Then my parents threw a pizza and pool party and invited over all the relatives in town. I got to see my other brothers and sister as well as some of my nephews and nieces. I stopped over at my sisters house to play peanut gallery to my nephew and his friends playing 2nd Edition D&D. It reminded me a lot of my high school years.

Next was a quick over night trip to Sioux Falls to see Otis, Zerf, and Geffre. Otis has sired a large rambunctious family. 2 dogs, twin 3 year olds, a 4 year old , and a step-son of 11. There was also a cousin over. So the noise level was off the charts. I don't think our lives could be more different. So we ended up grilling out and shooting the shit until the early morning. If you're a guy and ever meet Gabe, make sure your boys or pay the price. You have to be on DEFCON 5 around that one.

Now it is back to Minneapolis, where we spent the bulk of our time back. Beth left a little early to go see some friends in Vegas. Minneapolis involved seeing a lot of friends and family, consuming too much awesome food, riding my bike with friends, trail running, playing paintball, sailing, randomly running into an old high school friend twice (once at the trail running race and the other time at Vertical Endeavors for indoor climbing), and playing with Asa and June. I could go into more detail like above, but to rehash each day right now feels like a  pretty draining exercise. To those that I didn't get to see, I'm sorry. There is only so much I can cram into a short amount of time. Next time you will be first and those I did get to see count yourself lucky.  For the few that I saw multiple times, don't rub it in or others may get jealous.

I do have a video that I'm editing together of us sailing. Both Asa and June took a turn operating the camera, so I'm sure the video will be extra special. I know that Asa liked taking 30 FPS action shots. So I have to make some gifs out of some of those. I'll add the photos and video later as its been a week since we got back.

Now its back to work, training, and planning our Ninja Adventures. We have Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk planned for the end of October.

Checking in

We've made it back to the States after a very long day. Haha. Of course I got pulled for the 'random' (only necessary for passengers to the US) screening. Then we had the pleasure of sitting in front of some young Aussies (probably college freshmen) going to 'the land of the free' for the first time. And they let you know it the entire flight. I may have slept 3 hrs total on the 13+ hr flight. We had just over 3 hrs in LAX to get to our connecting flight which we thought may be tight. Getting through LAX wasn't an issue as they are using some crazy electronic immigration terminals that printed a picture of you to be turned in as you left. It took about 30 minutes. We did get asked if we're bringing back Vegemite and I said that's not from New Zealand. Marmite would be what they eat and that there is a difference. Maybe not a good thing to say to immigration \customs officials. Now the fooding has begun. BBQ and Mexican so far.

Visiting the homeland

Next week, we'll be returning to the States for a brief visit. We'll be hitting a few States and trying to cram as much in as we can. Here is what is laid out so far.

This trip starts early with us heading to Auckland to have a get together with our friends there. Then hopping onto the plane heading West to Melbourne then another heading East to Los Angeles. Then another heading East to Dallas then another heading North to St Louis. This is where we plan on meeting up with our friend Steve. Whom has had his own adventures since seeing him last. Where do we know this stud from? He was on our burrito union team and we've played soccer together for years. All of this action is on the 23rd!

Next we pick up Sara up from the airport the next day and head to the family farm for a weekend of family reunion in Southern Illinois. This will be our only chance to see Beth's side of the family. I may get to eat some ribs and drink some sweet tea as well.

Sunday we fly to Minneapolis to meet up with my brother, Jake, and his family (Becky, Asa, and Juniper). They are picking us up from the airport and Beth has already voiced her opinion on eating at Punch Pizza on the way to their house. I'm sure the kids will be fine with that. That night I'm sure we'll play with the kids a bunch before crashing. They are going to be much bigger than the last time we saw them.

The next day we are heading to Aberdeen to see my folks and other family in the area for the next couple days. We may be bringing Asa and June with us, but I haven't heard definitively yet. Then on Wed we are going to Sioux Falls to see Otis and his growing family, Zerf in his new house, and Geffre. We head back to Minneapolis on Thursday where we are selling our kayak to a friend as we use it so I'm infrequently now.

Friday we have to checkout our renter and clean the place for the new renter who moves in the following day. From here our plans diverge. Beth is doing a half with Angi and Bri and I are doing a gravel ride on the 1st. Then I believe the plan is to go out to Jake's boat for a couple days of sailing and then biking back the 60+ miles to his house.

On Tuesday, Stef (another friend we have roped into burrito union and played soccer with), Beth, and I are doing a 7mile trail run in Hyland Park down by my aunt's house. Afterwards plan on grabbing a meal with friends and family.

From there plans are open, but I have serious eating and visiting to do. We have a list of places that we've been missing since we packed up. I won't bore you with the list but any friends I meet up with will secretly be scratching off a name on the list. Yes, I have a food list and a list of friends that I need to see. This includes and isn't limited to: Skog, Maria, Mary, Justin & Logan, Sludington & Paula, Pilon, Beth, Melissa, Proho, Shell, Matthew, Larry, Beth, George & Holly, and many others.

Saturday is paintball with the team. I'm going to see if my nephew Josiah is able to come play. Then prior to flying home Koderick and I'll be going out for a road ride. While I'm doing this Beth and Angi will be hitting the slots in Vegas.

We land a few days after we leave and then after faced with a 3.5 hr drive back to our quaint little hamlet of roughly 400. Where we are in full winter mode not the steamy mess we'll be leaving that is the mid-west summer. It will be right back to running and riding trails as we got events on the horizon. I have K2 and Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge for big rides. Then we are doing the Queenstown Marathon again. This is all in for a 2nd run at Ironman NZ.

Quick Update

We have been granted Permanent Residency. Its a good thing as we didn't have a back up plan other than never leaving New Zealand again, until we were ready not to work here.

We are starting to make plans for a trip back to the States next month. Its hard to grasp that I haven't been there in about 2.5 years. The trip is already starting to flush out and there probably will be people I don't see again on this trip as we'll probably be pretty full on the entire time. Granted its not just visiting people, but participating in fun activities like riding, climbing, running, and sailing. Oh and there will be food that I haven't been able to source over here.

ANZAC Weekend: Tongariro Northern Circuit

What did we get up to this ANZAC Weekend? We completed the 1st of the Great Walks, the Tongariro Northern Circuit. This is a trip we had originally planned for over Christmas Weekend, but I decided to get my eyes corrected instead. So we changed the date of our hut booking til this weekend.

Beth and I packed our gear for a 3 day tramp with us overnighting in Waihohonu and Mangatepopo Huts. So we left Kinloch early Saturday morning to drive to Whakapapa Village, the start of the circuit. We started our 18km walk into Mordor with a stop at Taranaki Falls and Lower Tawa Lake before we arrived at the 4.5 year old Waihohonu Hut. This 40 person hut was equipped with solar powered lights and water heating. It also had a wood fire stove that heated the sleeping areas.

Beth and I talked to a couple from Auckland, who were about to complete the circuit. The husband, Dave, was also a keen cyclist. We talked about different rides around the country and how we have an expensive hobby. We also talked to Sally, the DOC Ranger stationed here as the Hut Warden, about kayaking in the area. She had a lot of cool advice about how to get to some cool spots with geothermal activity. We'll have to take our kayaks out to these spots once they have been delivered. Oops. Did I let the cat out of the bag? My friend, Graeme, contacted me shortly after moving to Kinloch about having some kayaks for sale as he doesn't use them much. Beth and I have been looking for some for awhile and just pulled the trigger on buying some. I may have also picked up another bike as well.

Morning at Waihohonu Hut

Morning sun on Mt Ruapehu

Walking into Mordor

Ground view of the Emerald Lakes

The next morning we started out on the frost covered ground towards the Okurere Hut through some remarkable forest. It was surprising to see the dense trees while in a desert. We worked our way up and down multiple ridges and were treated with amazing views of Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngauruhoe. We made it to the hut after working our way across some barren land and some steep ridges. We stopped at Okurere Hut for a quick bite to eat and a toilet break before starting to tackle the most difficult section of the Circuit. We had to force our way up the scree past the ill-prepared tourists that flocked to do the spectacular Tongariro Alpine Crossing. This was a heart pumping, 1 step up/slide back 2 while being batted around with at least 70km per hour winds, slog of an ascent. We witnessed people loosing gloves while taking photos and having the garment fly into the crater. One German tourist was posing on the ridge with her jacket off and her jacket started to go over the edge and she dove after it. She luckily grabbed it without falling in with it. I can't recall the sheer number of people wearing shorts, jeans, cotton hoodies, carrying no water or food, shivering at the negative number windchill, and snapping photos without paying attention to their surroundings.

Emerald Lakes

After the slog up, it was a rocky stretch to Cathedral Rock, then through Red Crater, before descending Devil's Staircase. It was then a short walk with some elevated boardwalks and crushed stone paths that we made it to Mangatepopo Hut. This was a much smaller hut than our previous night, but it didn't lack for charm. We talked to a fellow American, who has lived here for the past 7 years, who works for ACC. She and her friend were up from Wellington and had originally planned to do the walk in 3 nights, but with the poor forecast they decided to push for 2 nights instead. Sunday night, the winds kicked up and the rain started.

Leaving Emerald Lakes

Beth and I left the hut early as the rain was supposed to get harder. It was supposed to get to 100 km per hour winds and downpours as the day wore on. We did have non-stop rain and gusts of wind when we were exposed, but much of the hike was spent in ravines. Today we saw almost nobody on the trail, which isn't unexpected with the weather, but there were a few intrepid runners who graced the trail this morning. We made it back to the car after some 48kms and tried to find some dry clothes as rain gear can only hold out so much water. I learned the lesson to keep a dry set of clothes in the car in the future.

Mt Doom

Easter Weekend: Te Ara Moana

While still recuperating from the Oxfam the weekend before, the Ninja Tortoises were busy planning Easter Weekend activities. We were talking about doing an overnight tramp, but a lot of the huts were already booked up. So Peter suggested and organized a trip doing part of the Te Ara Moana.

My partners in crime were Peter, Banu, Banafshe, Todd, and Mia. Beth stayed at home to do homework and some packing. The plan was to pick up the kayaks on Saturday afternoon and leave from Duder Regional Park, a place I haven't been since the P6 Adventure Race, and return them Monday afternoon. Getting the kayaks took a little longer than planned as they were beasts and the place didn't have straps. So Peter had to buy a few sets and learn how to tie a truckers hitch. With the kayaks firmly attached to the cars we left to meet up with Banu, who was finishing up with her Coast Guard duties in the area. The drive over to the launch point took some time as we opted to take side roads instead of trying our luck on the motorway with several thousand dollars worth of kayaks strapped to the roofs of 3 cars.

At Duder, we met Mags, who is with the Council, who directed us to park behind a Council owned building as it was a little more secure than leaving it in the park. We quickly unloaded the kayaks and gear as Todd and Banu were going to drive to our exit point and leave a car there. We proceeded to load up the 2 remaining kayaks with our gear and set off. The pair were Peter and Mia, Banafshe and I, and Todd and Banu. The 2 Bs had never kayaked before so we gave them a little instruction before setting out. The first evening, was a quick paddle around the point, which took us about 40 minutes.

We  set up camp our first camp and waited for Banu and Todd to get back from dropping off the car. They didn't have the best of luck as the White Pearl, Peter's car, decided it wanted to start overheating. In the mean time, we cooked our dinners. Its always fun to watch what people eat on these types out of adventures. I had chicken stock couscous, dehydrated peas, and garlic mussels and feijoas for dessert. Banafshe had nachos.

At around 10:30, I crawled into bed. Mia was already in the tent snoring away. Evidently Banu and Todd made it to camp around 11. They were paddling under the Full Moon and thought the flashing light from the other bay was our camp. Its lucky that Peter was texting them and directing them into the correct camp. Just prior to to lunar eclipse, Peter knocked on the tent. I poked my head out of the door and watched. I took some photos, but they didn't turn out well. Mia didn't budge.

The next morning, we had breakfast and my gas canister finally ran out. We had a big day planned of 24kms of paddling. We said goodbye to our campsite and made for Waitawa Regional Park. This was going to be our lunch spot, but we ended up eating on Pakihi Island instead. We ended up getting a little rain at this point as it had been threatening all morning. Here we met the only other people on the Te Ara Moana. Peter ended up scaring them off right after giving them some chocolate. After a quick bite to eat we were back on our way to our 2nd overnight location, Tawhitokino. Why did we choose these spots? They were only accessible  by water.
 On our way there, the skies opened up and it rained pretty good for 30 minutes. Once we got to the campsite, we didn't want to get out of the kayaks as it only took us about 2.5 hrs to travel the 24kms. We ended up playing a bit in the kayaks and with the camera.

On the beach was the remains of a fire that Mia nursed back while the rest of us set up camp. I ended up losing my sunglasses at some point here. We all hung up our rain gear and started playing card games. This went on for a good while. We then walked up and down the beach. We then gathered around the fire and talked about random things. It was well into the evening when we finally ate. I crawled into bed not that much later. We packed up early the next morning and made our way to Tapapakanga Regional Park where Banu's car was waiting for us. Peter, Banafshe, Banu, and I headed back to Duder to pick up our cars. We stopped to have the first of 3 pies in Clevedon. We got back to Mia and Todd who helped to mount up the kayaks. From there we started back to Auckland. Pete and I went back to Duder where he nursed the White Pearl down the highway before abandoning it on the roadside. We made it Papakura and had 2 more pies. Peter called a local shop to get it towed and looked at. Sadly, the White Pearl is on its last legs. Returning the kayaks was uneventful and now we are planning the next adventure, The Nugget.