Cone Hut Rat Extravaganza

Chased out of the hut by a pack of rats!  We packed up by headlamp and hiked in the dark down a strange trail to pitch our tent away from the rats.   Then a possum came to bother us.  I put our food in the tent and the possum went away and we were able to sleep.

Cone Hut best left for the rats

10K or six miles with 1,500 feet or 500 meters elevation gain.  Why do they list distance in hours here?    I find that to be a meaningless measurement.  I want to know the distance and the elevation gain, not how long it took someone else to hike it.

Rata Ridge from Wainui Lookout down the Zig Zag trail.

I am surrounded by green hills in Wainuiomata and some of the are accessible.    There is one that I see no way up from the side I am on and I don't have a car in this country and I don't think buses go there.  Public Transport here is quite good if a bit pricey.  Pricey compared to what I am used to anyway.

I'm only here for a little while so I may as well explore all the hills I can easily reach first.
My friend dropped me off at the Winui hill lookout as she made her way to work.  I caught a bus back home at the end of this through hike of Rata Ridge.

I was very tired, I almost bailed and caught a bus home early.   Instead of bailing I decided to have a sandwich and a cup of coffee and then see if I felt good enough to carry on.   The food and coffee break was refreshing so I kept with my original plan.

I am enjoying the exotic plants and birds here.  The views were pretty good and a fantail bird followed me for a bit.

When I hit the bottom of the zig zag trail I walked to the Wainiu shopping area and had a steak and cheese pie and a coke.  I thought I had walked 6 miles and could get away with a pie, but my GPS was set to metric and I had only gone 6 kilometers.  Oh well the pie was good.  Not quite as good as the pies I had in Featherston though.

I got off one bus stop too late and I probably walked too far to get to my bus stop.  Doing anything in a foreign country is just a little bit more difficult.  It does not help that two bus routes share the same number and some of the same stops.  Be careful riding route 160.

Our house

4.5 miles with 600 feet elevation gain, including my walk to the bus stop

Orongorongo Track and Big Bend Track Remutaka Forest Park NZ

My bowfin 2 tarp tent in New Zealand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDVUFzlJX2Y

I brought and declared  my tarp tent when I went through customs in Auckland, so I thought I better use it before I leave!  Customs took my tarp tent to a room out of my sight where they checked it for bugs.  They kept my tent for at most 10 minutes before the little window under the sign that said "Bio security" opened and they told me I could have my tent back.  The customs agent directed me to a table where I could stuff my tent back into its bag.  Declaring the tent probably cost me half an hour at the airport, so I needed to use it!  Plus the tent took some room in my suitcase.

Sure I could have gotten a tent in New Zealand, but not a shires tarp tent!  I did not have a lot of room left in my suitcase for clothes since I packed my day pack,  a tent, my sleeping quilt, my cook set and everything else I need for backpacking.  Good thing my backpacking gear is all very light, I had to keep my suitcase under 50 pounds for the long overseas flight.

My friend in NZ had never been backpacking before and she was keen to try it.  I found her a reasonably priced and light backpack at REI and had it mailed to her before I left.  REI charged
$20 for international postage and there were no customs fees.  I've found the outdoor gear in NZ to be very expensive the $20 postage fee was of no concern due to the $$ she saved on this tent.

I decided to keep this an easy trek so my friend might enjoy it more and want to do more hikes with me in the future.  The trip was 8 miles in total with 500 feet elevation gain in and 300 out.

Elevation gain on the way out is calculated in the graph.

It was a beautiful hike and we had a lot of fun.  The only thing that took from the hike was the trucks driving up the river bank.  It turns out the a lot of people own vacation cabins in the forest park.  I think the cabins are grandfathered in.  I was so glad that I filtered or boiled all of our water.  I did not know what was upstream of this water so I did not risk drinking it unfiltered.

8 miles with 800 feet total elevation gain.

Summer down under

Massive Rata tree

Wainuiomata to Wellington Via Trail, and Matiu Island Ferry

Start of my hike at 7:10am

This was the one year anniversary of my husband's death. 

My friend dropped me off at Fern Gully track in Wainuiomata and, I hiked about 9 kilometers to Days Bay ferry.  I had to wait over an hour for the ferry to Matiu island.  I was stuck in the sun on the island for 2.5 hours but at least I saw parakeets there.  Next I took the ferry to to Wellington.

It was too windy to leave Bob's ashes on the island as I had planned, plus it was a quarantine island, bad vibes.  

 I put a vial of Bob’s ashes off the crowded ferry, had to be stealthy.  I felt like Bob was happy with that.  Saw abalone shell on island where I was thinking about spreading ashes, maybe a sign?  

I saw green parakeets  on Matiu island, they were not budgies, they were bigger with red on their heads.   Long day in the heat, very tired.  Did not cry at all, I’ve gone a bit numb I guess.  A bit dissociated at times I think.  Bob gone one year now. 

Met my love at the train, she bought a daypack there to use on the Tongariro alpine crossing .  She made a nice dinner with lentils, veg and mince.  A lovely dessert or “pudding” of  hot custard with passion fruit on top.  Very nice.

This day kicked my butt.  A long hike, suppressed grief and the super bright New Zealand sun.  I also did a lot of waiting around for the ferry and then for my friend to get off work so we could ride the train home together.  Also just navigating in a strange area and in a foreign country is tiring.  It is a just a little bit harder to do everything when you are not in your home country.

I better understand what it must have been like for my British spouse to live in the states.  He really coped well with being in a strange country.

My total for the day was about 6.5 miles with about 1,000 feet elevation gain.  

About 6.5 miles today but it felt like more.  I did not cry at all, I guess I'm dissociating a bit.  Grief is probably wearing me down even if I am not feeling it well.  About 1000 feet elevation gain

Matiu Island from the trail

Ferry to island and to Wellington

Dock at Matiu Island

Small lighthouse, everything is smaller here

Parakeet on Matiu island

Abalone Shell

A sea bird

Crowded ferry to Wellington, vial of Bob went off this but closer to the island

Pulling into Wellington

Disembarking in Wellington

Wellington

Christmas in July

People on the street

Tui at Waterloo train station

New daypack for my new love

My rough route on Matui Island, I went here at the wrong time of day it was too hot.
Also this might be fun for folks who don't get out into the real bush, but not so fun for me.
1 mile

Wainuiomata to Days Bay track in Imperial measurements 4 miles

Wainuiomata to Days Bay track in modern sensible metric measurements

Rough route from Ferry dock to Wellington Train Station 1 mile

Waterloo Train Station to Car 1/2 mile walk