Walks with Moss: June 2021

Friday, June 18, 2021

Top of the east Whakanui again

Whakanui is pronounced fuckanooey. I kind of wish I did not know that.

The top of the trail. There was a lot of rain but I got a sort of okay tarp pitch at
the top to have my lunch under.

Amazing higher elevation fern

Traps for rats/possums/stoats to protect the kiwi

A dark and dreary hike but very fitting for near the winter solstice

Tuesday, June 8, 2021

The top of the East Whakanui Trail

I decided to go back again and try for the highest point on the Whakanui East trail. This trail is no longer marked and is sort of reverted to a trap line. Here in NZ you will find all kinds of traps and poisons along almost every trail. They are attempting to rid NZ of all predators by 2050. I’m glad they are trying to save the native animals; there are no native mammals to NZ other then two bats. But at the same time it greatly detracts from the sense of being alone in nature to see traps and boxes of poison everywhere.

I often find them located in the in nice flat spots where I want to eat lunch. I think the boxes might make a nice seat but who wants to sit on a rat trap while eating?

Last time I tried for this high point I missed and unmarked turn and I got soaking wet and turned back before making the high point. I also got very cold.

In the background "Bush Rice Grass" Microlaena avenacea in the midground the beautiful liverwort Schistochila pellucida(?) and in the foreground the magnificent "Prince of whales fern" Leptopteris superba, all native to New Zealand. All at 2,600 feet yesterday. The amazing fern does not show up until higher elevations, so I have only seen it twice now.

I caught two buses to the trail head today. Abra could not drop me off since our car was stolen and we are still waiting on insurance to repair it. Good thing the bus system here is so great.

I started my hike at 9:30 and gave myself a 1pm lunch and turnaround time if I wanted to make it out before dark.

Winter solstice is near. The shortest day of the year will be June 21-22 so the sun is setting at 5: PM. That makes a nice change from home where it gets dark at 4:30 on the shortest days of the year.

I was so tired at the start of this hike; I was not sure how far I would make it. I soon realized I was too hot; I had overcompensated for being too cold last time. I took off my hiking pants and just hiked in my leggings and that helped a lot.

In the 4 times I have hiked up here I have only seen people twice. One time I saw a couple working the trap line and today I a hiker passed me while I was resting and wearing just my leggings. He turned up a different trail though so I never saw him again.

I was low on water for most this hike as I got distracted by seeing one other hiker on the trail and forgot to make the turn to get water. I did not miss the turn by much, but I felt too lazy to go back and get more water.

I finally made it to the top just at one pm. It was a hard hike for me but the plants at the top made a nice reward. I saw lots of “prince of whales” fern and at least one other plant that only grows up high.

I also saw a green mushroom for the first time ever. It is native to NZ and Aussie so I have never seen it before.

There were a lot of bright mushrooms on this hike, but not very many of them, just lots of colors to be seen.

I was too tired to spend much energy on good photos. I barely made it to the top really.

On the way back down I made my previously missed turn for extra water and I brewed a cup of coffee and a cup of tea back to back.

It started to drizzle on the way down but nothing too bad. In the end I was glad that I wore my boots.

This was my first hike in this pair of La Sportiva boots. My other identical pair cracked when I dried them on the dehumidifier. I packed a brand new pair of them to NZ not knowing how much it might cost to get them here.

I stashed a bottle of kombucha at the trail head for myself since I did not have a car to keep a drink in and I knew I would be thirsty by the end of the hike.

I made it down to the bus stop just in time to catch the 5:15 bus out. My bus stop on Sunny grove road (in a sunless gully) is the last one on the line. The bus was turning around just as I arrived, so I did not have to wait at all.

I had ten minutes to chance buses from the 170 to the 160 line at Queen Street. Just enough time to grab some venison sausage at the butcher.

Editing photos for this post right now.

We had the sausage with king boletus that we found just blocks from our house the day before.

When I got home I was very tired but still I washed a mountain of dishes and cooked dinner. Abra was quite tired when she got home after being on her feet all day and losing 15 minutes waiting for the bus to pick her up from the train station. With no car she is taking a bus and a train to work.

Normally she takes her car to the train station.

The trail signs here drive me a bit nuts, they often state the time it take to hike the trail rather than the distance. I’d much rather know the distance and the elevation gain. The time it took someone to hike it is pretty worthless to me. I hike at my own rate, mostly slower than the stated times.

Except when going downhill then I seem to go about twice as fast as the stated times. Also I think they measure it different depending on if is a walking trail or a tramping trail.

7 miles with 2,600 feet elevation gain or11k with 790 meters

My company at lunch time.

Too tired to take non-blurry photos

Yummy but a bit heavy I guess

Brewing back to back tea and coffee after getting
dehydrated. Yes I know both are dehydrating as well.

Thursday, June 3, 2021

Journey to Goat Shit Lake (aka Lake Kohangapiripiri)

Lake Kohangapiripiri

Oh this lake sounded wonderful on the official websites. A lake just next to the sea with all kinds of birds breeding in in. Birds that can not be found breeding in other parts of the Wellington region.

The walk to the lake sounded pretty okay too, a walk along a dirt road that runs next to the sea. The road is used by cars as well and it certainly is not a nature trail, but it is next to the sea.

So I set out on about a ten mile round trip walk to the lake and back. Our car was stolen this last week so I road the bus part way into town with Abra then we parted when she got off at the train station and I stayed on the bus until it got to my transfer point at Queensgate mall.

There were white pidgeons, aka doves at the bus stop. It was suggested that they were let loose for an event of some sort.

I got off my final bus at 8:45 and began my walk down the coast road. The walk was pleasant and I made it to the turn off for the lakes nearly 5 miles before I saw anyone else. This is not the walk you want for solitude, but it's not a zoo either.

I ended up wandering half way around the Lake Kohangapiripiri (No idea how to pronounce this) looking for a perfect lunch spot. There was not a lot to sit on that was not covered in goat and perhaps also sheep poop. The trail around the lake was lined with gorse. Gorse is a horrible weedy plant that is very much like broom except for it has evil sharp thorns.

The trail suddenly ended at a fence line due to a board walk being shut down. I knew there was a closed boardwalk somewhere on the lake but was not sure if it would stop me from walking around the lake or not.

Since I was on a dead in trail I had this area all to myself and the goat poop and the possum corpses. Possums are being trapped and here in a attempt to let the native bush grow back. A few sections around the lake had been fenced off and replanted with native bush.

I did not make to to the lake Kohangatera but I expect it would be in the same sad condition. I hope that someday these lakes can be restored to their former glory.

The only birds I saw on the lake were Australian swans with babies and some oyster catchers. The baby swans (goslings?) were cute but far a way. I had hoped to see more birds, maybe I was at the wrong time of day or year for that. It is fall here.

After lunch I wandered down to the coast instead of going back up and down the hill to the lighthouse. By doing that I made a little loop around the lighthouse hill. I did not go to the light house at all because it looked very hot and exposed and a cyclist headed up there the same time I did. I was feeling anti-social and did not want to talk to anyone while taking in what would have been a very nice view.

The coast was quite nice in this section and I was very tired, so I took a few breaks just to stop and look at the waves. I took a few pictures but I was a bit too tired for good photography.

The walk back was pretty, lots more cyclists and several cars passed me. This trail seems popular later in the day than in the morning. I saw one other hiker who made it to the lakes.

I took a different bus back, the same one that stranded me in Petone last time because I did not realize what bus I was on. The driver helped me figure out how to make the transfer to my second bus.
The transfer skipped the mall but involved a 15 minute walk along a river front. From there I crossed a very busy and fast road to get to my bus stop.

Pedestrians have a very low status on the roads in NZ and crossing the street is bit scary. Pedestrians only have the right of way at the li cross walks and anywhere else cars will happily nearly mow you down if you dare to try crossing the street and there are not very many crosswalks here. That coupled with the fact that I am not used to cars driving on the left and can not accurately predict where cars are coming from, makes crossing the street here very scary for me.

12 miles with a whopping 150 feet elevation gain.

I'm going to start working to up my mileage and elevation gain. I kinda slowed down over the past year or so. Partly I slowed down due to wanting to stay near my dying husband and also to stay near my child once I became a single mother and then covid and population growth made the trails a crowded mess so that put me off most of my regular mountain hikes. But I am not longer the only adult in the the house and I have a whole new area to explore.