I woke up for sunrise, it was partially undercast again but the sky above was completely clear, the full moon hadn’t set yet, Mt Ruapehu (which I just hiked around two weeks ago) was in the distance, one of the only other things breaking through the undercast clouds. I sat alone on a rocky outcropping […]
It was a short day, we started just after 7 and stopped at Dawson Falls for coffee at 9. The trail from there started going up. Then it REALLY started going up. I think we gained 400 meters in about 1 km (which is more than 1,000 feet in less than a mile). To top […]
I realized I was out of stove fuel, I know I had some, so on not sure if I grabbed someone else’s empty on accident or what, but I needed to get more. Once that was sorted we hitched to the North Egmont visitor center and started planning our route around Mt Taranaki. We are […]
Spent the AM repacking my pack after everything had been in barrels for a week and updating my blog. James and I got into a water fight which started as retribution for pirate antics on the river… fair enough. I went to attack Betty with a squirt gun, who we tried to recruit as the […]
The water level on the river kept rising overnight, the place where we tied our canoes up initially the night before was completely submerged in the AM, and the river was super fast, but now the sun was out. The last day we make it to the ocean, so we have to be mindful of […]
Had some intense thunder and lightning with strong winds and lots of rain overnight. I was glad I opted to sleep in the bunk room instead of pitching my hammock on the ground (as with many of theses pay campsites there aren’t many trees in the camping areas). Malween’s tent got flooded, but everyone else […]
Great start. Stopped at the bridge to nowhere, which actually went somewhere. Honestly I didn’t think it was worth it. Even worse after we got there a huge horde showed up. We lunched around the corner then set off. For some reason I was feeling really tired for the next leg, both physically and mentally, […]
Another great day, the scenery changed but I’m not sure hit to describe how, there were a ton of small waterfalls and canyon walls covered in odd and ferns like the day before, but it was also distinctly different. The campsite was up a hill, but when you got up it was wide open. At […]
Rain, fog, canyon walls covered in moss and ferns that look like they haven’t changed in forever. The rapids were lighter today and there were long stretches where the water was calm. For one of the stretches just before the campsite we just drifted in silence for a while listening to the wind in the […]
Robin, Amber, Malween, Lucas and myself set out in pirate masks armed with squirt guns and flying a makeshift pirate flag from Taumarunui. The idea is to surprise Audrey, James, Alex and Will. To add the the surprise Amber told them she wouldn’t be able to make the canoe trip. There were some class one […]