the heaphy and the wangapeka
On the morning of Feb. 12th we woke up early, ready to start the Heaphy trek.
82 km, great walk, lots of praises.
The plan - meet Emily (the American girl from the Tongariro and that hunted us down on the Taranaki) at the trail head, walk it in 4 days, meet the "new" Floe on the last night, and walk the last day with him. and the day after, Maayan and I were to begin the Wangapeka (4-days-hike) at the end of which Yuval was to meet us for a day hike on the slopes of Mt. Owen.
that's so far as the plan goes.
In reality, things were a bit different.
By the time we got to the trail head Emily gave up on us and started off. We met her only after a few hours walk...
The walk itself was somewhat boring for us. First, the trail went a long time in a forest, and not a magnificent one.Second, even when we got "above the bush line", it was a flat area, and nothing nearly as exciting as we got accustomed to in NZ.And last, the trail was really well maintained, and wide enough to walk side by side, and you just felt as if you were going in an urban park or something, not really going "out there".That, plus Floe having very little time left in NZ, made us decide, at noon, on the 2nd day, to try and make it in 3 days instead of 4. Even though Emily did enjoy it, and decided to stick to the original plan.
So we did the 82 km in 3 days, making 25-32 km a day.
On the second day we had a few places with nice moss-covered trees.The third day was really very beautiful. Once we got to the sea, the coast line was quite magnificent even if not thrilling (for us) as snow capped mountains.We didn't know what to do with Floe, and decided to walk the trek, knowing that when we'll run into him we might have to turn around and go back to he hut with him.We met him 5 min. out of the hut, after he walked 16 km.But after 2 minutes talk he just turned and started back.We got out and drove to Karamia, where we stayed at a backpacker.
The next day, after a delicious breakfast, maayan and I got dropped off at the head of the Wangapeka.We spent 4 lovely days on this hike, most of them in a nice forest - we both actually liked walking in that forest!We were supposed to climb 2 saddles. the first, little Wanganui saddle, was brilliant. Really nice views on all directions and even 2 "saddle lakes". Really nice. We could even see the ocean far in the distance...The second saddle wasn't there.I mean, walking in the forest we got to a sign saying "Wangapeka saddle", but it seemed that the saddle itself gone missing...during this 4 days we only met 4 people on that trek, and 2 out of the 3 nights we had the hut all to ourselves :)
Walking a lot along the river, I finally couldn't resist it anymore, and twice did I get into the water :) Maayan joined me on the second time. So cold... So wonderful!
And thus, on the 18th, we got to the shelter at the end of the trek, where we waited for Yuval.And waited.After 5 hours he finally arrived.We were so glad to see him!Or as he put it - we were very hungry ;) We had a long, nutritious dinner, and camped 4 km away, at the foot of Mt. Owen.
But the next day, instead of climbing up the mountain we took Yuval to see a dr. - he had an infected thumb (nothing too serious, but just to be on the safe side).
And the lesson of this week is...Give us, Maayan and Tomer, an easy hike, and we'll make it much harder.
the relevant album...
http://tomeraroundtheworld.shutterfly.com/action/pictures?a=67b0de21b325e81484f7
82 km, great walk, lots of praises.
The plan - meet Emily (the American girl from the Tongariro and that hunted us down on the Taranaki) at the trail head, walk it in 4 days, meet the "new" Floe on the last night, and walk the last day with him. and the day after, Maayan and I were to begin the Wangapeka (4-days-hike) at the end of which Yuval was to meet us for a day hike on the slopes of Mt. Owen.
that's so far as the plan goes.
In reality, things were a bit different.
By the time we got to the trail head Emily gave up on us and started off. We met her only after a few hours walk...
The walk itself was somewhat boring for us. First, the trail went a long time in a forest, and not a magnificent one.Second, even when we got "above the bush line", it was a flat area, and nothing nearly as exciting as we got accustomed to in NZ.And last, the trail was really well maintained, and wide enough to walk side by side, and you just felt as if you were going in an urban park or something, not really going "out there".That, plus Floe having very little time left in NZ, made us decide, at noon, on the 2nd day, to try and make it in 3 days instead of 4. Even though Emily did enjoy it, and decided to stick to the original plan.
So we did the 82 km in 3 days, making 25-32 km a day.
On the second day we had a few places with nice moss-covered trees.The third day was really very beautiful. Once we got to the sea, the coast line was quite magnificent even if not thrilling (for us) as snow capped mountains.We didn't know what to do with Floe, and decided to walk the trek, knowing that when we'll run into him we might have to turn around and go back to he hut with him.We met him 5 min. out of the hut, after he walked 16 km.But after 2 minutes talk he just turned and started back.We got out and drove to Karamia, where we stayed at a backpacker.
The next day, after a delicious breakfast, maayan and I got dropped off at the head of the Wangapeka.We spent 4 lovely days on this hike, most of them in a nice forest - we both actually liked walking in that forest!We were supposed to climb 2 saddles. the first, little Wanganui saddle, was brilliant. Really nice views on all directions and even 2 "saddle lakes". Really nice. We could even see the ocean far in the distance...The second saddle wasn't there.I mean, walking in the forest we got to a sign saying "Wangapeka saddle", but it seemed that the saddle itself gone missing...during this 4 days we only met 4 people on that trek, and 2 out of the 3 nights we had the hut all to ourselves :)
Walking a lot along the river, I finally couldn't resist it anymore, and twice did I get into the water :) Maayan joined me on the second time. So cold... So wonderful!
And thus, on the 18th, we got to the shelter at the end of the trek, where we waited for Yuval.And waited.After 5 hours he finally arrived.We were so glad to see him!Or as he put it - we were very hungry ;) We had a long, nutritious dinner, and camped 4 km away, at the foot of Mt. Owen.
But the next day, instead of climbing up the mountain we took Yuval to see a dr. - he had an infected thumb (nothing too serious, but just to be on the safe side).
And the lesson of this week is...Give us, Maayan and Tomer, an easy hike, and we'll make it much harder.
the relevant album...
http://tomeraroundtheworld.shutterfly.com/action/pictures?a=67b0de21b325e81484f7
posted by הזידנרים at 5:29 PM
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