We both were a bit anxious for our first Great Walk. We woke up around 5:30 am and started to prep for the walk, repack the car, and check a couple valuables at the holiday park office.

At 9 am, the water taxi picked us up for a drive up the lake to our starting point, Oneupotu trailhead. We loaded our packs on our backs, walked about 5 minutes and wondered what we had just committed to. Day one was all ascent, 8.8 km, cloudy, misty, foggy, and rainy at times and blowing nearly a gale the whole way…and lots of mud after a couple days of heavy rain. The path followed the lake up a very high ridge… 1200 m or 3900 ft above sea level. Pretty high for us after living in flat Florida and Chicago for many years. I soon realized the enormous ridge pictured here was what we were walking straight up! Some good views, but often in thick clouds…but it made them interesting views of this spectacular huge lake. This lake was formed over 2000 years ago by an enormous landslide that created a natural dam. The lake water stays around 50 degrees all year, a bit warmer in the summer. Important to think about if we need to do some bathing along the way.

After five hours of hiking with 35 or 40 pounds on our backs and a brief stop for some lunch, we made it to our hut for the night, Panekire Hut.  We will share the hut with 40 new friends in bunks and shared kitchen. Eight or so of the new friends were seemingly well behaved Kiwi children on “summer” break, my guess about all of them under age 13.

It was not exactly a relaxing plush resort stay. No running water in the hut, but a cistern that catches rain water in a huge tank just outside. We were able to use this water for cooking and drinking by boiling or using our Steripen. There was some running water outside where we were able to rinse some of our clothes and were able to wash our dishes.

After some green tea, we cooked our dinner in the Jetboil. We decided to cook as many of the separate packages to at least reduce our pack weight a little bit. Basically a macaroni type meal that we boiled and simmered for ten minutes…throwing in a packet of tuna….not bad! We shared a snickers bar for dessert. Living it up!

8 pm and to bed early!

Day Two Hike to Waiopaoa Hut, Lake Waikaremoana

The sleep in the bunk beds overnight was not too bad. The kids passed out early and barely heard a peep…just two or three snorers. We both woke up around 2 or 3 am to the sound of steady hard rain and wind. We thought we had seen the end of it. But it was still raining around 5 am when we each had to walk outside down a path in the dark to the toilets.

Most of the cabin started to wake around 6 am, with everyone up by 6:30.  It is tough to sleep once the noise starts! We had our bagel with peanut butter and chocolate spread, a cup of hot chocolate and tea. Along with the rest of the hut we busily repacked our gear and dressed for the wind and rain outside. The rain was heavier and the temps about 8 C degrees cooler – 14 C or about 60 F degrees.

We hit the trail about 8:30 am with lots of rain gear on, which included pack covers, rain jackets, rain pants and Tracey had a bright green poncho. Wish we had a pic but our cameras were deep in our rain protected bags. Our hut mates said we looked like a couple outer space aliens.

It rained hard for most of the 8k walk, but still beautiful…again so many shades of green. The hard rain had produced some ad hoc waterfalls across the trails as well as a fair amount of mud and standing water. This hike was mostly down, descending 600 meters from our 1200 meter hut the night before. Some of the trail had very steep stairs, other parts we wished had stairs!

We made it to our new hut, home for the rest of the day and night at 11:30 am. This hut sat right beside Lake Waikaremoana. It seemed newer, slightly larger and a better layout. A couple hut mates from the prior eve and Ranger Mike Taiapa already had the wood stove fired up. Mike Taiapa had just left the New Zealand Army five weeks prior after serving 15 years in the Middle East!

We ate the same lunch as the first day, pepperoni, flat bread and swiss cheese. We then spent the afternoon talking to the the three couples from New Zealand who were doing the hike with their children. Great people, great kids, lots of laughs and good advice on Great Walks, cycling and other adventures in this beautiful country. Here you see pictured Shellie, Mark, Stella, Corbin and Charlize. Stella is thirteen and already one of the top gymnast in New Zealand competing around the world. The next stop for her is in Seattle in March. These families do a lot of adventure trips together – Great Walks, cycling, and fishing.

We met some other great Kiwis….Sue and Andrea who invited us to stay at their home near Wellington. Some other trekkers rolled in that were with a small tour group that has someone carry their packs, food and supplies from hut to hut.  Also, they cook them dinner with wine and beer! Not a bad idea. We also met Hannah from Heidelberg, Germany.  She is  a young lady touring New Zealand on her own until April 1st, then onto Australia.

After a quick walk to the lake to see the black swans and dip my feet in the 50 F degree lake, we sipped a little Woodford Reserve for a nightcap.

Looking forward to a nice hike tomorrow along the lake and to the Korokoro Falls. A 12k hike but supposedly fairly flat.

Day Three Hike to Korokoro Falls and Marauiti Hut. Lake Waikaremoana

We woke at sunrise and the hut ritual begins. There were around three dozen sleeping in the hut overnight and one by one we start to rise. It seems like a tipping point is reached – maybe about a third awake when the rest realize no more sleep is likely to occur. Today the forecast did not call for rain and we actually could see the sun and some blue sky after noon! Plenty of water though in nearby falls, streams and paths. We took a detour at the start of the walk to Korokoro Falls, which is about 30 minutes from the main trail to our next hut and well worth it!

The total hike today was 12k or 7.2 miles. We didn’t expect as many hills or the three to four footbridges over streams. One stream to the falls we had to cross guided by a cable over the water. A long day of hiking for us after putting in the previous two days, especially carrying the 30 – 40 pound packs. They seemed a bit lighter with less food, snacks and water.

To add insult to injury, there was one more challenging ascent. After the ascent we turned the corner and saw our hut across the field of cream colored toetoe plants out to the mix of emerald and deep blue colored Lake Waikaremoana. With some aching bones, we decided to swim in the lake…I am guessing a water temperature in the 50s F. But with no shower for a few days, I took the polar bear plunge. The cold clear water felt good on my inflamed muscles and joints. We also split a couple shots of Woodford Reserve to ease the pain for a pre-dinner cocktail. The bourbon was much warmer than the lake!

For dinner tonight we had the Back Country beef stroganoff. You basically pour a cup and a half of boiling water from the Jetboil into the freeze dried packet of food, reseal it, then in ten minutes it is ready to eat. Living the dream by splitting the Twix bar for dessert tonight!

About two dozen people in the hut tonight and nearly all went to the their bunks at sunset to try and get a good nights sleep for tomorrow’s 12k hike. An early start is needed to ensure we catch the 2 pm water taxi back to the holiday park. Dreaming about a burger and fries, fish and chips, or pizza with a cold beer if we can find one near our camp!

Final Day, Great Walk #1, Lake Waikaremoana!

We had a great last day. We hit the trail at 7:15 am after a decent night sleep that had one interruption. Someone left the hut door open and we had a possum visit around midnight. It started to crawl up on a bunk of a young girl who woke with a loud scream! It was chased out with a broom and tried to return until Kiwi Steve finally chased it down the trail in the dark (the possum here are an Australian version. They look like a big black cat).

The hike seemed relatively easy, 12k but did, of course, have the one tortuous hill near the end. We were so happy when we finally came to the small sign for the boat taxi.

 

 

 

 

Beer, Guns and Sombreros – Usually a Recipe for Disaster

After the boat ride back to the holiday park, we checked back into the same #23 cabin we had the night before we left for the trek…and took a nice long hot shower! Never felt so good! We did a couple loads of wash and were on the road to find some real food, of the non-dehydrated variety. We followed a gravel mountainous road and came up to Big Bush Holiday Park. Knowing there was not much else down the gravel “road”, we stopped there.

 

As we walked up to what looked like the combined office, cafe and bar, there was a small round table with a few people sitting at it. We recognized Mike the ranger from the Waiopaoa Hut…great to see his warm smile! Zack the water taxi captain was also there, Richie who seemed to run much of the park operations, a yankee who came to NZ in the 80s (rode his bike 1500k around NZ) and Anna, a Kiwi who bought the Big Bush land 23 years ago. Anna reminded us so much of our great friend CJ! We also met Anna’s 16 year old cow named Corvette and her precious pit bull named Tui. The bottles of Hawkes Bay wine and ice cold Steinlager beer also looked inviting!

We were told that there would be no dinner cooked tonight. However, they surprised us and decided to cook us steak dinners! Outstanding meal and hospitality!

After having an ice cold Steinlager we heard the sound of a 12 gauge shotgun. Ranger Mike and Zack had started to throw clay pigeons. We all joined in.  At one point, Tracey and Anna decided we could only shoot dressed in props – the poncho and Mexican sombrero. So much fun with the local who was doing a pretty good job at impersonating the local Mexican…and speaking a few words in Spanish.  I hit 6 out of 8 of the clay pigeons, but I bet it has been ten years since I have fired a shotgun.

The resort folks wanted us stay for the night, but I convinced them we were fine to make it back to our camp. After a game of pool and exchanging some email, we headed back down the possum filled gravel road in the dark toward our cabin.

When we arrived at our cabin, we had a note from our Kiwi friends that hiked the Great Walk with us. It was just after 10 pm, so we stopped by and said goodbye to Mark, Shellie, Stella, Charlize, and Corbin with the promise to stay in touch!

An awesome experience for our first New Zealand Great Walk.  And a few more pics below…