A Bonnetful of Bees

Finally, the last day of the November Lake Waikaremoana trip has been uploaded to the website, and I hope to follow it soon with the Lake Waikareiti report.

See also below for an update on the Rimmers Rd walk at Woodhill

Short of time and with a niggling lower back, I decided on a relatively easy walk down Coast Rd at Rimmer’s.  7 km in two hours including a 20 minute rest.  the stretch out was just what I needed.  I hadn’t been there for a year, and since last time, CHH have closed off the 12 Mile Beach 4WD access to the coast, re-sited the off-road motorcycle park, and re-routed the 4WD people to the coast via a new access at Rimmer’s carpark.  All done with pretty much the same care and taste we have long come to expect from this company.  Here’s the pix and the report in detail.

Robinson Ridge Track, (Cascades, Waitakeres): This one dates to a week or two back. It’s an “inland” track. You have to do a fair amount of walking just to get to the start, and some of that is labelled “For Experienced Trampers Only”. No big deal for those who chew off 30-50 km a day or more but a factor that the elderly and stout should consider.

One end comes off the Fenceline Track near Simla, and the other end meets the Cascade Track right down in the valley. With it’s predominantly clay surface it is probably best treated as a dry weather track. Rich birdsong, especially down near the Cascade end.

A lovely picnic spot on a hot day can be found beside the stream about 5-10 minutes in from the Cascade end.

Last Thursday Alice and I set out to walk the Swanson Pipeline – probably for completist motives as much as anything – it’s not a walk you hear a lot about – but in the event there were several aspects of the walk which proved interesting, not least being the series of ridges and dips which make it an excellent training resource for the first day of the St James Walkway.

The track report for this beautiful Tararua walk is finally up, and you can find it here.  We’re looking at spending a week here in September/October and doing a round of the huts in the area

Subject says it all. You can locate it here

A day or two down the line my lower back is still waking up slightly screwed, and I feel a bit like Quasimodo as I go about my morning ablutions. Some more work needs doing in this area obviously.

Last couple of times out have been just Alice and me, Miranda playing stork at the time. I’ve selected tracks that would throw me into the hilly stuff and these indeed do that, but in very different ways.

The Anderson Track features a warm up km to the junction, then a very long and at times quite steep uphill slog from the Auckland City Walk to the Scenic Drive. The return trip, when you’re a bit on the tired side takes you down the hundreds of steps you’ve just climbed up.

If you don’t understand what a “descending contraction” is when you start, you will by the time you’ve finished. It’s your leg muscles putting the brakes on as you slowly lower yourself from one step to another. Normally I lead with the same leg as much as I can, as thyat is the stronger, but after a bit of Feldenkrais work from Gillian, this time I was able to make it all the way down, first one foot, then the next.

The Chateau Mosquito Track off the Anawhata Rd was named, I believe, after an ancient hut/shelter along its way, to take the piss out of the then-newest jewel in NZ’s tourism crown, the Chateau Tongariro. No sign of it today, and no mosquitoes either, but hundreds of wasps down by the stream, one of which became stuck in the hair on Alice’s face and stung her a couple of times. A pleasant and generous track, a little scruffy at first, and then heading very steeply downhill to the stream.

The uphill push on the way back was a real lesson in energy management, and I found myself briefly in that place I recall fron school cross-country races of just wanting to vomit. I had brief fantasies of being helicoptered out, but all was well after a 15 minute rest. I had been in a hurry because of the wasps to move on after eating and I hadn’t given lunch time to settle properly.

Haven’t done the full writeups on either of these yet. To come when things get wet and cold and slippery I tell myself.