The photovan

The Odyssey

2011-12-17T19:13:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I sold the photovan - I have been in withdrawl since and due to the fact that I recently married I decided it would only be fair to have two vehicles - so I just bought another van . It is a 2.4 litre van compared to the old 2 litre engine and hopefully will be more economical to run .
My wife , Lisa , is from Canada , she is shipping some of her belongings over on a ship called the "odyssey" . I looked that name up and apparently it is related to someone's 10 year journey - I have been in New Zealand for 10 years now so I think it would be a pertinent name for the next generation photovan :)

2011/04/22 The back-roads tour to the Waitakares .

2011-04-23T00:47:00.000-07:00

The photovan has been sitting idle for too long so on the Friday of the long weekend I decided to do some exploring along the back-roads from Raglan to Port Waikato , via Waikaretu .
I used the trusty D40 and 18-200 lens for many of the shots .

It's only about 100 km but much of the time you are only going about 40km/hr so it takes a while - I saw two other cars the entire trip .

There is a side trip 1.4km from the intersection to Port Waikato that goes to the Nikau caves and cafe , it was closed I think due to the religious holiday .

There is some reasonable scenery along the way with occasional glimpses of the sea .

I had the 10.5mm fisheye lens on the D50 which helped get in a lot of the scenery :)

There are many old buildings and vehicles rotting away on the farms .

And some who just don't care about anything .....

After getting back on the highway you have to drive through Awful Auckland , cars , people , buildings , more cars and people ..... but as you work your way to Huia you leave all of that behind and the scenery starts to get better .

The 10.5 was very useful for some of the pictures , including some taken from the drivers seat .

The road gets narrow and windy , the rain didn't help either .

At the end of the road is the Whatipu campsite - nothing fancy but a good location .

I just bought the Panasonic FT3 compact and it was used for the rest of these pictures - it turned out really handy .

There is a short walk along the beach to the caves and a campsite as well .

There is a camp site near the caves as well ....

And then I headed back past the camp ground again and toward the beach .

The beach is well worth exploring , lots of rock formations and interesting places to explore .

The Panasonic did a good job , even when it started raining I could carry on taking pictures - I eventually made my way back to the campground .

In the evening I settled down with a cup of coffee and a movie ......

As it got dark I realized I had the tripod tucked away in the storage box - I mounted the D50 and fisheye lens on it and took some snaps of the stars , including a few trails of the planes landing at the nearby airport .

I headed back home the next morning , one day I will go back and spend more time on the beach and hopefully get better light :)

2011/01/03 Success ! Around Ruapehu in a day .

2011-01-03T15:55:00.000-08:00

I'm told it's a 72km walk . It's rated as a 4-6 day walk but the first time I tried to do it in 3 days I failed . A 25 kg pack and not drinking enough water left me pulling out at the Turoa road with a sore knee . During that trip I met two people trying to do the "Round the mountain 24 hour challenge" and decided to try it myself . That attempt ended in disaster . That was 8 months ago and I've been preparing for "round two" ever since . Ruapehu has won too many times for my liking and I was determined to finish it this time . Sunday morning I was sitting thinking about it after two botched attempts a week ago and decided that I have to do it . I said to everyone I saw that morning " Tell me I can go around Ruapehu in 15 hours !" - after enough people had said it I knew I had to do it.

This time I decided that since both previous attempts had involved pulling out at the Turoa road I would go counter-clockwise for a change - this would serve several purposes :
1.) I would have that psychological obstacle out of my way early .
2.) I would be walking mostly downhill in much of the desert area and soft sand .
3.) Crossing that road early would mean I would have no escape route and would have to finish it .

Unfortunately my compact camera failed the day before and I had no camera with me so will have to dig out some of my older pictures.
The evening before I stayed in my car at the doc campground - there was a road pointing to Ruapehu and I walked up and down it several times and before heading off to sleep took one final look at Ruapehu and said " I'm back and this time I will not fail " .

That night was unusually warm - the first time I haven't been able to fully cover myself with the sleeping bag due to heat , rather strange for Ruapehu . I set the alarm for 4:30 am but woke up at 4:00 am and couldn't go back to sleep so decided it was a good time to start . I drove up to Whakapapa , parked my car and started walking up the 4.5 km of road at 4:20 am . It was a clear starry sky and bright enough to walk without a torch . At 5:00 am I reached the beginning of the track . The sign stated " Mangaturuturu hut 6 1/2 hours " - that took me 3 hours 5 minutes and I was at the hut at 8:05 am . I ran out of water one hour before the hut - my hydration pack was supposedly 3 litres ? On the way there I was already feeling uncomfortably warm at 6:00 am though I was in the shade . I got talking to someone there and ended up having 18 minutes rest instead of my planned 15 minutes . This was the hut where my last attempt ended when I went the other way around the mountain . It was also the hut where there was no water in the tank and I ended up drinking bad river water and getting sick . Even though there was water in the tank this time I still added a water purification tablet "just in case" .

The sign mentioned "Mangaheuhu hut 5 1/2 hours" and I managed to reach it at 11:00 am but had to stop and splash water on myself at the rivers a few times because the heat was getting a bit much - I had only been going 7 hours and was already tiring due to the heat - and I hadn't reached the desert yet.

From here it is a supposed 6 hour walk to Rangipo hut which I can usually do in 2 3/4 hours but it took me 3 hours this time . There is a large valley to cross and no vegetation because it is New Zealand's only desert area .

The sun was getting to me and I ended up dipping my shirt in a river and wrapping it around my head to try and cool myself down - down in the lower areas of the valleys there was no wind movement , sun right above me , and keeping my face down to avoid the sun meant feeling the heat coming up from the ground and rocks of the desert . 3 times I almost fainted due to the heat and adjusted my walking pace to prevent it - which is probably where I lost that 15 minutes .
I hadn't even reached the halfway mark and was already drained from the heat - it wasn't looking good at all . My watch has a thermometer that basically tells me the temperature of my wrist if I have it on . I checked that and at one stage my arm was at 40 degrees celsius .
At Rangipo hut I knew I had passed the halfway mark and just had to keep walking for another 7 hours to finish .
This is an older image - it was very bright sunlight when I got there .

After 15 minutes of rest again I headed for the Waihohonu hut [now a brand new hut that I've never seen before ] , rated at 5 1/2 hours it took me 3 hours - still 15 minutes worse than my previous time though there was the occasional warm breeze that almost made me feel better. In the desert area there are one or two large rivers but much lower down from the track and too much effort to reach . You do cross a few dry river beds and the occasional annoying rocky river bed where you can hear the ice cold snow-melt water gurgling away out of sight and reach .
I had decided that I would give an extra amount of concentration to where I step to avoid twisting my ankle like I did three times on the last attempt and fortunately there were only 2 or 3 close encounters but no actual injuries which is probably what got me through .

By this time my hands were swollen to 1 1/2 times their normal size for some reason , my face was badly burned [ I had some sun-block on but not on my forehead to prevent it getting in my eyes ] and my feet were starting to feel blisters underneath though I think in general I was in pretty good condition .
Since I was generally going down-hill there were a few places I managed to run to make up for lost time .
I must have reached the hut at around 5:10 pm and decided to give myself a longer rest for the final home stretch . I had given up trying to do it in 15 hours and just wanted to finish in less than 24 hours for once .
There was a little high cloud by now but I would be walking back directly into the sun.
There were quite a few people at the hut and all asked if I was ok so maybe I didn't look too good . I lay down for a while , walked around a bit , sat outside and started psyching myself up . It was a good thing there was no escape route and I knew that if I stayed there the night I would feel terrible in the morning . After half an hour my hands were tingling like crazy and the swelling had gone down .
I had spent the day eating energy bars , energy gels , and these strange energy bars that tasted like 3 day old camel poo mixed with custard powder - not exactly the same but very similar .
I was exhausted but determined to succeed this time - I kept dropping things and the people were trying to convince me to stay the night but I told them that Ruapehu has beaten me enough times , I've planned for it for 8 months and I will finish what I started finally.
I think the problem was that I rested for too long and gave my body time to go into shock . It is a very modern hut and the warden brought me some ice cubes to put into my hydration pack to cool the lukewarm water . Once I got my pack back on and convinced myself that I was going to finish I told them I was heading off . The warden told me "It's another 5 hours" and I told her "I'll do it in 3 " . Then one guy said to me "You're very brave " and I said to him " My mother always told me there's a difference between 'brave' and 'stupid' , I don't think she would call me brave " .
I suddenly felt energetic and started running back - that only lasted about 2 minutes though . It took me exactly 3 hours to get back and I was at my car at 20:45 pm - 16 hours and 25 minutes since starting.
I looked up at Ruapehu and said "See , I respect you but I don't fear you" .

I still wasn't sure where I would be sleeping and decided to allow myself a little luxury - I drove to a lodge and booked in for the night - because I couldn't stand straight one of the staff members told me I was showing all the symptoms of heat exhaustion - the swelling in my hands had gone down once again and they were tingling and shaking . They brought me some food and water and suggested I drink some coke to help my sugar levels - somehow the food managed to stay down .
I never got much sleep that night , it felt like I had heartburn and it didn't feel like my food was going to stay down though fortunately it did .
It's got to rate as one of the best days of my life I suppose , almost as good as the day I smashed my work van into the side of a bus and had to be cut out by the fire department !

2011/01/01 - Waiting for the right conditions

2010-12-31T19:58:00.000-08:00

I still intend to go around Ruapehu [ 72km ] in less than 24 hours . Based on my previous attempt I can do it with 14 hours of walking and 4 X 15 minute rest stops at the huts along the way . A total of 15 hours this time of the year means that I could leave at 5:00 am and be back by 8:00 pm while it is still light . Last Monday I was ready to go but the weather forecast mentioned rain and extreme gale force winds for the afternoon - not gonna happen . I headed back home , loaded up my photovan and headed for Napier with a possible trip to Wellington . At Napier I checked the weather report and it mentioned 'fine weather' for the central North Island so I headed straight back to Ruapehu - all this in gale force winds which almost resulted in my van being blown in front of a truck - good fun.
Tuesday night I set my alarm for 4:30 am , got all my gear ready and felt my foot start throbbing inside from the cold . A 10 year old injury was woken up when I carried a 25 kg log for 3 hours on the beach last Saturday - not going to happen once again !
So today I drove out to Te Toto gorge near Raglan where I live and took in some scenery .

After heading back into town I took a kayak for a paddle in the harbour - I usually avoid anything that could damage the camera but decided to compromise and use my Gopro helmet camera . It got a bit foggy inside but gives the general idea of what went on .
On the 'town' side of the harbour , I headed across to the other side and battled against an outgoing tide .

Te Akau bay

Then I headed 'upstream' toward an interesting piece of land and did some exploring - I get motion sickness very easily and wasn't feeling too good from all the 'bobbing around '

From here I headed back across to the wharf - waves pounding from the side and a stronger current coming in . It was tiring and after getting to the other side the water was moving too quickly to paddle back so I dragged the kayak up the beach and ran back to collect my van . Not much of a story but the best I can do for now - maybe next week my foot will be feeling better for "Round 2' of Ruapehu in a day :) .

2010/10/22

2010-10-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoon I headed for Ruapehu and got there at 5:30 pm and was aiming for the summit . The weather forecast suggested it should be a ' pleasant ' trip .
When I got there it was empty and the ski lifts weren't moving so I wasn't going to catch a lift to the upper slopes . I asked someone why it was so quiet and they said that it was because of the gale force winds . When I was driving toward the mountain everything was looking 'fine' .

When I got higher up the top of the mountain was getting angrier and the wind was heading in my direction .

Nguaruhoe was looking fairly calm though .

I ended up simply seeing how high I could get without leaving the safety of the surrounding lodges to decide whether I would stay up there for the night or not .

There were icicles everywhere .

While trying to decide if I would dig a snow cave while being "sandblasted" by ice particles I found this sign in a window which seemed to offer an opinion on my attempt

so I decided to head back down and try and get back to the car before dark .

Going back down at sunset was the best part actually , I wish I had been there a day later in good conditions with a tripod and a decent camera .

Looking back up the mountain showed how angry the weather had got .

Egmont was looking good in the distance .

And the snow ploughs were getting warmed up for a night's work fixing the slopes for the next day's skiers

The moon was also coming up so it would have been good if I had a tripod there .

Now for the good part of the story . I worked my way back to the car and drove down to the campsite and slept there for the night .
But I had found an expensive looking spanner lying on one of the tracks that most likely belonged to one of the workers there so I went into the information centre to hand it in , rather than drive all the way back up to the ski fields .
There were two other hikers discussing the Tongariro track with one of the staff , asking him what the conditions were like regarding the snow . I told them that the snow had frozen on Ruapehu itself and was firm to walk on as I had " tried to climb it last night " .
The old codger at the counter said to me " In the conditions we had yesterday ?!" - his face did a red 'Mexican wave' .
Now we all know what it's like when you're sitting watching your fishing rod and the end of the rod shows that you have a 'nibble' . You check your bait and put on something bigger to get a decent "bite" .
Well it's his fault that he jumped to the conclusion that I had gone beyond the safety of the lodges without asking .
I said "Yes , it was a bit windy near the top so I came back down because I had to drop to a press-up position a few times to prevent being blown off my feet , and my face eventually got numb from the ice particles being blown in my face " [ which was all true actually ] .
Well his face got the red flush again which changed to a rich purple as he said " I just feel sorry for the search and rescue staff who have to put themselves in danger to save people like you ! "
I told him " They wouldn't have to rescue me , I was going to sleep on top in a snow cave - there are usually a few up there " .
He responded with a bellowing " There would be no snow caves up there because there has been so much snow they would all be closed up ! ".
I told him " that would be ok , I've got a tarpaulin with me that I could sleep under for the night "
By this time his face had lost the purple tinge and was looking pale as he said loudly " IN THIS WIND !? " .
So I smiled and said " I've got a good sleeping bag " :) .
At that stage I knew I had hooked a Marlin because he swung around to the two guys he was originally talking to and said " Now , where were we !?! " .
That was the cue for me to drive back up the ski field and hand the spanner in to the lost and found department but it was difficult not to burst out laughing a few times on the way .
While I was up there again I decided to take a few fun shots .

The guy who took the picture for me never got my feet in so I got a shot of my footwear .
Everyone lining up for the ski lifts was dressed in alpine gear .

Then I decided to try one more quick snap ....

Well that's another round to Ruapehu , I chose the wrong day and should have gone up a day later but it was still good fun and I got some ok shots out of it .
Driving back through Taupo I had another go at the "Hole in one" .
I don't play golf but got close to it a few times 6 weeks ago when I had a try . This time I actually hit the platform once so I must be improving :)

- time to drive down to Raglan beach and catch the sunset :)

.

The beginning of the "photocar"

2010-09-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that I bought the photovan almost three years ago now .
I've learned much from the modifications I've done to it and the use , or lack thereof , I've gotten out of those modifications .
I've also learned that when I am traveling around and staying one night at places , rather than for a few days in one spot , I spend very little time in the van itself ..... but I need the van because I can sleep in it and the car doesn't offer a comfortable option in this regard .
But the van uses exactly twice as much fuel as the car and really loves steep uphills because it stays on them for as long as possible .

Enter the "Photocar" , a fast economical sleepover option for those trips where I won't need the portable shelter aspect of the van as much .

And it's only done half the distance that the van has in its lifetime

I have plans for that inverter , it can move out for a smaller version wired up to some extra batteries in the engine compartment . I already have a mount for the gopro camera and a small compass on the dash .

The most important part of it is a comfortable nights sleep and I grabbed the folding bed from the van
and opened it up

It looks like it will do the job ! Time to start 'modifying':)

.

Ruapehu , sleeping in the snow

2010-09-07T17:05:00.000-07:00

These trips in my photovan all start with the basics , check mileage and put goo in the engine to slow down oil burning . The day before my adventure started I was in Rotorua , I went into a tyre shop and told them the steering wheel was shaking while I drive and they checked the tyres . There was a big lump on the front left tyre and they told me it could be from hitting a pot-hole at high speed on a bad road . I just smiled and said " That is a very distinct possibility " :) .

The morning started with a stop at Taupo and breakfast at subway - the weather is apparent in the background

I stopped to get some pictures of this forest with the fungus growing on the trees

When you're standing on the roof of a van a passing logging truck makes things rock around a bit

Approaching Ruapehu and the weather report that suggested things were going to clear up didn't seem too trustworthy

I headed up the hill , slowly , and found an overnight parking place

part 1.) I didn't want to be too far from safety since the rated avalanche risk was 'considerable' so I headed up this valley around the corner from the ski fields

I decided to use this rock to block the wind and flattened out the area and put the tarp down

I thought the scenery was pretty good

At around 2pm it was still raining , the weather forecast had suggested I would have a clear afternoon but everything was getting wet and if I took my boots off it is such a hassle getting them back on again in these conditions that I decided I wasn't going to wait around for 6 hours till dark .

Part 2.) I had passed this old building earlier , broken windows , door jammed open , and decided it would be a good place to do my cooking .

I wondered about staying here for the night , snow and slush all over the floor - would it count ?

I still had some time to kill and wandered towards the ski fields , I could return to this hut if I needed to .
Part 3.) There were quite a few of the ski lodges not being used - this one had a verandah that I could use as emergency shelter if the weather got really nasty - there was a 'complex' weather system moving over the north island and there were possibilities of severe gale force winds , one reason I never climbed to the top .
I hung up all my wet gear to drip-dry and set up the bivy bag ready to move into position when it was 'time' - once it was dark I slid it down onto the bare snow next to the building , on top of the tarpaulin .

And got ready for some 'sleep'[?]

Many of my 'stories' involve a list of mistakes to begin with .
An adventure in the snow shouldn't have one of these . It's a good thing conditions weren't right for climbing all the way to the top because I brought the smaller tarpaulin with , not the same one I slept on top of in my last snow-cave adventure .
I thought I had enough insulation under me , with all the movement and effort involved getting into the sleeping bag and bivy bag I was hot and bothered and took my jacket off and used it as a pillow , wondering why I had it on in the first place .
My camera [Casio FH100] was in its case next to me to keep it warm , torch down one side , knife on the left and water bottle outside [ it proved useful in the middle of the night , I had been drinking more water than I thought , but I'll never drink from it again :redface:].

Then it started raining again and I wondered how long it would be before it started dribbling through the opening - the bivy bag has about 4 clips that close it up - it is made of gore-tex but I'm not sure how breathe-able it is if the opening is blocked with snow or something , and what if strong wind is blowing rain the wrong way ?.

The rain lasted about half an hour and I unclipped the opening and lay staring at the stars for an hour or so ....

Then the rain started again , I clipped the opening closed again and pulled the string on my -30 sleeping bag that closes the opening around my face and allows the two cheek-flaps to cover my face leaving only my nose sticking out . About an hour later I started feeling the cold - I never had enough insulation under me - I should have brought the bigger tarp and folded it a few times like the last time in the snow cave .
By now I was shivering and dug the fleece jacket out from under my head and did some amazing contortionist tricks to put it on in that small area .

I felt warm again - for half an hour , until the cold worked its way through again , besides the fact that my legs were feeling it now as well . It's all fine having a sleeping bag that can handle extreme cold but if you don't have proper insulation under you it's all useless .
So I tried turning sideways and it worked for long enough for me to start drifting off to sleep until I woke suddenly while dreaming that someone was suffocating me .
I had to turn on my back again so I could open the front enough to let some fresh air in so I could breathe properly again . That fixed the suffocation problem but as I breathed the cold air in and out I rapidly lost body heat .
By this time it was 1 am and my body started shaking ....
It was time to 'chicken out' , I wormed my way back onto the wooden deck and positioned the mattress under me , falling asleep was easy , I did it about 20 times .

Lying flat on my back started to hurt , after an hour I wriggled across to my backpack and dragged it into position as a pillow .
That made things better for another half hour until I realized that I was better off sleeping on my side , this got me half an hour's sleep each time until it hurt enough to wake up and change sides .
The snow plows worked all night as well , they had reverse beepers fitted too ....

What a long night ! It was such a relief to see the sky getting brighter , when I sneaked the opening apart each time , and at about 6am it was bright enough to force myself to get up and get all my warm gear on .
The inside of the bivy bag was wet near the opening and the bottom of my sleeping had a layer of ice on it ...

My other water bottle was half frozen as well . My boots were wet the day before , this morning they were frozen solid and it took a while to get my feet in again . My laces made a crunching noise and didn't want to bend ...

Once I had all my gear on I worked my way back down to the van .Nguaruhoe [ Mount Doom LOTR ] was looking rather gloomy , I haven't slept on top of that one yet !?

The rest of the area was under clouds - Ruapehu has its own weather . In the distance to the left is Mount Egmont/Taranaki , that one was an interesting climb but I wouldn't want to be up there in bad weather .

The photovan had ice on the windows , it started but needed some encouragement to keep running .
I drove back down with the window open , the hot air on the windscreen was too much for me and I needed to cool off .
By this time things were clearing up a bit .....

I had thought of the option of sleeping on the snow one night and building a snow cave the other [ tonight ] but I think this should be enough adventure for at least a week - I wanted a full nights sleep for a change !

Things to remember for next time :
1.) Take more insulation , two bedrolls , plus tarp .
2.) Build a snow trench , take an extra tarp for the roof .
3.) Wait till it is almost bedtime before heading out .

2010/06/22

2010-07-27T01:43:00.000-07:00

This is where I got stuck in loose stones and had to dig myself out .

I headed for Ohope and stayed at the campsite for the night .

The last day I stayed at Rotorua with a friend and we spent the morning racing on the luge .

2010/06/21

2010-07-27T01:35:00.000-07:00

2010/06/20 Day two

2010-07-27T01:24:00.000-07:00

After leaving lake Waikremoana I headed south toward Gisborne .

2010/06/19 Lake Waikaremoana

2010-06-19T20:01:00.000-07:00

[work in progress ]

There are more pictures stored here on my photobucket album .

Yesterday I left Raglan and headed through Rotorua and down to Lake Waikaremoana .
It's been 5 years since I was on that road and this picture should tell you why ...

95km of winding gravel roads ... the first time I did it was in an old Toyota 1300 and I got tired of the slow journey and started going faster around the corners until I was so car-sick I had to pull over and sleep in the back of my car 45km from the lake .
The second time I took sea-sick medication to make it easier and got a little drowsy and crashed into the side of another car on a bend .....
After that I swore I would never go on that road again but now that I have my van and stop often to take photos it makes it easier and I must say the journey was pleasant in comparison to the times I was in a hurry to finish the trip .
By taking things slower I ended up going down side roads for some different shots ....

Once you get to "the road" leading to the lake you have to be careful since it narrows down to one lane occasionally ....

I stopped occasionally when the road opened up for parking space

The horse came up to have a look at the camera

Eventually you get your first glimpse of the lake

A few more minutes driving and you come across a waterfall

There's a 53km walk you can do around the lake - the 'water taxi' can drop you off at the beginning and pick you up at the end . I've done that walk before and this time decided to head for the smaller lake "Waikareiti " , rated at a 1 hour walk . It took 45 minutes including the time taken to stop for pictures .

There are quite a few waterfalls in the area within 5 - 10 minutes walk from the side of the road .

There are many views of the lake along the road ...

And my van parked at the campsite .....

The new look :)

2010-06-11T01:35:00.000-07:00

I had the picture of my van up on a photography forum .... someone decided to photoshop some colour into it :

Before :

After :

Of course it would be nice to paint it something like that but then again it would be a little like putting a sign on the side saying "Expensive camera gear inside ! " :)

2010/06 Return to Rotorua

2010-06-06T01:06:00.000-07:00

Since it was a long weekend I visited my mate in Roturua with the hopes of being able to test my new Tokina 11-16 mm F2.8lens on some decent scenery . It was not to be , squally showers the whole time - but we did go for a drive Sunday morning - to "state highway 36'' since he said there was a rather scenic piece of road there .
There was only one chance to get a snap out the window ....

There were a few photo opportunities near the lake before the rain really closed in .

Then we ventured into a a craft market to get away from the rain for a while ....

The weather over the lake was still terrible ....

Then we headed for the bathhouse museum ....

I'm enjoying this new lens - even if the weather wasn't that good .

.

23/05/2010 Morning mist

2010-05-22T13:42:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning and my 'back yard' [ on the farm where I rent a small house ] was putting on quite a display for me ...

7/05/2010

2010-05-07T02:21:00.000-07:00

I was at the gym on Monday , this Maori bloke introduces himself , accentuates his surname and proudly says " My brother is the rugby player " . I told him " I don't watch rugby " , he says " You're a South African aren't you ?" .
I said " I also don't drink beer " .
He gets this shocked look on his face and says " Do you eat meat ?????? !" ....
Just for fun I said " Yes but I don't like it much " .
So to be South African obviously means you watch rugby , drink beer and eat meat .

2010/04 Rolled car

2010-04-23T22:14:00.000-07:00

I was coming home from the gym in Raglan on Monday night and picked up a hitch hiker since he was a tourist with a back-pack and not a sleazy looking character .
As we left the 50km zone and the 100km zone started we saw a 4X4 on its roof facing back toward us on the side of the road . The hitch-hiker told me he was a paramedic so we pulled over .
There were a few people standing there and one woman kept telling me '' Don't touch anything you can't move them if they're injured " .
Fair enough but we didn't know their condition yet . I managed to speak to them through the front drivers-side window and they told me they weren't injured . So I opened the back bull-bar with this woman telling me " You can't move them , you can't move them !" . I tried to kick the window out but just bounced off - punching it had the same effect . Another bystander helped me ram it with a large branch and we put some blankets over the glass while they crawled out .
Apparently they 'spun out' as they accelerated into the 100km zone and went over , someone nearby mentioned that they have also slid there before though it's never happened to me on that spot [ yet] .

After we got them out the ambulance arrived while I was taking pictures , then when the police car turned up I decided it was time to leave because they would probably want a written statement starting from the day I entered the country ......

2010/04 Papanui point Raglan .

2010-04-10T22:58:00.000-07:00

On Sunday 11/04/2010 I took a drive to Papanui point near Ruapuke , 22km south of Raglan town .
This is a video of a drive along the road to Te Toto gorge which is 7 km before Papanui point.

This is a view from the platform of the gorge .

From a distance you can see a few cars parked in the field . It is a popular fishing spot because you can fish in deep water from the side of a cliff and some large fish have been pulled out there .
A few weeks ago someone pulled out a 22kg snapper .

When you get to the gate there is a reminder that you are entering private land and the farmer would appreciate contributions toward the upkeep of the 'road'[?]

The 'road' is a bit scary and it is actually safer to drive on the left because the top of the road turns into large ditches further along .

It's a reasonable walk down the ridge .

This spot is infamous for drownings - people have been washed off the rocks by the occasional rouge wave .

There were quite a few people fishing off the rocks about 20m above the sea .

I climbed down the chain to the right , not for the feint hearted , these rocks are closer to the water and more susceptible to rouge waves .

"Peter" had caught a barracuda on pilchards

I climbed back up the chain and went to the left where people were fishing higher up ... "Craig" had caught two Kahawai on squid .

I headed back up the path toward the van ...

On the way home I stopped off at the Te Toto gorge and had a look over the edge

Papanui point is a decent spot for taking pictures as well as for fishing . I may have to head back one day for some sunset shots !

2010/04 Ruapehu challenge = pain!

2010-04-03T02:03:00.000-07:00

I just got back from my attempt at walking around Ruapehu in a day . Basically the mountain looked like this the day before - and on Friday ....

It's about 72 km around and wasn't going to let me off easy .
After 50km I drank bad river water at the hut , apart form the fact that I had double blisters under one toenail that lifted it out of its 'mountings' -
Thursday night at Whakapapa camp kitchen , I had the laptop going and wanted to see what the gopro helmet camera could do in low light [ wb adjusted ] Exif says iso 313 .

Just before 5 am I walked past the camp shop , the beginning of my adventure . When I plan on waking up early I usually wake up
at 3:00 am and then every half hour from then on so I was up at about 4:20 am .

At 7:00 am the sun was starting to makes its presence known .

By this stage I had twisted me right ankle [ about 6 :00 am ] . I've learned to roll my ankle all the way when this happens to avoid hurting it but it was quite a distance that my foot slipped and I managed to pull a muscle in my upper thigh at the same time . It hurt every time I lifted my right leg from then on .... after about 3 hours I think my leg gave up sending pain signals to my brain but it did resurface later .

I never realized that my camera lens was fogging up , luckily it has a waterproof housing .

The walk to the "New Waihohonu " hut is rated at 5 1/2 hours though these ratings are normally very conservative . I had to go slowly when it was very dark so I was satisfied with 2 3/4 hours .

I made this my 'breakfast stop' and allowed myself 15 minutes before heading off again at 8:00 am .

The walk to Rangipo hut is rated at 5 hours according to the sign . I'm not so good on flat ground so I battled to halve that rating and had to settle for 2 3/4 hours again - along with a 15 minute break .

You have to cross the Tukino 4X4 track as well ...

and this bridge

There's my shadow crossing the bridge

And the Rangipo hut !

From Rangipo hut to Mangaeheuhu hut it is rated at 6 hours though on the map it looks shorter than all the other walks . The reason is that there is this huge valley you have to cross

That's where my advantage comes in , I'm slow on flat terrain but tend to be able to maintain my pace up and down steep hills [ so far ] and I turned that 6 hours into another 2 3/4 hours .
Someone had built a wind shelter at the top of the climb , I needed shelter from the sun because it was an unusually [ for Ruapehu ] clear day !

I was going through the only desert area in the country ...

I got some temporary relief from a small bit of forest before the hut ....

By this time I had done "16 1/2 hours" in 9 hours including rest and I thought I had it " in the bag" since the total walking time is rated at something like 30 hours. I estimated that I could be back at the village before darkness [ 8pm ] . My calculations were wrong and did not include rest times - my mind wasn't too clear .
I aired my feet out and put my socks and boots back on and decided to ignore the fact that my right shoe felt a bit stuffy in the front after that stop .....

I headed off confidently .....
In areas where the vegetation is fragile they build platform/tracks to protect it from hikers .

I went past the Waitonga falls as well , the sign had stated 3 hours to the road so I was happy , and confident , with 1 1/2 hours .

It was a really nice day and I got a few good views of Ruapehu

It is amazing how much of a relief it can be to see a road and cars !

This is where the real adventure begins , things had been going too well so far . [ apart from twisting my right ankle 3 times by now , and the muscle tear on my upper thigh ] .

Now you have to walk about 3 km up this steep road heading for the Turoa ski-field .

but it was when I started going down this hill that I felt the pain that was building up on my right foot in the front where the sock was bunched up .

I knew I was in trouble when a 1 1/2 hour rated walk took my 1 hr 10 minutes - it should have taken 45 minutes .
This area is well worth a day trip though , there's a white band of rock running down the centre of the water ....

It might be a bit scary for someone scared of heights because you have to make your way down the ridges and jump across the river in places .

And there's the Mangaturuturu where I was greeted by a sign that stated that it was 8-10 hours to Whakapapa village . It was 17:38 when I took this picture .

I had been walking for 12 hours 45 minutes , this was about the 50km mark . In the early stages I was cutting the rated times in half and at that rate I should have been able to get back to the village in 4-5 hours but the fact that I was now limping and took almost the rated time to this hut meant that it may well have taken another 10 hours to get back - and I might have run into trouble along the way especially at night .
I decided that it would be wiser to spend the night at the hut . I had packed a light fleece blanket and could tuck my legs into my pack with my track pants and fleece jacket on and be warm enough .

My emergency rations were three cups of cheap two minute noodles which I don't normally eat by the way .

Now let's list my mistakes :
The water tank was empty at this hut and 1.) I was too tired to walk to the fast flowing river to get water . I walked to the 2.) slow moving stream nearby and it was easier just to sit on the bridge and dip my bottle into the still water in the centre .
3.) I was too tired and couldn't be bothered to dig out the water -purifying tablets .
I never had a stove with me which is ok but I lit a fire in the fire-place and put one of the hut pots full of the water on it and 4.) as soon as I saw bubbles decided it was enough to kill any germs and poured it into my three cups of [ 5.) different flavour ] noodles .
At 9:00 pm I went and sat outside to cool down because the other occupants had the fire so hot that I was sweating .
At around 11:00 pm everything was cool enough to fall asleep , I was wrapped in my fleece blanket with all my warm clothing on ..... and I woke up wanting to throw-up .
I spent the rest of the night with a bucket next to me for 'just in case' and realized that this was the end of my attempt to go all the way around the mountain even in two days .
I knew that in the morning I would have to make my way back up the 1 1/2 hour track

I thought it might be a 4 hour bout of suffering and sickness , crawling up the hill to get help ....
I won't state that I 'woke up' because I'm not sure that I actually slept but at 7:00 am I got up , packed my things and started walking - I forced down an energy bar to give me something to work on even though the thought of food made me feel sick . That was all I ate in a 24 hour period till tonight .
I also forced some water down [ with purification tablets in it mind you ] because I knew my body needed it and was surprised that it stayed down .

I didn't need to force myself to admire the scenery of the morning - I wasn't that sick ....

It had taken me all of 10 minutes to start overheating with all my clothing on . There was frost on the ground but I had to strip down to shorts and a T-shirt [ the same smelly clothes from the day before ] to keep cool enough to walk comfortably .
I was surprised that I did ok , it took me 1 hour and 20 minutes of the rated 1 1/2 hours but mainly due to the fact that I was going uphill and couldn't slide my feet forward to hurt my toe and ankle . I think my right ankle was protesting about being twisted 3 times the day before , my upper thigh was now really complaining about the torn muscle and I had to help it up with my hand a few times .
There was ice on the ground in places ...

This is one of my favourite pictures because even though it is a slight downhill it looks like an uphill .

It was a huge feeling of relief to get back to the road again ...

Then there was this fear of " What if no cars come past [ 15 km walk into town ] , what if nobody stops to help me ?" .....
It was a very painful walk downhill for about two kilometres before I heard a car coming down the hill - it turned out to be the same car that went up as I emerged from the track . I put my thumb out and it didn't sound like he was slowing so I decided that for the next car I would lie across the road and they would have to stop .
But he did stop and I was shaking and falling over by then when I loaded my pack into his back seat . It wasn't the cold , I had put all my warm gear back on plus my wet-weather gear because of the icy wind and slow pace I was moving at . I think it was some sort of shock my body was going into because I was still like that an hour later .
I had been in this situation before on this road on my first 3 day attempt around the mountain that failed due to a heavy pack and not drinking enough water which caused my knee to ache ... only that time I hadn't gone down to the hut and back up again .

It was such an amazing relief to be back in a vehicle cruising down the road effortlessly ......
he dropped me in the middle of town next to a tour company that organizes transport for the Tongariro crossing . They told me the next trip to the village was late afternoon unless I was prepared to pay $60 for someone to return for a special trip .... I would have paid $500 happily just to get back to a greater sense of security .

I had gone into the cafe over the road and looking at all the food made me feel sick so I drank a coke which seems to be good medicine for stomach trouble [ and de-greasing engines ] .
I ate my first meal in 24 hours tonight and all seems to be ok apart form the slight nausea - hopefully I will get some sleep tonight !
Basically I told my workmates that I wanted some good old "blood and guts" adventure and I got it - whether it was being caught in a blizzard or simply getting sick from river water after noticing one toenail perched above two blisters that had to be popped independently [ I reckon it will fall off soon ] . I'll be sore for a few days but will look back on this adventure with great fondness in future
My father always told me that you forget a holiday when everything goes right but when things go wrong you at least have a story to tell .... well I reckon I have a good story to tell with this one !

Update : One month later on 'Star wars day ' [ May the Fourth be with you ] my one toe-nail fell out [ second toe ] , the next morning [ Revenge of the Fifth [groan]] the same one on the other foot fell out.

Update : 17 July 2010 , the two toenails are half grown back again .
September I hope to climb Ruapehu and sleep on top in a bivy bag and then my training will begin for 'round two' .

Notes to myself for next time :
1.) Don't wear such thick socks .
2.) Have some 'toe room' .... eventually went into R&R sport in Hamilton and got some professional advice and some decent footwear .
3.) Prepare for the 'chaffing'
4.) Think about a two day trip rather ?
5.) Go counter -clockwise so there is no escape route and the hard part is over with first .
6.) trim toe-nails .
7.) Go in the middle of summer for maximum daylight .
8.) Do some Carbo-loading
9.) Should I harden or soften my feet ? I've read varying opinions on this .

Heading for Ruapehu again .

2010-03-26T23:46:00.000-07:00

27/03/2010 .... I'm busy preparing for a walk around Ruapehu in a few days [ 1/04/2010 ] . It is a 72km walk and I want to try and do it in one day .
It will probably take me two days so I'll be prepared for an overnight stop at one of the huts but otherwise I'm going to give it my best shot !

2005/10/15 40km Kaimanewa walk

2010-03-26T23:28:00.000-07:00

Three of us headed for the Kaimanewas for a 40km 'round trip' in October 2005 . We spent the night at the Sika Lodge in Clements Mill road . Lance offers 'drop offs' and 'pick ups' at the beginning and end of the tracks - aimed mainly at deer hunters .
Since I know him reasonably well he lent Wayne a rifle in case we saw deer .

We were dropped off at the end of Clements Mill road and headed for Cascade hut ....

Wayne with the "loaner' rifle and Jeremy with my machette .

The next morning we headed for the Kaipo saddle , this was going to be an easy 11km walk down to the footbridge and we were going to have a relaxing day fishing and taking pictures ..... hmmmmmmm !

We got to the top of the saddle reasonably easily - apart from the fact that a few trees with the orange marker arrows had fallen over and we went in the wrong direction a few times - until we twigged on to the fact that we should ignore arrows on fallen trees in future .

A deer alert .....

At the top of the saddle we couldn't find the track .... the next 8km that was going to be such an easy 2 hour stroll to get us to our 'lunch stop' turned into a 6 hour battle through fallen trees and waterfalls .
The track had been washed away - long ago !

At one stage Jeremey slipped and fell , Wayne was going to help him up but I told him to wait till I got a 'snap' .

There seemed to be some sort of mineral seeping out of the ground ...

After 6 hours of battling we finally got to the footbridge .

And set up camp ......

The next morning we headed for the Oamaru hut , a popular place for hunters which has kennels as well for the hunters dogs .

That turned out to be our relaxing day with a bit of fishing and swimming and sightseeing ....

The next morning , after listening to some 'hunters stories' from the others in the hut , we headed for the road to take us back . It was a bit foggy .....

We had to cross the river - the trouble is there were no markers showing where the track went from there ....

We spent the next few hours forcing our way through trees - the beginning of the rest of the path had not been properly marked and we eventually had to just check the map and aim northwest until we found a track .

In all it was another interesting adventure involving a few tumbles and scratched legs and wrong turns .... washed away tracks ..... my father once told me that when everything goes right you forget the trip - but when things go wrong you have a good story to tell - well this trip gave us a good story to tell !

Growing out of epilepsy .

2010-03-10T23:20:00.000-08:00

I thought this might be encouraging for those who have to live with epilepsy .
It's been 10 years now since my last seizure - I appear to have grown out of it [ I'm 44 now ] .
Just to confirm - 'epilepsy' is a very broad term describing regular convulsions and what works for one person does not necessarily work for another - and I'm no doctor but I can share what I know from experience .

Firstly , I experienced a lot of prejudice regarding the condition even though they are trying to create more awareness of it . Back in South Africa I was unemployed for 2 years and was turned away from 3 definite jobs because I hadn't done my military training due to the fact that the army wouldn't have me because of the epilepsy . That was enough to scare anyone away from employing me even though I had a specialists letter stating that I could do any occupation I wanted since it was fully controlled on medication .

I was having ONE seizure a YEAR ! ..... in my sleep ! ... each new school year , with all the change , the stress caused a fit one night of the year and that prevented me from getting a job for two years after leaving school .
An EEG showed that my condition was not hereditary - probably from a [ one of many ] knock on my head as a child .
I think I was about 13 when I had the first one in my sleep ... BUT : I had been having migraines for a few years already . One specialist suggested that a bad enough migraine could do enough damage to cause epilepsy but who knows ? One thing I do know is that I stopped having migraines when the epilepsy started and when I stopped taking my medication for a while I had one massive migraine and the fits returned .

Once on medication again [tegretol] it was ok but my concentration was impaired .
When I moved to a different town [ from my hometown ] I started having fits every 6 weeks - in my sleep . Apparently my eyes started changing colour and my skin got a strange smell a few days before each episode . This carried on for the 7 years I lived there until I went onto the really strong medication [ Tegretol ]
[I moved to New Zealand 8 1/2 years ago after being 'controlled' on the Tegretol for 18 months , much less stress here has helped ! ]
I hadn't had a fit for 5 years and stopped taking my medication [ for the second time ] - one night I had to work very late which messed up my sleep pattern for a few days .... 3 days after that I had my first migraine in 10 years which scared me ... besides the fact that it paralyzed my left arm , took away 90% of my eyesight and my speech for half an hour - the worst I've ever had .
The fits never returned but the migraines did - now I just learn to eat properly , get regular sleep and don't eat a large bowl of ice-cream before going to sleep - or white chocolate ! .... all the things that triggered the epilepsy trigger migraines with me ...... I haven't had another one for three years now since I don't do any more late overtime at work .
Strangely , from the early years , the medication that agreed with me most was Epilim and this was used effectively to control my migraines as well - I stopped taking it a year ago now .
I believe it is the epilepsy and strong medication that affects my memory .... I'm a bit like a high speed computer with a small hard drive and not enough RAM . I used to get 100% for maths at school and 25% for history - all processing power with no memory .
I also have an active interest in photography and maintain a blog regarding my learning process .
I earn a living as an auto electrician and started another apprenticeship recently as a diesel fuel technician .
I'm not dumb but my memory is bad - still good enough to live normally but nothing like it could be .
In the mind :
Now on to some advice , as mentioned this may not work for everyone but it's worth thinking about .
As a child I could 'trigger' "deja vu" by concentrating on an object . It's really "temporal lobal partial dysplasia" - when your mind 'slips a gear' and what is going into your brain is already coming back out of your memory before you register that it is happening ... and you think " I've been here before - this has happened before " or " I dreamed this and now it's happening ! " ..... it's just a glitch in your memory for a while and usually only happens to most people in a strange place when the mind is more active and more susceptible to instability .
People with epilepsy often have it just about anywhere at any time and when you think " I've been here before and this has happened before " you then think "of course I have , I'm lying in my room so why do I feel like this? " .
Anyway I can no longer do this [ trigger it ] but simply talking about it to people , or writing a blog about it , usually means I will have a restless night's sleep with crazy dreams even if I've had no trouble for a year .... because you can trigger these things with your mind to a large degree .... and conversely control them by not dwelling on the subject too much !
I met someone a while ago with similar problems , he told me that he once had a fit while watching the sun go down and convinced himself it was the sunset that did it ... for the next few weeks he had a fit each time the sun went down .... he was triggering it in his mind !
Anyway I talked him into getting healthy , eating better and exercising more . We went for hikes in the mountains , he got fitter , ate healthier and eventually got his drivers license back because he never had a fit for 18 months ! . When I moved to another town he got out of shape again .. and started having fits again . That's a lesson in itself - regular exercise and good eating patterns can work wonders !
besides that if you have a problem with epilepsy simply sharing it with someone that has the same condition can work wonders on your mental well-being - simply knowing you are not the only one with the problem and your experiences aren't unique to you .
And , as mentioned , even though you can't necessarily fix the problem totally with your mind you can make things a bit more bearable by not dwelling on it too much to the point where you are actually creating more problems with your mind ... nobody needs to add to the problems epilepsy causes !
I was 'lucky' in that it was only in my sleep but sympathize with people still battling with the condition .
If you want to just talk about it feel free to contact me via my profile on the right :) .
Cheers , Desmond .

2004/02 - Tongariro crossing helmetcam .

2010-02-27T23:12:00.000-08:00

On Friday 26/02/2010 I got frustrated with 'routine' and decided to head for the Tongariro crossing since the weather was looking so good and there was a high pressure system moving over .
I decided to leave the big cameras behind and test out the gopro helmet cam .
Next time I will do slower videos for longer periods but I wasn't sure how long the battery would last .
It did well and I could have probably got 5X as much video footage ... next time .

The beginning :

I think they should organize the crossing to start from the other side , the lighting would be better .
They modified the "devils staircase" a few years ago , it used to be a pretty tough climb straight up the side of the hill but now it is a pretty well laid out pathway .

Once at the top of the staircase I headed for the climb up Nguaruhoe ....

And then took a Walk around the top ....

Going back down involved a bit of slipping and sliding and eventually running .

Then I headed for the Red crater and ran down to the Emerald lakes - and met a camera crew for TV1 on the way up , I was talking to one of them and then took off running up the hill and suddenly saw the other guy filming me .

Down at the emerald lakes a group of hut-wardens apparently take a boat up once a year to cruise around the lake .... I tested my camera's under-water ability as well and decided to go for a swim in the freezing water.

Then I headed back to the car park - the rest of the walk is mediocre compared to what I had seen and I've done it 3 times before , besides the fact that my van was back at the car-park ...

And the drive back to the camp ground near the Chatuea Tongariro

2005/03 Queenstown and Milford

2010-02-19T22:52:00.000-08:00

New Zealand , Queenstown and Milford

In 2005 I bought my first D70 just before visiting the south island .
Patterns in the mud .

My first pictures were mainly snapshots ...

Milford sound .

Some forest scenery ...

With 1500mm of rain per annum there are many waterfalls around milford ...

As I say , these were mostly snapshots with my first dslr .... [ some were taken with the Panasonic DMC-LC5 ]

This is "Paradise valley " , a few km from Queenstown .

Another one of Paradise valley .

In Queenstown itself ...

That's a triple storey boat next to that mountain ....

Autumn is a good time to visit Queenstown .

you can also cruise on the TSS Earnslaw in Queenstown ...

Deer heights Queenstown ..

one way street ?

The "remarkables " [ they run in a perfect north-south line ....

This was apparently a prop for a Disney movie a couple of years ago ...[ "the escape' or something like that ]

This is the 'road' to the beginning of the Milford track , only accessible by boat at both ends . More pictures of this track later ....

These were all taken with the DMC-LC5 , my hiking camera back then ...
The beginning of the track ..

In quite a few places the track is quite muddy so it has to be built up

There is plenty of strange fungus around ....

the first two days is a walk up a valley .

it's pretty wet with 1500mm rain per annum

The first two days were wet and the waterfalls were good . On the third day the clouds opened up and as we climbed to the top of the pass we had good scenery .

2003/10 Karamu walkway lesson .

2010-02-19T00:03:00.000-08:00

One Saturday I phoned young Jeremy and asked him if he wanted to try the Karamu walkway at the top of the deviation heading for Raglan .

I asked him if he had water and he told me that he didn't need water on a day trip . I told him he should carry some and he refused . I offered him my spare water bottle and insisted he carry it and he refused . I said to him " Ok , but don't ask to drink any of my water !" , he told me he wouldn't need to .... see where this is heading ??

It is also known as the "4 Brothers scenic reserve " .

We had made the false assumption that it was a loop track that would take us back to the car .... not so .
We had walked for about an hour when Jeremy asked for a drink of water .... I answered " But you don't need water on a day trip !? " .
Half an hour later he asked again and I said to him " You told me you don't need water on a day trip !" , he said to me " I lied " - I told him "Now you're going learn what happens to liars ..... if you don't carry your own water you endanger everyone else on a trip " ....

The second half of the walk has good scenery , after "old mountain road" , the bit before that isn't so good .

At this point I noticed Jeremy edging toward my pack .. and the water so I quickly grabbed it .

It was two hours now and we realized it wasn't a loop track and decided to keep going to the end of the road . Jeremy had started begging for water by this time . I told him " If you are on a trip with a group of people and don't carry water everyone suffers " , he told me "Ok I believe you , now give me some water " . I told him "No , you'll never learn to listen if you don't find out the hard way " [ since he argued so much in the beginning ] .

I told him to go and drink some of that water - we had seen a dead cow nearby , and he refused . I showed him some cows footprints with water in them and said "there's some water " . He said " I'm not drinking that !" so I said to him " Then obviously you're not that thirsty '' and had a last mouthful out of my water bottle and slowly poured the last bit on the ground .......

We could see we were near civilization anyway .....

After about three hours we came to a stream - he asked if I thought it was safe to drink . I told him " Look at it this way - if you drink it and get sick you can take tablets later .... if you don't drink it and collapse I'm not carrying you home !"

You should have seen him dig in to that water !

Anyway we ended up on a farm road and found out that we had about 20 km to go to get back to the car . Eventually we found a farm close to the road with some people at home - we were given some chocolate and orange juice [ quite a combination! ] . The guy there kindly gave us a lift back to our car and saved us about 15 km of walking !

Just for the record - ever since that walk Jeremy carries water with him , especially when he goes with me !

2006/12 - Ruapehu - round the mountain walk .

2010-02-18T00:21:00.000-08:00

In December 2006 I decided to do the "Round the mountain " walk - 72 km around mount Ruapehu .
It is rated as a 4-6 day walk but I was going to try for 3 days .
The walk from Whakapapa village to Waihohonu hut is rated at 5.5 hours but is not all that interesting .

In the distance you can see the lower Tama lake and Ngauruhoe as you head for the hut ...

There is a side track to the historic "Old Waihohonu hut " along the way as well .

I carried on along the track to Rangipo hut rated at another 5 hours walk .

This is apparently the only desert area on the North Island .

Then you cross over the Tokino mountain road .

When you walk through Whangaehu valley there are warning signs because it is a "Lahar hazard " area - one day they expect a mass of hot mud to come rushing down the valley .

That means hurry across this bridge !

and don't look down !

This area is very photogenic and I wouldn't mind spending more time here one day .

This looks like somebody pretty sad about losing someone ! I call it 'the pallbearer'

So at 4 pm I arrived at Rangipo hut .

And settled in !

At 8 pm the door opened and two people came in - it turned out they were doing the 24 hour challenge . They had started at 5 am and wanted to be back where they started by 5 am the next morning . Judging by the time they took they were only going at the rated times of a total of 30 hours around the mountain and I doubt they got back in time .

In the morning there was ice outside - it was a pretty cold night .

But a good morning nevertheless .

So I started the 5 hour walk to Mangaeheuhu hut .

Ruapehu was putting on a display for me !

Then the track went through some trees .....

When I got to the hut it was only 9:30 am so I decided to keep moving .....

At this point my knee started hurting and I hadn't bumped it or anything . I had been overdoing it and not drinking enough water . I kept moving because there was another hut around the corner somewhere and then there was Ohakune mountain road which is a popular road to the Tukino ski field .

It was now the second day and I had walked 50 km with a 25 kg pack full of emergency supplies and camera gear . My knee was hurting so bad I had to cut a branch into a crutch so I could walk properly . I had reached the road by this time and there were markers along the way - when I had gone another 5 km I got a lift into town . Next time I will go lighter - perhaps next December once the days have got longer again I will see if I can do it in 18 hours with a lighter pack . For now though there is still 20 km of track I haven't seen but I have some good memories !

2003/10 First Ruapehu climb .

2010-02-16T00:05:00.000-08:00

During my first Tongariro crossing I had mentioned climbing Ruapehu and someone convinced me to do a snow-craft course first . I did one and learned a lot [ basically that I would not have survived without it !] . I eventually bought some decent gear and contacted someone from the alpine club and told them that I would like to go with on their next climb .
So it was eventually organized and three of us went up .
We spent some time practicing self-arrest techniques in case someone slipped on the ice .

I had done this a while before but also had to practice again for a while .

Then we started climbing .

I had to keep stopping to wait for the slow-coaches to catch up .

It was a rather [thankfully ] uneventful climb and after about 3 1/2 hours we were at the top and went for a walk around the crater .

There's a hut on top - mainly for instruments to collect data to help predict eruptions . You are not really allowed to stay in it but it can be used for emergencies . But first you have to climb on the roof and find the top hatch when the front door is behind 5 feet of snow and ice .

The clouds started clearing which gave us some pretty good scenery

It's quite good being above the clouds and I'll be heading back there some time . We were pretty lucky with the weather - actually it was good weather on top but not so good down below when we headed back .

Looking through these old pictures makes me start wishing for winter again !

2003/04 First Tongariro crossing

2010-02-15T23:46:00.000-08:00

The Tongariro crossing has got to be the best walk on the North Island !

Quote from the official site " The Tongariro National Park is rich in cultural identity, it has dramatic scenery and unique land forms this combines to make the Tongariro Alpine Crossing a world-renowned trek. (Rated as the best one day trek in New Zealand and listed by many in the top 10 day treks in the world) Many who complete the 19.5 kilometre journey will tell you the climbs can be steep and the weather can be unpredictable. You will need to arrange transport to the beginning of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing track and a pick up at the end of the day."
I think something like 70 000 people do it each year .

Recently they changed the name to the "Tongariro Alpine crossing " , adding the word "alpine" to help people understand that it can be dangerous and people have died up there from exposure .

My first crossing involved first walking from the Chateaux to Mangetepopo hut which took 2 1/2 hours and had me starting about 15 minutes into the beginning of the track . In the picture at the top of this page you can see the little cluster of buildings where I started and then to the left is the hut along that black track which is close to the beginning of the walk [ at the end of that road on the left ] .

And the Mangetepopo hut

That night I told everyone I was going to wait for winter and then climb up one side of Ruapehu and down the other side . I was asked if I've walked in snow before and I said "Yes , back in South Africa I walked in 4 inches of snow " . I was finally convinced by one of them to do a snowcraft course which I thankfully did .

I had walked past the Taranaki falls which was about the only thing worth seeing along that first track through the 'foothills' .

In the morning I couldn't get my camera to work properly and thought it had something to do with altitude or cold until I realized that I had left it in a manual setting - so the first hour and a bit was not recorded [ see the later trips for decent pictures ] .

When I got to the top of the 'devils staircase' [ which has been modified recently ] things were very misty .

That's a view looking back to the top of the first climb when you start walking across the crater .

Then you start climbing to the Red Crater - this time it was through the mist .

After the Red Crater you work your way down to the emerald lakes .

As I kept moving it was so misty that I never even noticed Blue lake when I walked past it - I have pictures of it in my later expeditions , including some in the snow .
After the Blue lake you start working your way down to the Ketetahi hut .

The scenery is quite good there but the walk down that hill is long and tedious . It is a total of 19.5 km long but that last bit gets you - steps and downhill for 1 1/2 hours [ Last time I ran it in 48 minutes but I had a 15 kg pack ]

You go past the Ketetahi springs on the way down - don't drink that water . You are also not allowed near the springs , it is Maori land .

Going back through the bush can be pleasant after a hot day on top , but makes no difference on a misty day .

When you get to the end there is a shelter as you wait for the buses to arrive . All around the area in just about every town there is an outfit offering transport for the Tongariro Crossing - they drop you off in the morning and then start arriving from around 3 pm to collect you . Since it was rated at 5-7 hours I did it in a hurry and got to the end in 3 1/2 hours and ended up having to wait for quite a few hours for the bus to arrive .

As the day wears on the bodies start lining up under the shelter .

Back then there was still a guy in an old truck that used to turn up and sell hot dogs and coffee and cool-drinks and pies and the people all swarmed toward him as he popped out the sign advertising food . Apparently he was told he couldn't do it any more but it sure was handy !

2003 September - Lake Waikaremoana

2010-02-14T23:21:00.000-08:00

I decided to do this walk in winter , Lake Waikaremoana is in the Urewera national park

- I just about had the whole lake to myself , I think I saw 12 other people in total . After going through Rotorua you head through Murapara - 90 km of winding dirt roads . It's a good thing I left a day early because I got so tired of driving at 20km an hour that I started going a bit faster - 30 km/hr is enough to get my stomach moving on a road like that and at 45 km I was so sick I had to climb into the back of the car and sleep it off .

The next day I located the 'water taxi' service , they drop you off at the beginning of the track and pick you up at the end . The boat was out of service so they dropped me off by van . The driver needed reassurance that the machete and hunting knife were for trees that had fallen across the track - but he didn't look that convinced .

They dropped me off at Sandy bay and I started making my way up the Panekiri range to the hut ....

In the evening I was reading and it was raining quite loudly on the roof - suddenly things went quiet and I looked out the window and it had started snowing ! I ran for my camera and ran outside and it changed to rain again :( .

The next morning the weather cleared up a bit for some photos .

I wish I knew a bit more about photography back then !

I made my way down to Waiopaoa hut in the morning and had breakfast there .

Past the Korokoro campsite , over the bridge .....

I saw some wild pigs that took off ....

It is an interesting track - and well maintained ...

I kept heading for the Maraunui hut

I turned out to be an interesting night , it didn't rain hard , just a gentle drizzle that I couldn't hear but I woke up a few times with the sound of what seemed to be 500 rats running along the roof a few times . Eventually I got the torch ready , had the machete in my hand , and when I heard the noise again I ran out at the ready with the machete ..... it was some trees above the roof - each time the wind blew the water fell off them in a row across the roof .
This warning on the door had me worried about rats originally .....

The next day I headed off for Waiharuru hut which turned out to be a nice new construction in a very nice area .

There was nobody else around so I decided to keep walking to the end of the track even though I would finish the 53 km a day early .
When I got to the end of the track there were a few others there that had done the walk which meant one of the taxi services would be there to hopefully give me a lift back to the camp .
When they arrived I asked the one driver if I could pay him to take me back and mentioned that I had been dropped off in a red van ... he said to me " That was my son " , then he looked at the machete handle sticking out of my pack and said " On Friday when he came home he said " Dad , no matter what happens don't let me forget to pick up the South African on Monday ! " " ...... it's not as if there are blood stains on the machete or something ?

I can't remember where it was that I stayed that night - it was a motel somewhere along this road ....

I'm starting to remember what I ate that night though !

It was along time ago but I think I just convinced myself to head back there soon !

009.) The Pinnacles , Thames 06/2003

2010-02-13T23:20:00.000-08:00

The Pinnacles walk near Thames is classified as one of the 'Great Walks' in New Zealand . It is very popular and the hut at the top is top class . It has two separate bunk rooms that each have 40 bunks providing bedding for 80 people . You have to book in advance , even if you want to spend the night in the nearby camping site .
There used to be a lot of logging in the area and steps have been cut in the rocks in many places along the track .
We arranged a group of 15 people keen to do the walk and arrived in a few carloads . We got there first and decided to start walking/climbing .

There are a few bridges to cross , everything is well maintained along the track .

Some of the 'stone steps'

Apparently they used flooding techniques to wash large amounts of logs down the river which resulted in a fair amount of damage - something us humans seem to excel at .

There's the hut in the distance ...

Now my machete on the bed there adds to the story - I put it there to help mark out beds for everyone in our group .

The hut warden had asked about it and I assured him it was just in case a small tree had fallen across the track so I could clear it away without having to damage new vegetation by going around it - I even did him the favour of showing him how to twirl a machete -

He obviously didn't appreciate that because when the first of my mates got to the top he said he had seen the map stating that it was a 3 - 5 hour walk - 5 km up a steep hill , and asked the hut warden , who he met coming down the track , what the fastest time anyone has done the track was .
The hut warden replied " A madman with a machete just did it in 1 hr 27 minutes " - he told me he immediately knew I was at the hut ....

As mentioned it is very well laid out , except for the fact that the showers are cold water only .

There is also a kitchen with gas cookers and a gas barbeque on the sizable verandah where you can sit and look out over the treetops .

The 'dunnies'

The next morning we decided to climb the pinnacles which are supposedly a half hour walk from the hut and can afford views of the east and west coast on a clear day .

As you can see it was a little foggy so our view wasn't too good .

If we had stayed another half an hour we would have had a good view because the cloud started lifting as we made our way down .

The steel ladder leading up to the lookout .....

And on many of the walks in New Zealand you can be pretty sure of running into some mud along the way which is fortunately reasonably well taken care of on the more popular walks .

It's a good walk and now I'm tempted to return with a better camera after more than 6 years ...
06/2004 was another short trip , not with a good camera though .
We stayed in the campsite this time ...

and had slightly clearer weather for viewing from the lookout

But we came down via a different track which was a refreshing change .

There is a lot of history to the place and they make sure that everything is well marked on these walks .

It has been a few years but there is still much to see before I go back to old tracks again I suppose .

Interestingly I just noticed the old picture compared to this trip while going through the pictures :
first trip :

second trip .....

008) Lietches clearing 10/2003

2010-02-13T22:45:00.000-08:00

This is an old trip we did , back in 2003 , taken with my old 4 meg Panasonic DMC-LC5.
Lietches clearing was an area of land cleared out by a farmer many years ago who anticipated that one day it would be a major traffic intersection ... still waiting !
Now it is a nice walk to a hut which also has a few dog kennels available for hunters [ I mean for the hunters dogs !] .
It involves a gradual uphill walk for about 1 1/2 hours followed by a gradual downhill walk for 1 1/2 hours with some reasonable scenery along the way

We used to always take a 'before' picture on our walks , Wayne , Jeremy and me ...

I won't claim to remember everything from that trip but a picture can tell the story and refresh my mind .
Jeremy insisted on carrying 1 1/2 litres of Coke ....

And Wayne was always trying to sneak it out of his pack ....

At one point there is a landslip which you have to work your way around .

And that's the hut ...

There is a nice swimming hole there , some people tie their food to a rope and hang it in the water to keep it cold which is why I never swam in it - I'm not too fond of freezing water .

This is a view of the hut from the nearby hill which was also nicely cleared away .

There were two families in the hut - with screaming kids so we decided to make shelter in the nearby trees ...

I think our shelter turned out pretty cozy in fact .....

We took a few videos that night , this was a thumbnail of one of the videos which included a lightsabre duel with our LED torches ...

But it was this trip that convinced me that I needed a new sleeping bag because there was a frost that night and my ears were sore when I woke up .

We had breakfast in the hut though .

Those two guys on the left were eating boerewors , I asked them if they were South African but they said that they just worked for a South African butcher .

Besides that it was a rather uneventful return journey and the scenery was good -though my photography wasn't so good back then .

I dropped Wayne off at home until the next adventure ....

Photovan gets a helmet-cam !

2010-02-12T18:14:00.000-08:00

Today I tested my new "gopro hero" HD helmet cam after mounting it on the dash of the van .

I'll be adding some pictures and video links as I process the images .

This is the first short video clip I tried while driving out of my driveway onto the main road heading in to Raglan from 'Te Uku' .

The quality was set at its lowest and has been further degraded by youtube processing . I'll add a link to a clip of 100% quality video for anyone interested in seeing what it is really capable of .

I took some stills as well , where they were jumping off the bridge in Raglan town . Since the camera uses a centre weighted metering pattern and the sky was bright there will be more noise in the shadow areas which are under-exposed .

And this is a 100% crop of the pole in the picture ....

This is a video of a drive into Raglan , along the waterfront and to the wharf ....

For anyone interested in seeing the HD quality this camera produces here is a 5 second clip of HD video [ 6 meg ]

Electrical system of the photovan .

2010-02-12T00:24:00.000-08:00

" A shoemakers children go to school bare-foot " .
I'm an auto electrician and there's no way I'm going to spend the time and money I tell the customers to spend .... on my own van !
We had a few good second hand batteries at work , one is behind the drivers seat , the other is behind the desk at the back .

The earth connection goes straight down to ground , bolted to the body of the van . The positive connections of the two batteries are joined together with a 30 amp fuse at either end in case of a short circuit .
There is an isolating switch , usually for boat batteries , between the seats and this takes a positive feed from the main van battery , I operate this manually so it depends on my memory whether the batteries get charged or not ... the correct way to do this would be to use a voltage sensitive relay which would automatically connect the two systems together when the alternator starts charging [ 13.7 volts or higher ]- and disconnect when the voltage drops below 12.8 volts , in other words when the engine stops .
This will prevent the 'house batteries' draining the van battery to ensure that the van can start in the morning even if the additional batteries have been run dead flat .
If this ever happens , and the house batteries are run dead flat care would have to be taken not to rev the engine up when the vehicle starts because the house batteries will demand a very high current which could melt the alternator windings [ an alternator only has a voltage regulator and has no protection for excessive current draw ] , the 30 amp fuses would prevent this in my situation because they would 'pop' but I would not know this and the batteries would stay flat - with bigger fuses this would not happen so easily and the alternator windings could get dangerously hot . The best to do in this situation would be to start the van and let it idle slowly for 10 minutes , limiting the alternator's voltage and current output capacity to a minimum amount which would not damage it or blow the safety fuses with a sudden current surge .

Where possible I have used gas for cooking [ and emergency heating in winter ] since using the inverters for cooking [ microwave oven perhaps ] draws a huge current from the batteries that won't last long .
there are also 16 cigarette lighter plugs [ 4 batches of 4 ] in various places since many camping accessories plug into them easily .
The spare batteries have various other wires coming off them to the extra cigarette lighter adapters , running various accessories - two of which are map lights which can be pulled out and plugged in wherever needed , along with the gps , and a wireless fm transmitter something like this ...

so I will always have something to listen to even when there is no reception - and no cd's to skip tracks on rough roads . It takes a USB adapter and a 2 gig card holds 400 songs . It transmits wirelessly so it's just a matter of tuning the radio station in to the right frequency . this has the added advantage of being able to have a cheap looking stereo that's not worth stealing while being able to listen to high quality audio via an fm signal .
Fortunately I want the van to look like a piece of junk , I don't want people to think there may perhaps be $10 000 worth of camera gear inside .
Being a paranoid South African I also have an alarm system installed just in case .

22.) Tongariro - snowy northern ciruit

2010-02-10T15:55:00.000-08:00

May 2009 :

Snowy Northern Circuit adventure !

At the end of May I did the Tongariro crossing and there was only a little snow and I had hoped for more so this time I waited until I knew there would be more snow - I had wanted a bit more of an adventure . But this time I was going to do the northern circuit which includes the scenic part of the crossing and a night at the hut followed by a 25km walk back to the village the next day .
On Monday night I was told that there would be organized transport to the beginning of the track at 9am so I wouldn't have to walk the 9km from the Chateaux so Tuesday morning I took some pictures while I waited for the visitor centre to open so I could fill in a form stating where I would be and when I would be back .

When the visitor centre opened at 8 am they told me the organized transport had already left [ some people pay $150 for a guided trip up into the snow ] so I went back to the camp cafe where they arrange some transport .
They phoned through to one of the transport companies , made some quick arrangements and I was told I had 20 minutes to be ready which is where things started going wrong - in my hurry I forgot to pack my waterproof rain pants .
When the driver picked me up he told me he wasn't going to the beginning of the track , there was a misunderstanding and he could only drop me at the road leading to the track - an extra 7km walk .
I never had much choice so off we went .

Nguaruhoe in the distance while walking up the road ....

Ruapehu to the side .....

And here's a map of the journey starting at the bottom of the road ..... [Those numbers '5 1/2 ' etc. are wrong - they were written there when I was trying to work out some distances and thought each division was 5km instead of 10 km ]

It took just over an hour and 10 minutes to get that first 7km out of the way - I was going rather slowly because my pack was probably the heaviest its ever been - over 25kg because I had all my snow gear including another pair of boots . My 'normal' boots don't do too well in snow and my alpine boots give me blisters on anything other than snow so I had to carry both pairs , plus crampons , ice axe , food , clothing -30 degree sleeping bag , emergency shelter , small knife , big knife , machete ..... all the essentials :smile:
I saw two other DSLR's on the trip besides all the compacts - a Nikon D40 and a Nikon D90 - no Canon cameras .
I had my trusty old D50 and Tamron 17-50 lens .
I wasn't too happy with the amount of snow - I had wanted much more to make it a bit more difficult . Apparently the snow was much lower earlier and I was told that 5 days ago the ice on top was so hard that even the crampons weren't holding and climbers had to cut steps to get up .

Obviously enough high winds to have to chain the toilet down - you wouldn't want it blowing away - especially if you're in it

Then the weather started closing in .....

On the opposite ridge I had seen the organized tour heading for Tongariro summit .

As I got to the top of the first climb I saw someone running down the side of Nguaruhoe and waving and thought that perhaps there was something wrong ?

I came around the corner to get behind some rocks so I could get my serious gear on and found "Romina" from Argentina " waiting for her friend " Tina from Germany " who was running down the mountain , it turns out they were doing almost the same walk and were heading for the same hut as me so we decided to travel together . That was when I found out that in my haste I hadn't packed the rainproof pants but decided to keep going rather than turn back - if things get nasty I always have my emergency shelter .

So we headed off into the fog following the wooden marker posts in the ground .....

Last time there was a thin layer of snow and a few ice patches , this time the poles were shorter meaning a thicker layer . I was going through the snow and ice more often than the girls because of my extra weight [ the pack of course ] and once or twice we hit 'slush' where we sunk into wet slushy snow - this particular time I ran as I kept going deeper - wondering how deep it would go but luckily it wasn't too deep .

And then we headed up to the red crater

and the clouds started moving away

Was the snow deep or was the pole short ?

My gear was doing ok ....

A look across at blue lake ....

there were some patterns in the snow ....

Don't walk too close to the edge !

Red crater steaming away .....

The emerald lakes were a bit snowed up

someone had taken a short-cut across the crater ....

After the emerald lakes we started heading down ....

and suddenly it's a different world with different scenery

Tina was also carrying a reasonable size pack ...

We were all pretty tired , and after eating , the girls were in their sleeping bags by 7:00 pm - I waited till 8 and I think got about 5 hours sleep in total , noises outside , aches and pains and just about being too tired and sore to fall asleep . At 11 it started raining - heavy ! I spent most of the night waking up and listening to hear if it was still raining since I never had my rain pants with me .
In the morning it was still raining but the weather was quite warm .

Then suddenly it stopped raining , the weather went cold and it was snowing .

And these are the last few pictures before I had to put the camera away .
Romina getting ready to go ...

I wasn't sure which was worse , warm and wet or cold and snowy but at least we only had one to contend with . I eventually resorted to cutting my emergency blanket in half and wrapping it around my legs before we left , I also put on my track pants over it all . It probably made a difference , I was a bit sweaty at first but eventually I was soaked and when we got to a little bit of shelter I took one last shot of my pack before hiding the camera at the bottom with some dry clothing - each time I checked on my camera there was some water on it so I decided it was time to stop taking pictures .

I had seriously considered leaving my fleece jacket at home because I thought my alpine jacket would do a good enough job but I really needed it ! After we got down to Waihohonu hut I put my fleece jacket on because I was rather cold , and then the alpine jacket over that - somehow water was getting in everywhere and my hands were cold - I got my gloves on but when I took them off later I couldn't get them back on because my hands were wet so resorted to pulling my hands up inside my sleeves .
The snow kept falling , we had about 10 km to walk to the hut and after that about another 15km to walk back to Whakapapa village . The girls had parked at the beginning of the track so to save them an extra 8km walk I offered to give them a lift back to their car if they walked to the village where my van was .
So we all kept going to the village , the last part of the walk is relatively flat compared to what we had been through but the weather was getting worse and I seriously wondered how long I could last on the ridges when the snow turned to small ice particles blowing in our faces . My old H-frame pack is getting a little tired and the strap kept jumping out on the left side while the waist belt kept slipping , it wasn't a comfortable walk back - mud puddles , slipping and falling in the snow , adjusting the straps with cold wet hands , the last few hours seemed to take forever ...... it was one of my best trips ever !
When we finally got back I dropped the girls back at their car ,we said our goodbyes and they mentioned the fact that they were heading to Taupo and the hot pools and I thought of my cold van at the campsite ..... and headed for National Park where I saw a sign at a ski lodge advertising spa baths . $70 Dinner bed and breakfast was pretty good and I got to talk to one of the guys who worked in the kitchen about his D80 and photography .
The next morning the mountain looked really good .

It's been a while now but last week [ 20 March 2010 ] I got an email from Tina who is back home in Germany and finally managed to find the card I left with her . It turns out that after I dropped them off at their rental car and left .... she managed to lock the keys in the car and ended up having to walk all the way back to Whakapapa village to get the AA out to get the car open again !

21.) Stony bay revisited .

2010-02-09T15:50:00.000-08:00

Stony bay revisted in the photovan

So far Stony Bay is on the top of my list of North island camping spots in New Zealand . I like the fact that it is quite isolated and even when it is a really busy time of the year the other campers are quite spread out - besides the good scenery of course :smile:
On Friday I packed my van ready to go but needed 'supplies' and the shops were closed so I decided to head in the general direction and sleep overnight near a town where I could buy some food for the trip .
I ended up pulling in at this place called 'Wentworth falls' ....

I took a half hour walk to the falls and got a few snaps with some sunlight on the leaves - I take the D50 when I'm walking a distance from the campsite .

I also went to the bottom of the falls and got some shots using the tripod .

Then I took some shots of the rugged path as I climbed back up again ....

By this time the sun had disappeared ...

and the path on the way back - end of day one .....

On Saturday morning I headed off early and bought some supplies at Thames and then started the up and down winding road to the northern tip of Coromandel ....

and at the very end of that road you look down on the last beach after 'sandy bay' .... ''Stony Bay" which is probably full of round stones from the river that empties out onto the beach .

I had another look around the campsite to find a good spot this time

and ended up camping very close to where I was last time - under the shade of some big trees [ Pohutukawas ]

This time I took my bike with as well .

For me this was an 'exercise in relaxation' , I have never been able to keep still or stay in one place more than one night so this time I stayed two nights !
In my new-found 'spare time' I actually did nothing for a while and relaxed .
But then I also wanted to go back up the walking track that leads across to Fletchers bay on the other side - but I only went up to the lookout and took a few shots there before heading back ... slowly .

The D50 is still serving me faithfully after all these years and is my 'hack' camera for rougher trips and walks in the bush .

And the lookout :

I also had the D90 and 70-200VR lens there and it was good for the slow walks around the campsite .

It was also my 'wildlife lens ' [ I took some bread with this time because I remembered the ducks ]

hasty retreat ....

The one that never got away ....

Hmmmmm , maybe next time ?

In all it was a good trip - a lot of driving though but worth it to get away from the crowds .
In a few days I'll be heading off again to climb mount Egmont [ Taranaki ] so I'll have to keep fit till then .....

20.) Photovan does Mount Egmont / Taranaki

2010-02-09T00:45:00.000-08:00

On the 1st of the 1st 2010 I climbed Mount Egmont .
I took this picture of " The Camphouse " from the roof of the photovan for a better perspective .

When I arrived on Thursday afternoon I did a short walk and got some pictures of the surrounding plant life .

Including some of the damage caused by introduced possums ...

Friday morning I started walking at 7:15 since they rate it as a 5-8 hour climb one way .

First you head for the tower

next to this hut ....

That took just under an hour .

Then after a 5 minute rest you start climbing again

and within a few minutes you reach these steps designed more to protect the soil than help climbers .

Initial thoughts are that it is hard having your steps paced out for you but once you leave the steps you start to wish there was more of them .

After the steps is a long steep slope of scoria , lots of light loose volcanic rock particles ..... two steps forward takes you one step in the right direction as you start 'moonwalking' and welcome the occasional solid rock to step on and get full movement for a second .
At this point the gusts of gale force winds occasionally knock you off your feet if you don't learn to drop to the ground as you feel them and when you have a Nikon D50 hanging around your neck it's a bit harder .

Then you welcome the sight of solid rock to get a grip on until you notice how sharp its edges are ![ have a look at that rather suspect image right in the centre of the frame ]

Then perhaps the most scary part of the trip is when you find some nutter doing the climb butt-naked for a challenge and sort of wish he would realize how sharp the rocks are and put on some protection to make the scenery more pleasant for the rest of us !

I eventually got to the 'top' 3 hrs and 15 minutes after leaving and prepared for a walk around the crater .

At the top it was quite warm until I stepped around the corner into icy gale force winds and snow and had to get all my protective gear on before going any further .
I started walking onto the snow and almost got knocked over a few times by the wind and since I never had my proper alpine gear decided I had already seen enough and had lunch in the warm area .

Besides that I had slipped on the ridge of Mount Ruapehu in the past and ended up hanging on the safety strap of my ice axe and I didn't like the look of the sudden stop in the rocks at the bottom of this slope .

so lunch on the edge of the crater would be enough for me ...

Going up was nerve wracking enough but now I had to maneuver my way back down the sharp rocks without damaging the camera [ which had been forgotten on iso 1600 for some of the earlier pictures - hence the grainey skies ] , or losing too much blood in general . Going down involves 'helping gravity' on such a steep slope .

Then you leave the sharp rocks and are greeted by the slippery scoria and a pile of rocks a long way down if you start to roll or slide too fast .

Someone was taking a different route on another slope .

I did have the chance to enjoy some of the colourful plant life on the rocks though .

while eagerly anticipating getting back to a safer environment .

and 2 hours after leaving the top I had one last glimpse of mount Egmont before heading off in my van ....

Of course you have to wear the correct clothing on these trips

I decided to take the scenic " Forgotten world highway " which is a mysterious stretch of road with buildings rotting away [ Unfortunately I never had the energy to stop for all of the nice opportunities ] and some attractive mountains .

and Ruapehu in the distance [ which is actually in a few of my pictures from Egmont ]

After stopping to help someone with a puncture , finding out I never even had the tools to change my own tire ! , driving the guy to Taumaranui to get the AA and only arriving at a Waitomo camp site at 9 pm I was rather tired and slept pretty well till this morning .... [ drove straight into town and bought $200 worth of tools for the van for NEXT TIME ]
And that was the end of another adventure in the photovan - but then there's still next week ...............

19.) Photovan does Kawhia .

2010-02-09T00:22:00.000-08:00

25/10/2009 .

Kawhia / Waitomo in the photovan .

It's been a while since I did a tour in my photovan so this weekend I did a short tour over the mountain from where I live and visited Kawhia which I have never seen before

It's one of those places that has a lot of character and some interesting buildings .

I parked the photovan and went for a walk around town yesterday

These are a few shots I got in Otorohanga

I'm getting angry !

still sorting through what to post !

iso 3200.

And some at the natural bridge [arch?]

The springs at Kawhia ...

It is like 'hot water beach' where you can dig into the sand and sit in a pool of hot water . these two guys were getting so hot they had to keep running and getting cold seawater to cool themselves down !

I had the 70-200 with me this time as well

This shop was seriously 'in the middle of nowhere' and I commended the owner on how tidy the place was . He told me that once they painted it up properly their business increased drastically .

Maybe one day you could visit New Zealand , but then but you'd have to pronounce all these names !

18.) ''Overlander'' train trip .

2010-02-09T00:17:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a tiring full day trip by train from Hamilton through Tauranga and then on to Rotorua by bus for a walk around paradise valley and then back to Hamilton . This is all I have to share for now till tomorrow morning .....

Craig with his Minolta 7D and Peter with his Olympus E3 ... both trying to work out how their cameras work while I'm taking pictures with my Nikon !

The morning before we left .....

warming up the gear ....

It was really exciting for most of us

Standing outside on the viewing platform made the motion sickness better ...

We saw a variety of photographic situations but had to be quick to get them ....

Then we had to get off the train and wait for the busses to turn up , all 9 of them .

The bus took our party to paradise valley

Craig tried to entice this bird to have some lunch without success

we had to encourage this Kea NOT to have our camera gear for lunch

Max the lion was showing everyone who's boss at feeding time ...

He took a few swings at me as well ....

This one had a different emotion to it with his eyes closed ....

And that's about it for that day :) .