The weekend with mega tramping fun

Hi,


What an incredible weekend.  My body has been pushed to its limit (well, maybe almost).  And I feel so good for it all.

If you want to read Andrew's version of the tramp, it is here:  Arawaru

Friday after work, we had some Gilbert logistics involving dropping Mike's gear at the train station for his van trip up to the mountain.  From there, Andrew and I drove out to collect Andrew's gear from Sally and his place.  Sally arrived as we were almost ready to head away.  She got Smudge's fancy feast cans safely.  :-)

Andrew and I made good time - we left his place at about 6.15pm.  I may be making that up.  But between 6 and 6.30 I think.  And there was no traffic.  Weird.  Ate a pie at the BP at Otaki.  And we were chatting to Iona just after 8pm.


Up super early at 5.20am to get ready for the day.  Ate some toast with peanut butter and a nice Rooibos.  Iona got up to eat with us.  By 6.40am we were off.  Twenty minutes to the road end.  We were off walking by 7.10am - up the Sledge Track.

New gaiters in pristine condition before the huge tramp

I had my trail running shoes on, with tramping socks and my new gaiters.  Had my tramping pants on, and two layers of merino, my cap and my jacket.  I carried extra layers, leggings and snacks and water (1.5 L) in my Camelbak backpack.  Andrew had first aid and a PLB as well as survival pack.

The first hour was a flat (mostly) track to a new swing bridge - part of Te Araroa.  The bridge was opened in March 2017.  From there, Andrew and I crossed the bridge and dropped into the bush, off the path.  We fossicked around in the bush and undergrowth, to see if we could bush bash up that side of the river to the tops.  But after a bit of rummaging, Andrew declared we were better off on the track for a bit on the other side - before haring off up to the tops up a spur.

I found one of those large carnivorous snail shells while blundering up and down that side of the river - so I was happy.  And as we did that, a gaggle of men ran past us on the track, chatting away to themselves. We were lucky enough to see two giant earthworms during the day too.  The snails eat them.  Must be a huge meal for them.  The worms were probably close to 15 cm long, and maybe as thick as my pinky finger.  Looks like a lot of eating for a snail - even a big snail.

Back on the other side, and we took a track that said it was No Exit.  Hmmm.  Hahahah.  But the track certainly exited - right up the side of a huge hill.  The path was rough - and marked with tape for the most part.  Sometimes it was hard to find the next tape marking the track direction.  I fell off the path frequently.  We would fan out a bit between us to find the next tape.

It was slowly drizzling with rain the entire time.  The first high point made me a little cold, even with hardly any wind.  I put my gloves on, and kept them on the entire rest of the way.

From here, we tramped along the tops, finding a few more highpoints.  We didn't get lost - but Andrew was making good use of his map and compass.  Without that we would have never found our way.  Eventually we got to the bottom of our highest point, and did some off track navigation up the the top.  The scrub was so thick.  Andrew wormed his way through it and I followed.

At this stage, the Super Mario game Toby used to play came to mind.  The one where the hero does all the tricky stuff, and the hanger-on gets hauled along in a wee bubble, keeping out of trouble.

However, in some of the thicker scrub, that had Andrew on his hands and knees crawling under - I managed to scurry through without much trouble.

Basically, it was like a childhood adventure.  Crawling through bush, exploring wild areas and eating chocolate when you could.  What more could you want from a day?

Got to the top and saw...  nothing.  The clagged in weather continued.  Andrew pointed in the direction of the Wairarapa.  But as we came up to another high point (550m) we saw back at where we had walked through the clouds.  Lovely.

Smashed down to the swing bridge in half the posted time.  Ooossshhh.  Back at the car by 5pm.  Exhausted.  And really unhappy at the prospect of changing in the toilet at the road end.  It was not a pleasant place.  So I stripped in the passenger seat of the car - hoping my efforts steamed up the windows enough to prevent too much of a peep show.

Back to Iona and Col's for a shower and a scrumptious meal.  Col had bumped into Malcolm and Marion in the supermarket, so they came for tea too.  And Carrie and Ed - friends around for dinner in their original plans before we threw our spanner in the works.

Huntsman pie - yummy!

A bit of chatting late into the night saw me fall into bed after 10pm.  What was I thinking?  Fool!  And Col woke me at 3.50am to get dressed and follow her bleary eyed to watch the All Blacks play South Africa.  Her sister kindly let us sprawl on her couch to watch it.

Awesome game - we won by one point!

Back for a snooze before brekkie at 10am.  Oat pancakes.  Mmmmm.  Chatted a bit more.  Spoke to Mike for a while to hear his adventures.

And off for lunch to Soskys before we headed home.

Iced coffee at Soskys.  Not bad.  Solid 6.

Enjoyed a Rooibos with Sally before heading home to do my filthy laundry.  Collected Mike from Melling at 7pm and soaked in a bath with him for a while before another exhausted sleep.

What a weekend!  Wow!  Just... wow!

Thank you to everyone.

Love,
Angela