Tararua Forest Park

As mentioned in my last post, I spent Friday and Saturday of the Easter weekend tramping (hiking) in the Tararua forest park. The trip was organised by Harvey and Al, a couple of guys I met through work who have loads of experience in tramping and really know their way round this range of mountains.


This satellite shot gives you a bit of a sense of how hilly the park is -



View Larger Map


Over the 2 days we travelled from Holdsworth Rd north up to Kiriwhakapapa (Kir-ee-fa-ca-papa). This isn't one of the more famous 'Great Walks' but still offered some great walking and fantastic scenery.


Day 1 - we set off from Wellington around 5:30, so we could start walking about 7am. The first couple of hours were along an easy track, which was a good chance to get used to the weight of a 2 day pack. The track then started to get a bit rougher and took us over the first part of the range to arrive at a hut in Mitre flats for lunch. The weather was lovely and sunny, but the first signs that it might close in over night were just visible. This meant we decided not to climb up to Mitre Peak as originally planned and instead tracked along the riverbank for the rest of the afternoon. 

If that sounds like an easy option, let me tell you it wasn't.  Every 100 metres or so the track turned steeply up the valley side to climb to a point where we could cross the gully that was cut during periods of heavy rain by one of the streams feeding into the river. Once we'd made it across this the track would often turn steeply back downhill to the river, meaning we covered lots of vertical metres just to get back to the level we started at. At about 4pm we started looking for a site to camp for the night. After about 30 minutes we came across one spot by a tributary, but decided to search on a little further. As we crossed the tributary I managed to slip on a rock and plunge in up to my waist. I popped out unharmed, but was pretty worried about my phone and camera, which I was stupidly carrying in my pockets rather than in my pack. Having got the batteries out quickly both my NZ phone and camera seem to have survived without too much damage phew!


As I was now partially soaked, tired and starting to get cold I was pretty relieved that we found a good little spot to camp after about another 10 minutes. A quick change of clothes and wash in the river and I was feeling much better. We cooked dinner and were so knackered we crashed out by about 9:15. Here's our simple fly camping set-up -

Day 2 - Having slept solidly through to about 7:30 we got up to find it was cloudy but hadn't rained. After breakfast we continued along the river for about 90 minutes until we came to another hut and point where the track crossed the river. There are some brilliant little wire bridges across the rivers in the park, which swing as you walk along them and only take one person at a time. This one was a more serious endeavour. Apparently it replaced a self-winching cage. I was quite disappointed to have missed out on that until I heard that quite a few walkers had lost fingers in the mechanism! -

After crossing some loose shingle from a small landslide we turned steeply up and started ascending a spur. We covered about 700 metres in vertical distance over the next couple of hours to reach a ridgeline just below the peak of Te Mara. A couple of hours more took us round a horseshoe under the peak to the Blue Range Hut where we ate lunch. It was then a steep descent to get down to the carpark for our lift home. The rain only started falling lightly at this last part of the day and the canopy of trees sheltered us from it reasonably well so we didn't even crack out our jackets.


Physically I was pretty glad to reach the end of the hike. Although I've been running regularly since I moved out here, it really took it out of my legs. The pack also added a whole extra dimension of effort. I think we all felt pretty much the same as it's been a while since Harvey and Al have carried overnight packs.


The park itself was fantastic. I haven't done a very good job of capturing the scale of the place and the untouched nature. I was impressed by the balance that Department of Conservation (DoC) have struck in managing the forest. The tracks near roadheads were very easy, giving casual walkers a chance to enjoy the park. Further in, the work was more minimal - markers and occasional cutting of the undergrowth - meaning they had avoided making it too tame. There are also a good network of huts that you can stay in as an alternative to camping and that each have logbooks to keep track of the routes and progress of groups in case there are any issues. 


I'm definitely hoping to get out and do more tramping while I'm here. One that is on my list (as it is with nearly everyone who visits) is the Tongariro crossing. 

General update

Not much to report in the last week or so, hence the lack of posts. Here's a quick run-down of a few things:

• Helen, Harry and I went to the Carter Observatory last Tuesday evening. By chance we managed to choose the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's trip to space, which meant there was a special film screening as well as a new (for NZ) show in the planetarium. It must have been incredible to be the first person to ever visit space, but after hearing a recording of his radio exchanges with ground control I do wonder why he didn't think a bit more about how he could describe it!

• I've bought a car. It's hardly a mean set of wheels (a '98 1.8L Hyundai Lantra Sedan), but it seems to run ok and only cost me about a grand. It's actually the first car that I've ever owned - thanks to cheeky sharing of various VW Polos. It will give me a lot more flexibility for road-trips around NZ and day-to-day things like the nearby surf beach. Searching for the car introduced me to a great concept - 'NZ new'. Lots of cars are imported from countries like Japan after a few years on the road, but because of the expectations here these are classed as new!

• This weekend we get Friday and Monday off...but no extra day for the wedding. I'm planning to spend a couple of days on a hike (Kiwis call it a tramp) over the Tararua Flats with a couple of guys from work. If I've got all the documents sorted in time I might also use my car to head off and explore a new surf spot or two.

No doubt I'll be posting about the weekend some time next week, until then try and contain your anticipation :-P

Kapiti Island

On saturday I visited Kapiti Island, a nature reserve a few miles off the coast about an hour north of Wellington. The island has been a bird sanctuary for around 100 years and in recent decades all predators and pests have been eliminated. This helps species that struggle on the mainland, particularly flightless birds.


I was travelling with Helen, who is also over on secondment for DfE in England, and her partner Harry. After driving up from Wellington, the journey across to the island was by a combination of tractor and ferry -

Only a handful of visitors are permitted on the island each day, particularly at the north end, which was our destination. This meant we barely met another person all day as we wondered the island trails.


The big draw is the range of bird species and it was a great chance to get some use out of my zoom lens. I found it was pretty tricky to get good shots and ended up with lots of pictures of empty branches just after birds flew off (I'm sure some of them were doing this as a deliberate game). Here are some of the better pics -

A Kereru (NZ Pigeon)

North Island Weka

Two Tui

Robin

Pukeko (from a long way away)

Extra hard to shoot birds in flight!

And a few other non-wildlife shots -

   

    

1:53:15

As I mentioned in a post last week, I signed up for a half marathon with just over a week to prepare for the race, which was on Saturday.


I finished with a time of 1 hour, 53 minutes and 15 secs (you can check here). I was pretty pleased with this, especially given the lack of serious training.


The race was at a place called Matariki Forest, which is a couple of hours outside of Wellington. That meant that I had to get up at 4:30 in the morning. We were rewarded with a really nice sunrise as we arrived at the race site.

Three of us were running. Carina (on the left below) and I were in the half-marathon and Angela (centre) was running the 10km race. Carina's partner, Paul, also came along and was cameraman and, really importantly, driver on the way back after the race.

Pre-race smiles

The course was really nice, mostly through the forest meaning we ran under the shade of trees, with the occasional section along the riverside or with a view of the countryside. The last few km were tougher as we were out in the sunshine and by that point it was pretty warm.


I ran the first 10km with Carina, and we covered this in almost exactly an hour. I then upped the pace a bit to cover the remaining 11km in just under 55 minutes. I was pleased with the negative split!

Sprinting for the finish line, natch

Carina and Angela both finished there races in good times as well. Here we are proudly showing off our medals -

We got back to Wellington about 2pm. After an afternoon of mooching and a good nap, I made it out to a flatwarming party and was somehow still standing at 2am. Was very grateful for the clocks going back on Sunday morning meaning an extra hour in bed to recover.


Now I've got my sights set on the Wellington half marathon in June. A bit more time to train, but I haven't decided what time I should aim for yet. I might well be running against some serious wind and rain (to get my excuses in early). 

Times Ed on London Challenge

I saw this article in the TES to mark the end of London Challenge last month. Given the usual TES attitude to any central Govt initiative, the positive tone was really pleasing and represents pretty high praise. This came on top of the Ofsted thematic report that came out in December and another year of big improvements in Key Stage 2 and GCSE results.


Cheesy as it is to say, I'm really proud of having been part of the programme. The levels of commitment and common purpose at all levels, from the classroom to the Department were inspiring and put quite simply, it worked. Personally I got a huge amount of satisfaction and learning from being responsible for a part of it. However hard it felt at times, the impact and the experience made it all worth while.