Mt Taranaki - take two

I’ve been a little slack writing blog posts recently so I will attempt to make up for that in the next few weeks. We’ve certainly been out and about a lot doing various activities so plenty of blog fodder. This post is going to cover off our second trip of the year to Mt Taranaki. After our previous failed attempt to summit Taranaki by an alternative, rock-climbing route we were feeling reasonably confident that we knew where the route started and that we would be successful.Here's a good photo of the mountain taken from the deer farm we were staying at.

So, attempt number 2 took place in March. The weather conditions looked much better than our previous attempt so we headed off after work on the Friday to stay at the deer farm for the night.

The next morning we sorted out our gear which needed to include our climbing equipment as well as the normal warm clothing, food, etc. We headed up to the mountain and walked to the beginning of the route. Well. What we thought the beginning of the route was. The route description told us to climb up the rocky creek bed (no water in the creek), then exit the creek to the right which would take us a to a meadow. All went well until we exited the creek and found ourselves in an open area that didn’t look much like a meadow as it was covered in low, scrubby leatherwood trees. We spent over an hour fighting through this area to reach a rocky ridge we could see in the distance. When we got over the top of the ridge we discussed where the route might be as we were pretty sure we weren’t on it.

After a lunch break in the sun we decided to continue across the valley to a lava flow we could see that we thought could be fun to climb. The rest of the climb to the summit was relatively uneventful. For once the photos taken actually showed how steep the terrain was. Usually photos make it look pretty tame.

We did get to one point where we needed to pull out the climbing gear to get down off the end of a rocky outcrop.

When we reached the summit there was a lot of cloud around us but, while we were there, the cloud cleared away and the sun was shining.

This is the top of the mountain - looks a little like we could be on the moon or somewhere.

By now it was after 5pm but the view was so good and the sun so warm we spent an hour pottering about on the summit, taking photos and snacking.

Eventually we started to descend – down the normal summit track and got back to the car just before 9pm. It had been a long day and we spent the last hour walking in the dark. And we still hadn’t climbed the route we wanted to! Now we need to find another weekend to go back and do it properly!

Food glorious food

Most of my friends and family know that I no longer eat meat (apart from fish!). I would have to say that the overwhelming reaction I get from people is not a positive one which I find that difficult to understand.

For a long time I've enjoyed eating healthy food and cutting out meat is one more step in making my diet healthier. It's over a year now since I stopped eating meat and I don't miss it at all. A positive side effect has been a reduction in weight. I am guessing some of this can be attributed to not eating meat. Cycling to and from work everyday and tramping on weekends might also have contributed to the weight loss.

For me, the reasons behind this new lifestyle are health based. It's not an ethical issue for me. I am fitter, stronger and healthier now than I was previously. Maybe this can be attributed to the vegetarian diet. Maybe not. What this has taught me is that I don't need meat to satisfy my hunger. I thought I would struggle with not eating things like bacon and a good steak but this is not the case. What has happened is that this lifestyle change (which is what it is - it's certainly not a "diet") has opened up my eyes to a whole new range of food.

Eating out is not quite as simple as it used to be but that's not an issue as we only eat out on rare occasions. Usually there will be one or two items on a menu that are either seafood or vegetarian. We have found a few great places to eat around Wellington where the menu caters for our needs. One such place is Nature Vegetarian. This is a tiny Asian-style place on High Street in Lower Hutt (across the road from Pak n Save). Their food is pretty good. They do have menu items that include fake meat which we're not into but, if you're after a vegetarian chop, they can cater for you. Their golden fried tofu is a great starter.

Generally ethnic restaurants are a better bet than pubs, etc. We've had some great meals at Indian, Vietnamese, Turkish and Thai restaurants in the Hutt Valley and in Wellington. For the record, Kilim in Petone is the best Turkish restaurant I've eaten at for a long time. They're BYO and their food prices are cheap so it's possible to have a great meal out on a budget.

Hmmm, this post has turned into a bit of a restaurant review edition which was not my intention. I actually wanted to talk more about what we're eating at home. Of course we're lapping up all the wonderful fresh summer fruit and vegetables at the moment. Our grocery bill for the past few weeks has been around $45 for fresh produce from the markets. We've managed to avoid the supermarket for three weeks now although this weekend we'll need to go stock up on a few things.

Two memorable meals in the last few days have been homemade corn tortillas on Saturday night and then zucchini fritters, broccoli soup and fresh sweetcorn last night.

I can recommend making corn tortillas from scratch. They were delicious and super easy to make! We should have made more. For the tortillas you need to buy some Masa Harina. This is available from some New World stores, usually found in their specialty food / gluten free aisle. You can also buy it online - www.tiapablo.co.nz (their website looks slightly broken - especially when you access it via IE6!).

To make the tortillas you mix two parts Masa Harina to one part water to make a slightly tacky dough. Two cups of the flour with one cup of water should make about 12 tortillas. Roll balls of the dough between two sheets of waxed paper, cook in a hot pan with no oil (30 seconds one side, 45 seconds the next, flip back for a further 20 seconds) and you're done! Fill with beans, onion, carrot, lettuce, tomato (urgh), chilli sauce, etc and you have a tasty meal. Like I say we should have made more - the ones we made were inhaled pretty quickly.

If you're thinking of going vegetarian I think the trick is to embrace fresh produce and cooking at home to ensure you eat an interesting variety of food. If it all seems a little too hard you could always try reducing the number of meat meals you have and experiment with some vege meals.

Mt Taranaki trip

Our weekend adventures continued with some tramping on and around Mt Taranaki over Waitangi Weekend. The plan was to go to the summit via an alternative route which would involve a bit of rock-climbing. The route itself is not well known and the description we'd found for it was a little hazy in its directions. Nevertheless the trip was on. The photo below is what the mountain looks like. On a nice day.

We drove up from Wellington on the Friday night and slept in the porch area of the North Egmont Visitor Centre. Not a bad night's sleep although groups arriving in the early morning triggering the light resulted in a bit of a broken night. Day dawned and it was grey, soggy and quite miserable. Our early start was cancelled in favour of snoozing till just before 8 - that's when the visitor centre opens for business so we needed to be up and packed away by then. The decision was made to defer our day until after breakfast so we headed into Inglewood for a feed at Macfarlanes Cafe. After a leisurely meal the weather was no better so we decided to do a bit of a tramp that would take us to the area where the rock climbing route started. This would give us the opportunity to scope out where the route started and remove some of the uncertainty we would face when we would take that route the following day.

So it was back to the visitors centre and off along Veronica Loop. Partway along this track we deviated onto Ram Track, then onto Kaiauai Track, then onto Kokowai Track and finally onto Holly Hut Track. The weather stayed drizzly and grey so there was no view during this walk. We are pretty sure we located the start of the rock climbing route to the summit so made a few notes about that in preparation for the following day.

That night we stayed at a nearby deer farm in a converted barn. Certainly more comfortable than the concrete floor at the visitor centre. After an enjoyable meal and a glass or two of wine we checked the forecast for the following day and settled down for the night. Sadly we woke to conditions that seemed exactly the same as the day before. We had our breakfast then settled down to read for a while before heading back into Inglewood for an early lunch.
With the conditions being what they were the rock climbing route was ruled out. Wet rock and limited visibility would not have made for a fun day. Instead we took the normal route to the summit from the North Egmont Visitor Centre. The DOC estimates for this walk were 8-10 hours. We settled on a target of 5 hours to reach the summit and off we went. Three hours later we were standing on the top. In the murk. No view. Freezing cold.

There were at least another 100 people who made the trip to the summit that day. A lot of them were overseas tourists so I can imagine they were more disappointed than we were with the weather on the day. After a leisurely lunch we headed back down, back to the deer farm and a hearty meal and the inevitable bottle or two of wine.

The following day we packed up and headed for home. Of course we looked back towards Mt Taranaki as we drove away, just as the cloud lifted to a wonderful sight of the mountain in all its glory. Now we need to find a free weekend to come back and climb the intended route. In good weather, of course.

Wellington Anniversay Weekend 2012

With the opportunity of a long weekend to have some fun on, we headed up to Kuratau on the Friday night after work. We had spent days looking at the weather forecast and it looked like Saturday was the best weather day so that day was chosen for completing the Tongariro Crossing (with the kids). We drove to the end of the track and caught a shuttle to the start of the track. It was an early start (after a late night) as we were meeting the shuttle at 7am. Bleary-eyed we were dropped off at the Mangatepopo car park at 7:45 and were quickly underway (with hundreds of other people).

This walk is one of the most popular in New Zealand and it is normal for over 1000 people to walk the track each day during the summer months. The walk itself is 19.4kms long and it's estimated to take 6-8 hours to complete. It's not a difficult walk for anyone with a reasonable level of fitness. One positive is that you tend to complete all the uphill parts in the morning and the rest of the day is spent descending. The walk starts off with quite a flat walk and then you climb the Devil's Staircase. That name made it sound daunting but it was simply a series of steps and climbs to reach a plateau.

Once on the plateau we made the choice to deviate from the main walk and climb to the summit of Mt Ngauruhoe. This is a steep climb and there is a lot of scree. Plenty of people were making hard work of the climb going up the scree slopes but we made the choice to traverse across to a rock ridge which took us the majority of the way.

Once up the main climb the majority of people headed straight for the crater. We had carried out some research and realised the crater isn't actually the summit so we initially ignored the crater and walked to the summit itself - past an active steam vent. Here I am at the summit (it was a little windy and quite cold!).

The view from the summit was awesome. We had a clear view across to Mt Ruapehu as well as a stunning view of Mt Tongariro and the Blue Lake itself.



After the obligatory photo session at the summit, we descended a bit before climbing up to the crater. The volcano itself is considered to be one of the most active in New Zealand and it has tended to erupt every 9 years or so historically - although the last time there was any significant activity was in 1976.

The cold wind was getting annoying so we descended back down to the main Crossing track and found a sunny spot for a lunch break. The descent was a lot of fun as we ran straight down the scree slope. It only took 20 minutes to get back down. Here is the view looking back at Ngauruhoe with Ruapehu in the distance.

After lunch we carried on walking to the Red Crater then the Emerald Lakes.

After another quick break at the lakes we continued with the descent back down to the carpark.

All up, the walk took about 10 hours including the diversion up to Mt Ngauruhoe. That was pretty good time considering we had a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old along for the trip.

You definitely need to pick your day to do this walk. Even if it seems to be a perfect day you should still go fully prepared with food, water and plenty of warm clothing (and sunscreen). It's common for the weather to change in this area.

Also, there are plenty of transport operators in the area who can provide a shuttle to assist with transportation. We chose Alpine Hot Bus who met us at the carpark at the end of the track, where we left our vehicle, and dropped us off at the start point. Other operators will drop you off at the start and pick you up at the end - we decided against this as we didn't want to have time constraints to adhere to.

Final part of the South Island trip report

After our climb of the Nun's Veil we successfully caught a boat back across the lake the following morning. We returned to Unwin Lodge and had a good brunch before sorting out our gear so we would be ready for the next day. We went up to Mt Cook village and checked a few things out with DOC and decided we would climb Ball Pass the following day (Friday), stay overnight somewhere and walk out the following day (Saturday). We had some time constraints to work within as we needed to be in Picton by 7am on Sunday morning. Also the weather forecast was not looking wonderful - talk of high winds and rain! We hooked up with two others who were keen to do the trip - Matt (the Australian) and Jenny (a teacher from Wellington).

After a good sleep we woke to the sound of rain. On looking out the window the cloud was low but didn't seem to be too thick. We had a good breakfast and then decided we would do Ball Pass anyway with the option of turning back if the weather was too rough. At this stage Matt pulled out of the trip but Jenny was keen so we headed off for the drive up the side of the Tasman glacier. The road is about as rough as it gets so it was a slow trip trying to avoid damaging the van.

We managed to get almost to the end of the road before parking up and starting to walk. It took us about an hour to reach Ball Shelter - a very tame walk to get there.

After checking out the hut we started the climb up Ball Ridge.

The route was a little tricky to follow and we ended up in a few challenging situations at times but nothing that forced us to retrace our steps. There are wonderful views of the Caroline face of Mt Cook from the track. Lots of rumbling from there as ice cliffs were falling throughout the day.

We had a lunch break along the way and arrived at Caroline Hut mid-afternoon.


After a cup of tea it was time for the last part of the climb up to Ball Pass. We'd decided by now that we wouldn't go over the pass and down the other side. Instead we would go to the top of the pass then head back down and find somewhere to camp for the night. Jenny decided she would continue on over the top by herself. Here's a photo of Jenny and I at the top of the pass.


These photos are looking back up at the pass on our way back down to Caroline Hut.



We bumped into some keas on the way back down Ball Ridge. They allowed us to get very close to them before they would squawk and step away.


Here's where we spent the night - a little bivvy spot right beside the track. Sadly it rained and the new fly we had bought leaked - it was promptly returned when we got back to Wellington.


Next day the weather cleared so here is one last photo taken as we got to the car the following morning.