Day 51
Oct 21 day 51 Wanganui 0 km Excellent morning, wandered downtown, stopped at a couple of coffee shops, got caught up on email and other messages, bought new shoes at Kathmandu (not a day too soon), visited the steamboat museum and wandered about a bit more. Great part of town near the river. The one […]
Day 50
Oct 20 Day 50 Downes Hut to Wanganui 43 km 9:00-4:00 (by canoe) Started late as we had to coordinate with the tide near Wanagnui (did not want to get to that area before early afternoon when high tide would start slackening). Cool morning and wind picked up fairly soon. Early kilometers were still interesting […]
Day 49
Oct 19 day 49 Tieke Kainga Hut to Downes Hut 60 km (by canoe) 7:45-4:30 Had breakfast, said goodbye to our host Wai, and we got on the water early– hoping to make 60 km which would then put us in a good position to make Wanganui tomorrow. Across the morning we hit a series […]
Day 48
Oct 18 day 48 John Coull Hut to Tieke Kainga Hut 29 km (by canoe) 8:00-12:00 Left fairly early in a misty rain. Temperatures cool but the river water not cold at all. Felt good to be early on the water, switched places so we both have motor and steering experience, handled some difficult rapids […]
Day 47
Oct 17 day 47 National Park to John Coull Hut 87 km (50 by car, 37 by canoe, 0 by walking) 8:00-3:00 Back on the trail, sort of. Gavin from Yeti tours (along with noodleman and his sidekick) picked me and Cory up and drove us to Whakahoro Landing. The TA officially passes through there […]
Vital Heat
Vital Heat In Coming into the Country, John McPhee offers a series of portraits of Alaskan backwoods men and women. One particularly striking character is Dick Cook, an able trapper who among other quirky traits disdains wool, wearing instead cotton, the one fabric every outdoor adviser warns against. We’ve all heard the phrase “cotton kills” […]
Day 46
Oct 16 day 46 National Park 0 km. Another zero at National Park, waiting for Cory to get his stuff organized. We should be on the river tomorrow. To get all that square, we have to skip the hike into Whakaporo Landing, which was mostly just a long road walk anyway. A little disappointed to […]
Day 45
Oct 15 day 45. National Park 0 km. Turns out I need to take a couple of unanticipated zero days to work out the river transportation. A large segment of the trail is impassable because of a collapsed bridge, so the best (only) strategy is to put in the water at Wades Landing and canoe […]
Day 44
Oct 14 day 44 Whakapapa Campground to National Park 20 km 9:00-2:00 Today was all about the trail. It was also about my usually wrong preconceptions. Here in the middle of the national park– Tongiriro/Ruapehu– are a large number of trails catering to an equally large number of tourists. I started this morning from Wakapapa […]
Day 43
Oct 13 day 43 Tongiriro Holiday Campground to Whakapapa Campground 35 km (track official, not what happened) 7:15-2:00 A day started in uncertainty. The Tongiriro Crossing involves some serious altitude, including the edge of the Red Crater at over 1800 meters. There is still snow up there. A lot of it. All advice is not […]