Lake Waikaremoana and Mt. Hikurangi

So I just got off my two week mid-semester break, and now classes are back in session. Over the break, kids on my program immediately packed their bags and scattered all over the Pacific, flying to destinations like Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, Samoa, Fiji, Australia, and NZ's south island. But I wasn't really feeling a beach vacation, I didn't want to drop $300 on a flight to Australia, and I intend to explore the South Island at the end of the semester, so I planned a backpacking trip with Allie and Trevor on the North Island.

Our mapped-out plan: a 7 day trip including a 4-day backpacking trip on the Lake Waikaremoana Track in Te Urewera National Park (one of New Zealand's 10 "Great Walks"), a hike up Mt. Hikurangi, the North Island's tallest non-volcanic mountain, and a couple days of scenic driving and exploring the east coast.


Sunday, August 28th
After shopping for food and picking up our rental car, we left Auckland for Lake Waikaremoana. We drove around the city of Hamilton and then continued southeast past Rotorua. As we neared our destination, the highway transitioned to a winding, muddy, rocky, bumpy, and overall slow and perilous unpaved road. Oddly, it kept alternating from paved to unpaved. We'd sigh with relief when we got onto a paved section, but moments later the car would be rattling again. Finally at 11pm, after 6+ hours of mostly night driving and a solid 80 km and almost 2 hours on sketchy dirt roads, we arrived at Big Bush Holiday Park, where we spent the night in our tent on the lawn.

Monday
The next morning, we woke up early at 8am to reorganize our stuff and pack for the 4 day hike. At 9:30, a shuttle organized by the kind owners of Big Bush picked us up and dropped us off at the trailhead on the southern end of the lake. It was cloudy, windy, and cold, so we were eager to get moving.

The drive towards the trailhead, with Panekiri Bluff

Trailhead

We started at water level...

...but ascended quickly.

Our first day turned out to be very challenging hike. 5.5 miles almost straight up the Panekiri Ridge, which had a steep and consistent incline. We took a lot of breathers, but the open panoramas of the lake below and sandstone outcrops along the ridge compensated our efforts. The forest we hiked through was also captivating. It felt as if we were caught in a scene out of the Lord of the Rings. Moss hung from every tree, and a dense canopy of twisted and gnarled branches sprung out from trunks like nothing I had ever seen.


After hiking for a few hours, we had quite a surprise--snow!! Not exactly fluffy, nice snow, but icy, crunchy snow. The blots of white really clashed with the overwhelmingly green forest. It all seemed very out of place.

Finally, we reached the Panekiri hut.

Salvation!

Unfortunately, we weren't happy for too long. Being on top of a bluff, the hut was fully exposed to high winds coming off the lake, and it got COLD. We all took a nap soon after arriving to recover from the demanding day, but by the time I woke up an hour or so later, I was freezing. I hurried out of my sleeping bag to put some more layers on, but found myself shivering uncontrollably. I fumbled with the zippers and struggled to control my hands. Thankfully, once I got back in my sleeping bag with several more layers on, I warmed up quickly. Still, I think I might have had mild hypothermia... We later read in the hut's log book that many hikers before us had spent equally chilly and unpleasant nights in the hut, and had experienced symptoms. Some entries were abound with expletives and angry exclamation points. We could definitely relate!

We tried to build a fire in the wood-burning stove, but failed miserably as there wasn't any paper available. A solid dinner of rice and beans burritos rejuvenated us, however, and cards kept our minds off the cold until it was late enough for bed. It got dark around 6pm each night, so were in bed by 9pm.


Tuesday
It rained overnight and was chilly in the morning, but by the time we ate breakfast, packed our bags, and were ready to go, it was a beautiful day, and the view from the hut was extraordinary.


Now, even though there are huts along the track, we brought a tent in case there wasn't space available. Tuesday was supposed to be our shortest day, so we were excited to get to camp and relax. We followed the Panekiri Ridge for awhile before descending towards the lake shore below. But after taking a lunch break, Allie realized the tent was gone! The stuffsack she had put it in had somehow disappeared from the back of her pack. We decided to drop our packs and retrace our steps to try and find the tent. We had passed a big group of hikers earlier going in the opposite direction, and wondered if they might have picked up the tent and taken it with them. We ended up hiking aaaall the way back to the hut where we started that morning, where it turned out the group we had passed earlier had indeed taken the tent with them. Tent in hand, we walked back to our packs in high spirits. Of course, our muscles didn't feel the same way. After putting our packs back on, our knees took a serious beating on a rigorous downhill, which continued all the way to the next hut. Between all the doubling back, by the time we arrived at the next hut, our shortest, would-be 5 mile day had become an almost 12 mile trek. What a day!

The Waiopaoa Hut, right on the lakeshore

Wednesday
We were looking forward to today's hike, as it simply followed the lake shore, with no serious elevation gain or loss. The time passed quickly in the morning, and we hiked what was supposed to be a 1 hr 30 min section in just 40 minutes! We then dropped our packs at a trail junction to check out the impressive Korokoro Falls.


It turned out to be my favorite day, not just because of the lack of elevation gain, but because the walk along the lake provided great views of the Panekiri Range, part of which we had hiked the first two days. Our lunch spot was a real winner:


After a few more hours of hiking, we arrived at the Marauiti Hut, also right on the lake.

Thursday
At 8 miles, today would have been the longest day if not for the tent mishap on Tuesday. We had scheduled the bus to pick us up at the other end of the lake at 3pm, so we woke up early and were on our way by 9am. While not as spectacular as the day before, today's hike still had great views of the lake.


The video below shows one of the many suspension bridges we crossed while hiking along the lake. The shaking in the video isn't me walking or bad camera work, it's ALL the bridge. As you can see, I got a little nervous with the shaking (especially with Allie's bouncing intensifying it). You can also tell how we went a little crazy on the trail...


We ate lunch at the Tapuaenui Bay campsite, at which point the lake views slowly began to diminish, until finally we were hiking through fields of tall grass with no water in sight.

We crossed the last suspension bridge, and after a grand total of 33 miles, we finished the Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk.

We made it!

We arrived slightly ahead of schedule, but the shuttle was there waiting for us. The driver was wearing a doo-rag and looked pretty badass, so I couldn't resist a picture. Since we had done the Lake Road drive in the dark on the first night, the driver pointed out a bunch of cool sights to us.

Stratified limestone on a bit of a scary turn. Maybe it was a good thing we did this drive in the dark...

We stayed the night at Big Bush once again, only this time in the "backpackers," basically their version of budget accommodation. After sleeping in the chilly huts, the backpackers felt like a five-star hotel, especially thanks to the toasty space heater.


Friday
After departing Big Bush, we did a quick walk to check out the nearby Onepoto Caves. They were quite underwhelming...


We still had fun exploring the area, though. We bushwhacked a bit and discovered our very own Pride Rock, promptly inspiring us to reenact the Lion King.


I also found a pretty sweet lookout, which yielded my final views of Lake Waikaremoana. I felt a little sad about leaving such a beautiful place after having spent four straight days with the lake at my side, so I tried to take it all in. After taking a short video (I'm now kicking myself for not filming it in landscape--doh!), I said my goodbyes and we continued on with out trip.



Next, we drove northeast towards Gisborne, where we stopped to restock on food. On the way, I snapped some photos from the road. Literally the entire New Zealand countryside is gorgeous; no matter where you point your camera there's sure to be winning scenery.


We also checked out Te Reinga Falls, which we discovered were regrettably more scenic from the opposite, inaccessible side. Still, we saw a nice rainbow, and as for a view from the other side, that's why the internet exists for me to steal photos from =)

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/47411229

After passing through Gisborne, we continued up along the stunning east coastline.

Anaura Bay provided some of the best views:

There was a small creek flowing onto the beach, which created some cool traces in the sand. I got a little carried away with staring at the ground and taking pictures...

...but it turned out to be well worth it because I found $5!


That night we set up the tent at the trailhead for Mt. Hikurangi. Most towns in the region are located right on the coast, so after driving 20 or so kilometers inland, we were in the middle of no where.

The drive towards what we thought at that time was Mt. Hikurangi

The tent, which had held up fine the first night we spent on the lawn of Big Bush Holiday Park, sadly did not fare so well today. As the sun set, a bit of a nightmare began to unfold. While setting up the tent, we realized that the surface ground layer was very thin, and thus was not accommodating the tent stakes well. At the same time, dark clouds loomed overhead and the wind started to pick up; a storm was approaching. We moved the car in front of the tent in an attempt to try and block the wind, and then scurried to hold down the rain fly using large rocks strung around nylon chords. It actually worked quite well, and the tent remained stable. Once the rain came, though, things took a turn for the worse. Unfortunately, the tent was missing loops to pull the rain fly away from the tent in a few vital places, and so the fly made contact with the tent, causing leaking and dripping. After cooking a dinner of ramen in the tent vestibule, we discovered a few small puddles on the sides of the tent. Allie found one end of her sleeping bag to be wet and immediately picked up her things and retreated to the car, while Trevor and I pulled up the floor of the tent to form a sort of moat along the sides. Despite our awful luck with the tent, we stayed mostly dry and eventually drifted off to sleep.


Saturday
The next morning, we awoke at daybreak (6am) to get an early start on the hike. But at 15 miles, ~5,500 feet of elevation gain, and an estimated 9-12 hours to complete according to my guidebook, Hikurangi would certainly be a challenging hike. Being so sore from backpacking, and then being cramped in the car, we didn't even know if we were up to it. Still, having come all this way, we figured we had to at least try and see how far we could get. It was also freezing that morning (like every other morning), so that also motivated us to get moving.

The hike to the mountain base turned out to be a sloping walk up a clearly marked 4WD service road through graze land. The entire area was filled with sheep, cattle, and a few horses.

Luckily, it was a sunny, clear day, without a single cloud in the sky. In addition to the rolling grasslands, we had fabulous views of the surrounding mountains. As we rounded a bend in the road, Mt. Hikurangi came into view. I was speechless.

Mt. Hikurangi waaaay in the distance

On the way, we encountered some horses beside the road. Allie proved herself to be an accomplished horse whisperer.

We continued to follow the winding road up along the broad slopes of the mountain, until finally the trail veered off. As we ascended, the mountains which had previously been towering over us shrunk in size, until we were nearly level with them. It wasn't long before we hit the snowline.

Before we knew it, we arrived at the private hut on the mountain. At 2 hrs 50 min, we were doing great on time, as my guidebook had a suggested a 4 hr walk to the hut. Having come this far, we knew we had to try and reach the summit. We pressed onwards.

The steepest section we encountered, just above the hut. It was TOUGH.

After of the steep part, we suddenly found ourselves immersed in a snow-covered forest.

The summit looming over us

Eventually, we got above the tree line, and the landscape completely changed to one dominated by shrubs. At this point, the trail became difficult to follow. The path deteriorated, and the marking poles were placed far apart. Furthermore, the poles were WHITE, and everything was covered in snow! So rather than following markers, it was more like following lines of slightly less dense vegetation, where the footsteps of past hikers had thinned things out. We ended up following a false path and getting lost. We were forced to bushwhack through swaths of shrubbery, including the vicious spearhead grass, whose blades are like the spines on a cactus, and prick you upon even the most gentle contact. It HURT. I felt like my calves had turned into pin cushions! After climbing atop a ridge, we saw two markers waaay in the distance and made a beeline for them.

What we bushwhacked through

Back on the trail, we took care to spot out markers ahead of us before following any apparent paths. Bushwhacking had been quite exhausting, painful, and mentally draining, so our morale was a bit low at this point. Allie ended up stopping to rest, while Trevor and I pushed onward.

Trevor on the "path" towards the summit

As we neared the rocky summit, the snow got deeper, and the incline increased. Eventually we reached a steep chute filled with loose rock and about a half to a foot of powdery snow.


We tried clambering up, but with all the snow it was hard to tell which rocks were steady and could hold our weight, versus which rocks were unstable and would slide out from under us. We decided to call it, and turned back. It had been quite a miraculous day so far, and there was no reason to take any unnecessary risks. Plus, even if we made it up the chute, we had no idea what kind of terrain lay up ahead. We figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

After meeting up with Allie again, we headed down, making sure NOT to retrace our steps, but instead to follow the actual trail. As you can see, this still proved difficult. The picture below shows how we got lost. There's a marker right in the middle, but where is the trail? You tell me.

Before long, we reached the point where we had made a wrong turn and lost our way. I made an arrow of sticks to try and point future hikers in the right direction, not wanting anyone else to be forced to get as friendly with the spearhead grass as we had.

On the steep section just above the hut, we were surprised to encounter a pair of guys on their way up. After bagging the peak today, they were planning to sleep in the hut overnight and hike down the next day. "You must be fit to do it in just a day!" They exclaimed. We told them about the sketchy summit, as well as the tricky place we got lost. Hopefully my arrow helped. After a late, but nice long lunch break at the hut (we had been snacking on Snickers and nuts all morning), we continued down the path, and soon reached the road.

Views on the way down:

Looking back at Hikurangi. By now the snow had melted, and it looked like a completely different peak.

We stopped to play with the horses again. This time I had the courage to say hi.

We came from aaaall the way down there, past the visible end of the road.

Nice meandering riverbed near the trailhead

We made it!

We ate dinner in the car, which warmed up rather nicely thanks to our body heat. None of us wanted to go out into the cold or deal with the awful tent, so we actually ended up sleeping in the car, with two of us in the driver and passenger seats, and one lying down in the back.

Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad and I got a good nights sleep. We had a bit of a scare at one point, though. I was half asleep at the time, but I remember hearing the sound of a car pulling up. Suddenly, the car door on Allie's side burst open, and a guy (who was inebriated, according to Trevor, who was awake for the whole thing) started shouted at us. Between his thick NZ accent and my groggy state of mind, I didn't catch all of what he said, but apparently in the high winds that night, our tent had blown away! I guess it was nice of the guy to tell us that, but we made sure to lock the car doors after that...

I have no idea how the tent managed to blow away with all the heavy rocks we had holding down the rain fly, but the next morning we found it a good 30 feet away on the road below. It seems it was a good thing we decided to sleep in the car, after all!

Sunday
For our final day, we were in for a long drive around the east cape of the North Island, past the city of Tauranga, and all the way back to Auckland. It was a nice drive, but we had a long way to go and the rental car was due back at 4pm, so we didn't really stop for pictures. Still, after what I had seen over the past week, I couldn't complain! It was by far my best trip in New Zealand yet.

I'll leave you with one final picture of me back in my dorm room examining my wounds from the brutal spearhead grass before bed: