Layover at Amethyst Motor Lodge, Part I We sleep until 8:00! It’s glorious. We drink green smoothies and French pressed coffee for breakfast. I call my parents and talk to them for quite a while, but it’s never long enough. Then it’s time to make our first grocery run. We are packing boxes for 26 …
Month: January 2018
1/6 And Then There Were Two
Dandelion Depot to Amethyst Lodge 11 k The morning dawns dry again, and we start on our way early, looking forward to our hotel room. 1 kilometer past the Depot, we see a sign for Secret Valley. Well. What is it? A 60 second walk drops is into a protected drainage where some schoolchildren have …
1/5 Wishes in the Wind
El Rancho Holiday Park to The Dandelion Depot 27 k Peach, Mario, and Bro are hiking a short day to the next holiday park. We pack and start hiking to a sunny morning. The first section is a boardwalk over the estuary, threading through grasses and rushes and brambles loaded with blackberries. They are still …
1/4 The Park That Was No Holiday
Parawai Hut to El Rancho Holiday Park 30 k We wake up to see Mario and Peach off this morning, who are starting very early in spite of intense nay-saying for by a random German guy last night. I overdosed on couscous yesterday and advocate for breakfast on the trail, so we are not far …
1/3 The Beginning of the End of the North Island
Waitewaewae Hut to Parawai Hut 10k I feel refreshed this morning, although the mattresses in the huts are thin enough I can’t sleep on my side without my hips aching and legs tingling. We walk along the Waitewaewae River a short bit- very short. It’s a wonderful river! Then, true TA-style, we start toiling uphill …
Continue reading 1/3 The Beginning of the End of the North Island
1/2 A Premium Dip
Nichols Hut to Waitewaewae Hut 8 k We wake up nice and late on the Nichols Hut and make lots of coffee. The clouds have rolled back in, obscuring everything except what’s directly around us. I still am incredulous at our luck with the weather and views yesterday. We leave very late, after 8:00, but …
1/1 The Tararuas
Waiopehu Hut to Nichols Hut 17 k Although part of me wishes I had stayed up to midnight last night per normal, I slept hard and could easily have slept longer. The first day of 2018 dawns with perfectly clear views down the Tararuas across Levin to the ocean. Here’s the good morning view from …
12/31 New Years Eve – 52/48 to Stay
Mikahaka Outdoor Center to Waiopehu Hut 13.6 K We wake up and have a nice civilized upright breakfast at the kitchen table with fresh blueberries in our cereal, then head out to hike the initial road section to the edge of Tararua Forest Park. It’s a quiet, cloudy morning on the road, and the first …
12/30 Monkeyflowers and Lemon Beer
Burtton Track to Mikahaka Outdoor Center 31 k The wind died at some point last night and I was surprisingly warm. We pack up early but I fall far behind all the others when I am searching interminably for a place to dig a cathole. I finally retrace my steps to where big tires have …
12/29 Livin’ On A Prayer
ZigZag & Lee’s to Grassy Knoll on the Burton Track 30 k The alarm goes off, and we manage to pack our backpacks full to the brims, and still close them. Miraculous! We are treated to another lovely breakfast, and while ZigZag takes Mario and Peach to the trailhead, Lee finds an old abandoned pair …
muddy shoe memoirs 