Sunday, February 22: A bit cloudy to begin with, less cloud during the day and quite warm

Tramping, 21.8 km

Waihohonu Hut (DOC, $32)

• GPS
• YouTube

Managed to beat the compass/alarm this morning and even managed a shower. After all the work of tidying up Danni’s place opposite I wasn’t really expecting Simon to be up and he wasn’t. After the shower I made my own breakfast of muesli, 2 fried eggs and coffee. Packed the loaf of bread in with the rest of the food for the hike.

Got most of the stuff into the suitcase and dragged it down the hall, and was in good time for the bus. Two German women were coming along for the ride, one just to do the crossing, the other, Ina from Kiel was doing the circuit, albeit in clockwise direction. The bus trip was provided by Dempsey’s Buses via the Station Lodge, for $30 in cash, which I presumed to be a return ticket. Further passengers were collected along the way. After the turnoff there was a very dusty old dirt track, and at the stop everyone except me and Ina got off.

A couple of minutes later we were in Whakapapa for our drop off. The return journey will be from the bus stop outside Fergusson’s Café at 3:45 on Tuesday for me, & Wednesday for Ina. I told Ina she would probably meet Roger & Jackie (who had probably booked their transport via another operator – there are enough of them), and we will meet again tomorrow night. She pushed off on her leg – she wanted to see if she could do the ascent, otherwise it is not much in the way of walking.

I remained until my spot had sent its OK, and then was fairly quickly at Taranaki Falls for a time lapse and a chat with a Kiwi who was having his tea break.

On the further trip I teamed up with a young American student, Khalil, who is studying at Antioch. At the turnoff to the Tama Lakes we decided to head up there for lunch. Spectacular views today, with much less wind than my attempt in 2009, and they reached to Ruapehu. I tried a 20-step staggered shoot of the lower lake after taking a bracket of it with the A470.

At the top it was calm enough for lunch so I had about a third of the bread with the two totally destroyed eggs. That will have to mean ¼ salami with bread/crackers for both breakfast and lunch for the next two days. The butter is holding up well.

After we got back on the track, Khalil fell behind a bit but I pushed on. Every now & then I photographed some plants or the view of the track. This side of the mountain is called the “desert” and parts of it are very dry indeed, and the alpine plants with their orange and red colours lend weight to the impression, but, of course, the river running through the landscape would normally be a complete contradiction.

Just before the hut I ran into the warden who gave me a brief rundown of the further programme, and was impressed by my 38 L pack.

GPS

A lot of young Americans here who were doing Baywatch at Waihohonu for a greeting. Found a lower bunk bed and occupied it, then it was down to Ohinepango Springs (6°C) for some potable water (track is on GPS as an extra). Had an early dinner (5:00) of one packet of instant noodles and half a cup of rice that had been precooked and dumped into the bowl for the interim.

I had set up the SX120 without the pol filter to begin with, then I found it and continued the time lapse with it. The battery has just run out at 6:30, at which time the spot had also finished sending its OK. Sunset will be Ngauruhoe with what remains in the batteries on the A470 (plus perhaps some zoom). Due to start: 7:15.

YouTube

Discovered I have the burner with me, which is not needed.

This hut is very modern, with panorama windows and 2½ bunkrooms, the camping spot is not far, and I suspect most of the very youthful crowd populating the mess at the moment are headed for tents.

Managed to get the sox washed and the A470 set up at an interval of 3 s for the sunset by the time the warden was due to give her talk. Got grouped in with a trio of Americans and a rather tall Dutchwoman, Sofie. With the hut talk over and the hut tickets inspected I went out to see what the camera was doing, but unfortunately it hadn’t been doing much. Will have to see about analysing what’s going wrong at very short intervals – perhaps even before getting the car.

The sun had set and the crescent of the new moon was shining through the clouds – brushed my teeth & decided I still needed some spring water so successfully competed that task in the twilight.

Short day tomorrow.