Friday, March 20: Cold at night (down to 5°), variably cloudy in the mountains, fine and warm on the coast

Tramping: Waikaremoana Great Walk, Whanganui Bay – Track End (water taxi landing), 2.2 km

River’s Edge Holiday Park, 26 Harker St, Waipawa 4210, tel.: +64 6 857 8976, double cabin ($35)

I had slept in periods of about 100 minutes a piece with waking in between and was finished with sleeping by about 7:00 when it had reached 5°, which was the limit for sleeping in the thermal underwear, sox & turtle necked sweater. Breakfast was quickly dealt with as was the last part of the track – all of about 40 minutes, so the whole thing could be done in two days if you could get a water taxi to pick you up at 6:00.

Had taken a couple of photos along the way and then started on some time lapsing as it was very calm and there was fog on the lake. Did the river arm where the shuttle comes to, once zoomed out, once zoomed in, then a flock of swans that appeared to be stationed at the river mouth the whole day. I recorded them as well. One boat was moving about the top end of the lake but didn’t seem to want to approach. At this point I set up a slower time lapse (10 s) to see if I could capture a ridge in the shadow coming into light.

Very soon after (around 10:00) I recognised the water taxi and started packing my things together. The taxi actually lands at a rock about 100 m further east of the point marked and the water has receded somewhat since the initial visit, but the memory of a little jetty must have been mistaken, because the “jetty” is a little more than a minor mud bridge. In any case the skipper didn’t want to take me anywhere until 2:00 so I got out again. The time lapse of the ridge was ruined, so I started on an homage to Stefan Knaak by taking single shots and moving the tripod about 10 cm in between. Will have to do this in future with the panorama overlay function of CHDK and see if it turns out any better.

Meanwhile the water taxi arrived with half of a group of families who frolicked around while their other half were picked up – I assumed also from Onepoto, but actually the skipper was redirected to Waikaremoana, so I could have gotten off the track earlier if I had been stowed away, but I would have to have been lucky. In any case with all arrived I was asked to take a couple of shots of them, which I obliged and after completing what I could, my time lapse photography for the day was done. Stu & Hamish arrived, dropped their packs, and then had a look at the end of the track, as did Steve & Maria, Kevin arrived with a Ramona and they had lunch with me; then Dan (AUS), Clare and Matt arrived together with an Irishman Mick, who had yet to put in an appearance and we all sat on the beach in conversation until the taxi came back to pick us up. The boat was full and we went via Onepoto, taking in all about an hour. A couple of snapshots along the way on the very last of the batteries in the SX120.

In Waikaremoana it was out of the thermals to begin with, then sunglasses and glasses were sorted, $10 worth of petrol was bought and I was on my way to Wairoa. The first/last 26 km from Home Bay is dirt track which a smaller part of is sealed. In Wairoa bought $40 worth of petrol (much cheaper) & drove to the hotspot for news of tonight’s digs but the news was alas negative. At least there was news from Conny. Thought only once about asking Jude and should have taken the hint that four booked out hostels meant that there was something fishy going on. Anyhow continued on to Napier where there is an ocean swimming competition tomorrow and everything is booked out, and then to Hastings where Horse of the Year is taking place, also with everything full. Now that coincidence could have been better organised.

No other option other than to head further south. In Otope the private rooms were booked out, but there was one non-syndicated, non-advertising motor camp just a little further along which I gratefully accepted for the price. Dinner was a cheese burger (excellent!) and half chips for $7 from the first takeaway in town (Tucker Box, 106 Great North Road, Waipawa), and a bare minimum of organisation was done due to the late hour. It’s probably not even worth doing much tomorrow, although I hope to get to the gannets and then on to Taupo.

Tomorrow’s plan is then to get some wifi from the library here (at the latest in Hastings), wash the tramping dishes, get some milk, bread and something for lunch, as well as soft drink from the supermarket, book a couple of nights in Taupo, ask for a guided kayak tour on the lake, and do Kidnappers over lunch time & that’s it.