7th January - 21st- Alistair meets the Chief!

Lucy says..............

We are WWOOFers….For those of you who don’t know, it stands for Willing Workers on Organic Farms!! Oh Yeah? I hear you say, when have we willingly done any work!!
Well we have- We ‘phoned up a few farms from our WWOOF handbook and found one near New Plymouth. WWOOFers do 3-4 hours work each ay in return for board & lodging. We actually slept in our van as it was more convenient for us.
The farm we WWOOFed on grew Macadamia nuts and Avocados. We arrived after lunch and after a n.c.o.t (you might have to be a Goff to work that one out!) were set to work in the fields digging out posts from old Macadamia trees so, it transpired later that Greg could replant them for more trees that needed to be planted. Great job for us, Greg with his wound and me with my prolapsed disc!! However we managed, Alistair was a real star, digging away until sweat poured down his face, Rowena lost interest fairly rapidly.
That evening after dinner, which was cooked, as was all the food, from what they grew on the farm, we met some other WWOOFers from Germany, Jan & Veroni. They kept us sane over the next few days and joined us for a few glasses of “Ribena” in the evenings to help relax the sore muscles.
I got the least physical jobs from then but tedious, sorting cracked Macadamia nuts from there shells, I never want to see another one… Alistair & Rowena spent time cracking walnuts and hazelnuts and then a morning doing a project on volcanoes & Tsunamis.
Greg was put to work in the fields wielding hole borers, hammers, crowbars and tampers(work that one out if you can- answers on a postcard) The weather was not the best, (oh what a surprise) drizzling and overcast., He looked particularly attractive in yellow waterproof jacket & trousers…!
It was an interesting experience, whether we would repeat it remains to be seen. Our hosts were not really very welcoming to us or Jan & Veroni, which seemed strange as they rely heavily on WWOOFers to help them on the farm.
We stayed 4 days then tried to leave, unfortunately the van wouldn’t start, After a jump start we drove to New Plymouth, stopped at the supermarket and had to phone the AA as we couldn’t restart it—needed a new alternator!! We tried 3 garages, none of which could do it for several days.
Found ourselves a campsite on the beach at Fitzroy, a suburb of NP, made sure we were level and stopped the van for the next 3 days.
During that time we found NP public library-open 7 days a week, free internet access for the children and free old childrens books, not a huge selection but we cleared them out!!
The children went on some of the sites that Mrs M. suggested and had fun doing Maths games.
On the Sunday we introduced ourselves to the Fitzroy Surf Club and the children joined in a regatta morning between local clubs, it involved, a game of beach flags, a run and then swimming on the sea to some cans then around a course and back. Rowena was all for this, but was unfortunately out first round with beach flags as the rules were not the same as Bournemouth, came 4th in her heat at running and had to be helped out on the swim, as did lots of others, but she did really well. Alistair didn’t want to do beach flags but joined in the race, came 3rd, but couldn’t get out over the waves to do the swim, he was really upset, most of the other children had wetsuits on ( the sea is cold, give me Fiji any day) because they didn’t complete to sea swim they couldn’t do the body boards.
The next day Greg spent ages with them diving through the waves, and they are both much happier.
We left NP and went to Stratford and Dawson Falls, on Mt Taranaki, we signed in at the visitors centre put our packs on our backs and hiked off up the mountain. As the crow flies, and by the shortest route the hut we were heading for was only 45mins away, but we did a roundabout route and Alistair & I had a dip in a freezing, clear mountain stream.
We have decided, at least for now we will only do overnight walks as the children find carrying their packs with o/n things in OK but much more would be too much.
We arrived at the hut at about 4pm, the children did some Maths that I carted in my pack, after tea and a game of cards we settled down to bed. The hut was different to the last with a large common room, and 2 bedrooms with 4 mattresses at the bottom and another 4 up ladder above. There were only 3 other people there, who had stoked up the fire to dry their clothes which made it so hot we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. Rowena was very unsettled, she has a cold and is complaining of earache. From the hut you can look right up the side of Mt Taranaki. The next morning, after a night of listening to Possums playing on the roof, we couldn’t see 3 foot in front of us as there was so much cloud. Walked back through a lovely forest that looked as if it could have a population of Hobbits in it.
We stopped at a Possum factory (could have got loads for them last night!!) where they made coats, slippers and knitwear from Possum fur.
Travelled to Wanganui for the “match” –Rugby of course. The Chiefs vs Hurricanes, it was a lovely day, very sunny, if rugby was played in this weather then I might be tempted to watch a few matches!!?? Cheifs won, much to Alistair’s delight. Then after the match the Hurricane team came back on to the pitch for people to get their autographs. We met up with Veroni & Jan at the match and they came back to our van after for a few drinks, eventually they left at 1.30am- the latest we have stayed up since we left home, shattered the next day!
Rowena still not well, keeps being sick, and her eye is watering. And she is SNORING!!
Moved off the next day, just down the coast. I saw an article in a magazine about a piano that has been put on the top of some sand dunes so we thought we would try & find it. The beach was amazing, tons & tons of bleached white driftwood on black sand for as far as you could see. Also lots of pumice, we all have nice smooth feet now! Didn’t find the piano..
We are now in Levin, in the rain again!! I took Rowena to a very nice doctor here, she has a very swollen eye and an ear infection, so has some antibiotics. She is fine for ages then suddenly droops suddenly and feels very sorry for herself!!
There is an agricultural show here in town this weekend, so we went today. Alpacas are very popular here, met a couple who take WWOOFers who run an Alpaca farm nearby…tempted. Watched the speed shearing, 10 sheep in 8mins! Met a man who distils his own whiskey!
That’s all for now, Lx

January 1st – 7th

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

Mon 1st – We awoke to more rain, so we decided to use this as a travelling day. We drove all morning, and some of the afternoon until we got to Te Kuiti, which is close to the Waitomo Caves. School lessons were re-started for the children, and Alistair and Rowena had lessons for a good 2 ½ hours. I went for a run, and managed a fairly slow 5200 meters!
As they worked so hard we had movie night, so we all enjoyed ‘Star Wars – Revenge of the Sith’. Then Bed.

Tues 2nd – Found ourselves in the Warehouse, again, and spent more money on a bargain??!! We managed to get the first Star Wars on DVD for $16, as it didn’t have a cover (normal price $25)…that’s $9 for some paper with some pictures on!
After this we drove to Waitomo Glow worm caves. In the caves you can see stalagmites (growing from the ground), and stalactites (from the ceiling), and also the famous glow worm cave. I have to be honest and say that this is supposed to be on of NZ best attractions, but really there are better caves in France for a lot less money too! It could be that the use of light was more effective in France, but I know that my impression is that they are better and more impressive. The glow worm cave was lovely, and I would have been happy to have stayed in there for longer and not do the other bits.(We sat on a boat in silence and floated along the underground river for about 10 mins looking at the ceiling. There were millions of lights, everywhere you looked, and it looked like stars-L)
Afterwards we paid a visit to the Angora Rabbit shearing shed, where they shear the Angora from the rabbits. It is used to make spools of wool for knitting, and can be mixed with Moreno. The children enjoyed this as you could stroke the rabbits. It did make us think of our two, Blackberry and Apple! (The rabbits are huge with all their fur on but very skinny once sheared- they have to be done every 3mnths-L)
The rest of the afternoon was spent travelling to the next campsite, and at about 5 pm we arrived at the Beachside Motor Camping Mokau, about 50km’s from New Plymouth.( It’s funny saying New Plymouth’ as it makes you think of Plymouth in England!).
The site is right on the beach, and Alistair decided he wanted to try surf casting. So we went out on the Black Sandy Beach, and had a go. It takes a few throws to get it right, and we looked a bit silly a few times when the weight on hook landed only a few feet in front of us! Anyway, though, we used up the last of the bait that we had bought about a month before, which was beginning to become very smelly, so it was a successful evening. We didn’t catch anything, but we all enjoyed it.

Wed 3rd – Alistair and Lucy got up early today to watch the Torpedo being launched.
The Torpedo is a fishing aid. It is shaped like a torpedo and has a propeller on one end. It also has a timing switch which is used to limit the distance it travels out to sea. It is attached to a line with about 25 hooks on it. After about an hour a winch pulls it back in, and the fish are taken off. The guy, Mike, caught 9 fish today – 1 Snapper, 1 Yellow Spotted Dog Fish, 6 Gurnard, and 1 Kahawai. He also got a Skate, but they don’t normally keep those, so put it back. Oh well no Skate wings for tea! (Didn’t have any capers anyway-L)
That afternoon Mike took Alistair, Rowena and Lucy on his quad bike to go surfcasting. I had to cycle there! It was very windy, but still quite warm. Mike ad his son, Buster, cast for Alistair. I got there an hour after them and the other guys there had each caught a Kowhai. Alistair was still waiting. Anyway he did catch a fish soon afterwards, but it was a little herring! Not sure how it ate the bait, as it was a piece of pilchard 2 inches square!
After a bit more time, we had success and Alistair caught a Kahawai….Hooray!! He is doing well now, having caught a number of different fish!
The haul finished at 8, and we were given 4 Kahawai fillets, and another 2 smoked! Not bad eh! These kiwi’s are really nice, and all fishermen we have met so far are so generous with their catches.
Lucy was given a recipe to cook it and we had it that night. It was lovely, it’s a bit like meat, but even nicer. The texture melts in your mouth as you eat it….mmmm!
(We can see Mount Taranaki from here in the distance, well you can when the cloud lifts It is 2518m and just rises up from the coast, at the moment it is snow topped, apparently it looks rather like Mt Fuji. We have a lovely pitch here with the back of the van overlooking the sea. The sand here has a very high iron content and is trawled out to sea and exported to Japan, melted down and made into iron, Rowena is going to send some to school, hope the postage is not too much-L)

Thurs 4th…. We decided to stay for another day at the beachside. Mike put his torpedo out later today at about 8am. Lucky really because we didn’t wake up that early! This time he caught 3 Snapper (they were too small really, as they should be 27cm to be legal), 5 gurnard, and1 Kahawai. Alistair watched Mike as he cleaned and gutted the fish, I’m not sure he is that keen about doing the cleaning part of the fishing yet?
Lessons were done on the beach today as it was another beautiful sunny day, although the wind was still up. After lessons I reminded myself why I’m not working at the moment by having a game of Rugby with Alistair and Rowena, much better fun!
That evening the Torpedo went out at 7pm, so an hour or so later we went to watch them pull it in. They only got two fish tonight.
It’s funny because when you paddle in the sea here as the sun goes down, as when the waves come in over the black sand, it looks like a sea of Guinness coming in! I thought for a minute that I was in paradise!
The sky was clear tonight, and gave us a stunning red sunset.

Fri 5th- Unfortunately we had to leave today if we were to do the things that we wanted to do. So we reluctantly left our lovely camping spot that looked out directly onto the ocean, and drove to New Plymouth. On the way we stumbled on an organic brewery! The whole place was for sale….what a lovely thought! Anyway Lucy got me out of there after only a couple of tasters.
There wasn’t much here for us in New Plymouth as it’s a big city, so we found ourselves parking at the campsite, and then walking to the shopping centre, where we had a few things to do. On the way back we managed to find an Irish Pub, so we couldn’t walk past we had to stop and be sociable!
Also, today, Lucy managed to get us booked in to do some voluntary work, in return for somewhere to stay, at an organic farm. She agreed for us to stay there for 4 days from Monday……first time I have worked in ages!

Sat 6th – We left the New Plymouth campsite, and went in search of another in a more rural setting. We found one about 20 minutes out of New Plymouth and closer to Mount Egmont(Taranaki). It was called the Havenview Campsite, and we were nearly the only people on this beautiful unspoilt site. It’s a POP(Park Over Property) for NZ Camping Association members out in the countryside, and is also ECO friendly. They re-cycle everything, have a wind generator for electricity, and are self sufficient! You can do this more easier here because land costs are not so high, and it seems that you can build near enough anything you want I suppose because there is so much space! It’s definitely a concept that Lucy and I are interested in, but it’s whether we can afford to do and make it work. Still don’t want to worry about that now, as I’m in a pretty relaxed mood at the moment!

Sun 7th – We decided to do some more walking, so chose a 3 hour tramp up from the Mount Egmont visitor centre, on the Maketawa Track. This track is the beginning of the summit track to the top, so gave us a good idea of what to expect if we decide to do that. It was quite hard going, mainly upwards for the first hour, but we stopped and had lunch at the Maketawa Hut. It’s a lovely hut with a great view, so could be a stop for us in the future.
That evening was Movie Night so we went back to the same campsite, and watched Star Wars – A new hope (The first one made, but 4th in chronological order!). Blimey it takes me back to when I was a lad!
Tomorrow it’s WWOOFing!!

New job!

Greg says......'This is what I now do for work!'

Lucy says......'That's what he always did!'

Alistair says...... 'that's what I want to do when I grow up!'

Rowena says.....' Typical Men!'

December 18th-31st

Greg Says….As I am writing this after Xmas, I hope everyone had a nice one! We all did, a bit unusual to what we are used to but nice all the same. I have to say I was homesick thinking of Ben and Harry, Mum, Sally and Tony, and all the rest of our family. We are used to seeing them all at this time.

Anyway, hopefully we have also worked out how to post pictures, so should be a bit more interesting than reading my drivel! (not that we took any festive pictures to show you!-L) . You should see a picture of our van, and of Alistair blowing his candles out on his bithday!

Anyway…..

Mon 18th…Today was special because it was Alistair’s 10th Birthday and we also met some great people, Thomas, Gila and Lisa, in the pool. They are from Speier near Heidleburg in Germany. After a pleasant introduction, and each promising to catch up later we went to Taupo. It was tipping with rain, and as we had promised to go for a Pizza. We found ourselves in Pizza Hut! After PH we went back to campsite, but couldn’t do much as the rain kept falling……so it was all in front of the telly to watch one of our many video’s. Star Wars….brilliant! Alistair had wanted to take out a go-kart at the campsite, but rain stopped play! Still I think the film made up for it a little. (We have been having trouble with the fridge, it isn’t cooling down, so took it to a garage and an hour or so later were not the wiser just a few dollars worst off, spoke to Mike in Auckland the man we bought the van from and he suggested another place, but It seemed a bit unfair to make Alistair sit in garages for all of his birthday so we will try again tomorrow-L)

Tues 19th…. Still Tipping with Rain….stayed at campsite doing Xmas Decs! (made a Christmas tree with glitter and green card, a rather travelsick Santa with a green face and put up some tinsel-it looks very nice in here—L)didn’t go anywhere due to the weather. (Also went to the other place about the fridge, firstly needed 2 new in house batteries and then were advised that as the fridge wasn’t cooling down we would probably need a new cooling unit which would cost lots and couldn’t be done until the New Year—decided to sleep on it….!!-L)

Wed 20th - Alistair finally got his wish and went on the go-kart. However he made the mistake of letting his sister, Rowena, drive, and yes you have guessed it they crashed! (For the first time in his life he has huge grazes on his knees one of the quite deep.-L) Women Drivers!!! It was still raining, so she has an excuse! Later in spite of the rain we decided to go for a walk anyway. I think someone above must have been listening because the weather changed. We walked to the Huka Falls which is where a river 100meters across and 4m deep, is compressed into a gap 2O Meters wide and 10m deep. It causes a pretty impressive water show with white water everywhere. It’s quite difficult to explain but suffice to say it’s impressive. The water in the river is very clear, and often you see right down under the surface. (on the way back from the Falls Greg, Rowena, Thomas & Lisa had a quick dip in a hot stream, which was flowing across the path, a bit too hot for Rowena—L)

Thurs 21st – By this time we had spent two nice evenings with our German friends, so we decided to the Tongariro National Park together. This is where there are three volcano’s in a row, two which are still active, they are Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro. The last eruption was in 1996 from Ruapehu.
We parked in the Whakapapa (pronounced Fokapappa) car park and started our wet walk to the Silicon Falls (4 hours round trip) with Thomas, Gila, and Lisa. After continuing through forest for about an hour the landscape changed to be a bit boggy, if you have seen the last Lord of The Rings film it’s a bit like when Froddo gets through the place where the bodies were lying in pools, on the way to his final destination. Further on it started to snow! Pretty cool as it’s summer! The Silica Falls are ledges formed by the silica in the water which seeps out of the mountain over periods of hundreds of years.(If someone had told me that I would be in NZ having a white Christmas….!!! L)

After a lovely walk, we stayed at the Discovery Lodge, We decided to have dinner at the restaurant at the campground with T,G&L. We also had brilliant views of all three volcanoes, which all snow on the top. One of which, Mount Ruapehu, was Mount Doom in Lord of The Rings.
(This weather is unseasonal- we had been hoping to do the Tongariro Northern Circuit which I did many years ago, but the weather wasn’t suitable- I have done it once in the rain don’t need to do it again. So we will have another look at it after Christmas to see if the weather improves-L)

Fri 22nd - We woke today to find a beautiful day! Strange considering not 12 hours previously there had been snow. We took a walk to the Taranaki Falls (3 hours round trip) with Thomas and family. The falls are lovely in that they drop about 40-50 meters into clear mountain water, it’s gorgeous. We said farewell to Thomas, Gila and Lisa on the mountain, hoping to meet them again in the South Island in February.
That night we stayed at the Discovery Lodge, but it didn’t fell the same. (FOR A START I HAD TO COOK DINNER THIS TIME!!!-L)

Sat 23rd – We headed back to Taupo to the De Bretts Thermal Spa Campsite. We had booked into a Cabin for 4 nights over Christmas. On the way we visited the National Trout Centre, 3 km south of Turangi. This was very interesting as we could see how big the trout can grow. We also saw an Irish Chapie pulling one out of the river. It got Alistair all excited, as he was hoping to catch one for tea, but unfortunately it’s not that easy, as it’s a different type of fishing to what we were used to, and we don’t have the right gear.
We spent that night in a proper bed for the first time since 19th November….luxury!!

Sun 24th - Got up eventually from a comfortable nights sleep, and made our way into Taupo for some last Minute Shopping. Incredible we did this quite quickly, so we went up to the Volcanic Centre to find out more about Volcano’s so that the children could write about them in one of their projects. All very complicated for me, so good luck Alistair and Rowena!
We then went to the Prawn Farm, as Alistair had heard that he could fish there…..bad luck son we got there to late to even go in, although they did let us into the café! This was nice as it was right next to the Huka Falls Jet Boat centre, so we could watch all their punters getting in and off their boats, and also see some of the stunts the drivers performed.
We came back to Taupo, where Lucy dropped me off by the Golf Challenge (they have a challenge where they have a platform on the lake with a golf hole on it. You can you shoot a ball out towards it, and if you get a hole in one you win a car or something. I haven’t had a go because I don’t want to embarrass myself with my golfing ineptitude!). I was dropped there because I wanted to start running again, so this seemed like a nice place to do this, and it was! I ran for about 3km’s along the shore, and then 2 km’s along the side of the road to the campsite.
That evening Lucy and I sat down to wrap up presents, which is more time consuming than you think! I managed to stay awake long enough to see the Xmas day begin (13 hours before you lot!), but had to endure the service from somewhere near Manchester, I was waiting for ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, but it never came! (the children had to leave their stockings in the van as they had both written to F/C to say that we were travelling in a van with a red stripe down the side!-L)

Mon 25th – (Why do they do it? Any day that you want the children to wake up early they don’t, 6.30am……Christmas day -L). After a leisurely breakfast we went to the Craters of Moon. This is a recently formed geothermal area near Taupo, When they built a new geothermal power station the water table changed and this area appeared, we thought that on Christmas day it would be nice & quiet and we would have it to ourselves.. Oh Yeah. The world and his wife were there. Anyway we had a wander around through all the hydrogen sulphide fumes and boiling mud pools, it is amazing that there are still a lot of plants that grow in this type of environment, admittedly mainly moss & algae.
When we got back to the site we went and soaked ourselves in the hot spa pools next to it. This hot spa thing is getting a bit old hat now- (oh not another spa for us to go in!!-L) Christmas Dinner was a BBQ of Venison burgers, and Lamb Chops…..very nice, after which we had to endure the Pirates of the Caribbean, at the children’s insistence.

Tues 26th – We went into Taupo (again!!) to look for a cheap Bike, as I was complaining of lack of exercise. After a fruitless search at the Warehouse (where everyone get’s a bargain – Obviously not all the time!) we found a second hand trader. There we found a bike for Adults and one for children at a very modest price. The chap we bargained with was an ex professional footballer, who played in goal for Ferecvaros (Budapest, Hungary). His name was Mike Simon, he said he had to retire early at the age of 27, due to injury, but before that he played in the European Cup! Anyway, on our way out of the shop he stopped us and offered us a trout caught from Lake Taupo. In NZ you can’t buy trout, you only eat it if you catch it or are given one. So we were given quite a prize! It was about 45 cm long, so quite a big one! As you will see later in the blog, we ate it at a BBQ with some Kiwi’s. Anyway as we now had bikes we had to use them!
We couldn’t do that today though, as we had to walk up a volcano. We drove out of Taupo and tramped up Mount Tauhara. It took us two hours to climb up through dense bush, but it was worth it once at the top, because you could see over Lake Taupo to the volcanoes in Tongariro with snow on the top….it was beautiful. Then the other way you could see all the way to Mount Edgemont, the landscape was flat until about 100 km’s north Edgemont appeared. Alistair and Rowena performed admirably, and didn’t complain, well not too much! We returned to Taupo to collapse into out beds!

Wed 27th – With our new, well old, bicycles Alistair and I rode into Taupo for a coffee. We met Lucy and Rowena at the bicycle shop, where Lucy stopped me spending too much money on cycle gear!
After this we went for a flat white, which is a strong coffee (very nice), where we met one of our fellow campers - Dave and Andrew. After our story about the trout we were invited to a BBQ at Dave’s friend Les. Les explained that they could cook the fish for us, which turned out to be a good option.
Before we went to the BBQ, Rowena (who took over from Alistair) and I rode out to Spa Park to endeavour on a cycle to the Huka Falls. I thought it would be easy, but it turned out to be a technical Mountain Biking Trail! Still we made it round. After the Huka Falls we cycled further to the Hub Café, which is where the Helicopters take off for scenic flights. Here there is a cycle tunnel under the main highway, which we wanted to try. I went through it twice, as both Alistair and Rowena wanted to go through, and Lucy wasn’t keen!
That evening we went to the BBQ at Les’, where his wife Raewyn cooked out fish. She did it in vinegar and topped it with cheese, sounds a bit funny, but tasted very nice!
Had a great time, so thanks to all those nice Kiwi’s for a nice evening.
Les is a collector of cars, and had 3 Ford Falcon’s in the garage from the 70’s, all very collectable. He also had a Mercedes SL500 Coupe which has a hard and soft top…very nice!

Thursday 28th - After a nice swim in the Top 10 hot swimming pool (lovely) we spent the driving to Wairoa…about 120 miles….200km. Nice trip through the mountains, and by the Pacific for a while, which was a beautiful blue Turquoise colour. The temperature was a lot hotter than Taupo.

Friday 29th -We left Wairoa on the road to to Lake Waikaremoana, which is a large lake in the mountains. It looks like Lake Garda when you first see it, and is a lovely blue colour when the sun is shining. The water is as clear as anything, and looks very inviting, although when you get in it it’s blooming cold! (met the sand flys again-L)
We prepared for our walk the next day by getting an early night.

Saturday 30th - We went to the Doc Office in Aniwaniwa, where we were to pick up the key’s to our craft. The trek we were going on meant we would have to walk with heavy packs up hill for an hour to another lake- Lake Waikareiti. Then go by rowing boat (rowed by ourselves) for another hour or two to our hut. If we didn’t use the boat then it would take another 3 hours walk.
We made it to the top of the hill, where we surveyed the situation. The wind was blowing hard, and we were unsure of our rowing ability. The other option was the walk with heavy packs, so we decided to try the rowing and would turn back if a problem.
Once out of the bay it was difficult rowing, but we kept going. A number of arguments about who was oaring at the right time and who was not,(Greg kept doing it wrong-!!—L) we arrived at a beautiful sandy bay with the hut front of us. The water as crystal clear, and when we got to the hut it was empty, we had found our desolation that we both wanted. Half an hour later a couple of other boats turned up with another 5 people, which was good because we met some more lovely Kiwi folk. The evening was spent trying to catch fish from the boat, after which we used our new fast boil camping stove to make our dinner.
As darkness fell a fire was lit and the children enjoyed collecting the wood to keep it going, only straying from their job to chase the rats and the possum’s away.
You can really notice the stars when you are so far way from civilisation, and time was spent looking up at them before bed.

December 31st - Up the next morning and it was the same trip but in reverse. It was sad to leave as some of the other residents were staying, and you felt like you had been voted off of Celebrity Love Island or something!
On the way back in the boat Alistair caught a Rainbow Trout, which made the trip too! Another free dinner! (We all contributed to Alistair’s success, because he caught it, I killed, Lucy and Rowena cleaned, gutted and cooked it….what a team!)
Once back at the Doc car park, we had to then travel for 75km’s on an unsealed gravel road….not very nice. We made it though after about 3 hours driving, and found a DOC campsite, which was free next to a waterfall and river.
This was New Years Eve, but we couldn’t celebrate as we normally do due to heavy rain. Heavy rain which went on and on! We were all in bed by 9.15 pm hoping that we wouldn’t be swept away! Still we had had a really good time on our latest adventure.

Postscript- I have wanted to walk around Lake Waikariomona since my aborted attempt in 1994 due to the lack of cars travelling along the unsealed road. However after reading about L.Waikariete in a mag. this sounded a less ambitious option. And I have to say that after waking up the hill to the hut with a pack with only 2dyas rations in it was a good choice. Rowena complained her pack was too heavy almost immediately but was happy once I took out her fleece and cup. Although we had told them that we were going to stay in a hut I didn’t dawn on them until we got there what it meant. Rowena was so excited and even more so when she found that the bunks were in 3 tiers .(Guess where they both wanted to sleep) I kept waking in the night and putting on the torch expecting them to be almost falling out of them.
It was a lovely spot and the next morning the lake was as flat as a mill pond, not a ripple. I really wished that we had booked to stay 2 nights.
Still never mind we still have Tongariro to try in the N. Island if the weather ever settles.
Happy New Year to one and all - Lucy