Lake Waikaremoana
Saturday June 11, 2016
Lake Waikaremoana marks the fourth of nine Great Walks that I've completed. Situated in the Te Ureweras, the three day version of the Great Walk circumnavigates approximately 75% of the lake. Most trampers opt to do it "forwards", starting from Onepoto and ending up near the Wanganui Hut, where they're picked up by a water taxi, but we went in reverse so that the final leg of the walk would be the uphill part, and our packs would be the lightest.
The drive there is pretty treacherous, a winding snaking gravel road a couple of hours south east of Rotorua. Mat, Tom and I started our journey from Auckland on the Thursday down SH2 and SH27 and picked up lunch at Matamata. I'd never been there before, so it was nice to see all the Lord of the Rings-related stuff there. We took away some food from the bakery and continued on to Rotorua to get supplies for the tramp. We arrived at nightfall at the Lake Waikaremoana Holiday Park. After finding our cabin, we cooked our garlic bread and steaks, and settled in for the night with Love Letter. Though it was cloudy and raining, the weekend would bring some of the clearest skies and sunniest days ever.
On Friday morning, I walked down to the lake front for an explore. The sun was out, but it was pretty cold. The ducks were on the water, quacking loudly, ignoring the hum of the water taxis buzzing to and from the holiday park. We had breakfast and packed our bags. The water taxi was due to pick us up at 1.30pm, so we had plenty of time to walk around. We visited the DoC Office and secured our bookings for the huts, and then drove down to Onepoto - mostly for the 3G coverage. We arrived back at the holiday park and took the water taxi across the lake, picking up two trampers from the Onepoto carpark. We made our way through the bush, closely following the lake perimeter, to Waiharuru hut where we stayed the night. After pasta and salmon for dinner, we played a few rounds of Love Letter, Up and Down the River, and Golf, the card game. On the way back to cabins, I paused to admire the crystal clear skies, and three meteors shot by. Amazing!
Our Saturday walk would be the longest, covering over 17km over seven hours from Waiharuru to Waiopaoa, via the Marauiti Hut and the Korokoro Campsite. Though the terrain is mostly flat, the sheer distance that we covered made this a very tiring day indeed. A lot of the ground we trekked over was still frozen, crystals of ice making the ground very solid indeed, where normally it would be soft or squishy from mud. In addition, the lake was shrouded in fog, making it quite majestic and almost eerie to look at. We took a breather at the Marauiti Hut, talking to the hunters there who had arrived by boat, and had the luxury of a massive gas cooker that was frying up some delicious sausages, bacon, eggs and hash! In the afternoon, we took a one hour detour to the stunning Korokoro Falls. The final stretch to Waiopaoa was shorter than expected, but as we reached the hut just after 5pm, we discovered that it was practically full, but thankfully we managed to squeeze in - even if I was on the floor. We played cards and Headbangers with the others there - a couple of German girls, a group of six Auckland flatmates and a lone traveller from the UK. The Aucklanders were pretty prepared, with bags of vodka, rum and whisky, and a sodastream too!
We parted ways in the morning and made our way up to the Panekire Hut. Though the walk was only four hours, it was an awful steep incline with a bad knee that I had injured on the first day. Once we got to the top though, the scenery was fantastic - a beautiful panoramic view of the lake in all its glory. We met the Housewives of Palmerston North, who had been mentioned by a couple of the hunters from the Marauiti Hut, and two of them accompanied us for an explore to the bluff. In the end, we didn't really see much and it was a bit too far and we wanted to be back for the sunset, so we ended up heading back before we'd hit the end. We watched the sun disappear over the hills of the Te Ureweras, very reminiscent of the sunsets I see at Makara - just beautiful colours and serenity away from civilisation. I ended up going to bed around 8.30pm because I was so tired - the next day would be an early start to catch the water taxi back to the holiday park at 10.30am.
We were up before the sun had risen, but it was still relatively light. We saw the sun beginning to rise but I had to start making my way down to the Onepoto carpark. The track partially follows the ridgeline to the Bluff, providing some stunning views of the fog covering the lake. As the sun rose higher and higher into the sky, the fog began to illuminate, producing some very picturesque moments. The walk was relatively easy and thanks to one of the Palmy Housewives, I had taken some Voltaren to ease the pain on my knee. We would have left Waikaremoana just before noon, hitting Rotorua for lunch around 2pm. There was a lot of traffic heading through Huntly and Rangiriri, and later on as we headed through Papakura and Takanini, but I made it back to my parents' place for dinner. Whew!
The next day, I got a haircut from my new favourite place on Dominion Road while my parents dropped their car off for some servicing. We had yum cha for lunch at Lucky Fortune in Three Kings, before heading to Jadan on Dominion Road for some groceries. I purchased a 1.5L bottle of 100 Plus - yeeeeee! So happy! I spent some time at the sauna at Les Mills New Lynn just trying to recuperate and knead out all those tight muscles, but I had to get to the airport early because I knew traffic would be a problem getting there. My flight was at 6.45pm but we ended up leaving the house at 5pm. Back in Wellington, I grabbed some KFC for dinner and picked up some supplies from Pak n Save before heading home for a well deserved rest.
What an exhausting weekend... I need another holiday.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:09am on Saturday June 11, 2016 :: 0 comments :: 