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 :: 
The Moment When You Get Internet at a New Place
Sunday May 31, 2015
Blogging has been quiet since my move because I've been lacking a proper Internet connection. Unlike several of my friends who have been waiting for fibre to be installed in their building, this failure of connectivity was completely my own fault. I bought two modems off TradeMe, unfortunately neither of them supported PPPoE/VC-MUX which was required by my ISP for their service. ANYWAY, now that I have a working modem, I can sell the other two off on TradeMe; it's still cheaper than buying a new modem. And most importantly, I'm back on the net.
The past two weeks have been pretty busy. The move went as well as it could have. We had arranged for the Salvation Army to swing by and pick up our beds, cabinets, shelves and what not. They only did weekday visits, so I had to move my bed down from the first floor on Thursday night, which meant I was on an airbed kindly loaned from Vincent for two nights. However, on Friday morning, they called us to say that the torrential rain and subsequent flooding of Wellington's northern suburbs meant they were unable to make it. Instead, we had to hire a van and drive all of that to the store in Newtown. Thankfully, the weather had cleared by Saturday, so moving was not a problem. Thanks to Phil, Will and Vincent for their help!
Since moving into my new place, I've had a solid worship session on the piano at Central Baptist, karaoke, dinner at Dragons for Wei's birthday, steamboat at Campbell and Linda's and also managed to catch the Eurovision song contest. We said goodbye to Charles and Pete on Friday with some drinks at Fork and Brewer with the programmers, then karaoke at New Kor with all the artists - so good to see so many people out having a great time. Yesterday was weekly badminton in the morning, gym in the afternoon, and drinks for Charlie and Donnie's birthdays at Goldings, Hashi's and Southern Cross. I really enjoy how the long weekend just seems to populate itself with events and social gatherings.
Posted by Jeremy at 2:43am on Sunday May 31, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
So June has gone...
Sunday July 4, 2010
It's time for the half-year status check.
I've been pretty busy with Psypoke, helping to rewrite the news system and the admin panel, both running on code written six years ago by 18 Year Old Noob Jeremy, and also the GPCT code and marketing materials which I am very proud of, for the record. That intro flash is epic <3.
Since my last blog update, we've had Queen's Birthday where Richard and his girlfriend come down to visit, as well as Jono's girlfriend and her sister, and in amongst the typical sightseeing and random Disney singalongs, we went to Strawberry Fare for a night of delectable desserts.
Sidhe celebrated its 13th birthday with a night out at the Lanes on Wakefield, where we gathered in our drunken stupor to somehow make the bowling balls and pins connect. It was a great night with fantastic food - I just could not get enough of the seafood platter of prawns, scallops and mussels. There was also breads, dips, pestos, ribs, chicken drumsticks, mini cheeseburgers, squid rings... so good.
We've also been given the first hard copies of Shatter for PC, as well as the greatest game of all, Rugby League 3 for the Wii!
Our success with Flick Kick Football continues as we hit the #1 paid app in the UK store last week, as well as good rankings in other countries. In celebration, we were taken out to Little India for lunch on Friday, as well as showered with Haribo gummi bears. Tech planning for my dream project also kicked off last week, with lots of things to do to prepare for the core programming, so we'll see how things pan out as time passes.
I've been spending an increased amount of money on food lately. We've had a few visitors from out of town and friends organising dinners and drinks...all adds up. Last week we went to Strawberry Fare on Monday. Friday was Satay Kajang and Motel. Saturday was Foxglove, One Red Dog, Hashigo Zake and the Library. Today...well, today was nice and simple, we bought lunch from the supermarket. But still! Food and friends are great.
I've updated my Gallery with photos dating as far back as May, so check them out.
And finally, I need to find accomodation within the next three weeks. ¦[
Posted by Jeremy at 6:05am on Sunday July 4, 2010 :: 0 comments ::
Queen's Birthday
Tuesday June 3, 2008
Alice, Cinta and Jo came down to Wellington for a visit on Saturday very morning. I picked them up from the airport at 8am - thus began the love affair with Wellington.
Saturday was sight-seeing day. We went to Mt Victoria, Oriental Bay, Lambton Quay, Civic Centre, Te Papa and Botanical Gardens. We saw the Beehive, that stupid Platform 9 3/4 sign at the Railway Station, the giant floating silver ball, my workplace, a large umbrella.... we ate lots of delicious things too. We had brunch at the Parade Cafe (I had been there with Andy, Nat and Jono before) where we totally indulged on far too much bacon, corn fritters, eggs and divine chocolate cake and carrot cake.
Sunday I took them to Central Baptist where they were treated with scones ("I approve!" said Alice). They can report back to KCC and tell everyone how I'm doing :p We went for yum char after that, at Majestic Cuisine, where we insisted on tofu fa, mango pudding, and durian pastries. I also took them shopping down Cuba Street and Lambton Quay, and that was rather excruiating. We had a simple dinner - two wood oven pizzas from Maverick's, just down the road. This was in anticipation of epic dessert at Strawberry Fare, where we ordered far too much and I had to force myself to consume the entire lemon cheesecake that I had ordered (It was delicious). They also met everyone from the Estate and the Hub - we hung out for a bit at the Hub.
But the worst of the shopping had yet to come, as we went to Dress Smart in Tawa. Geez. Haha nah it was alright. There were some cool non-clothing shops there that had interesting things (like a sim card backup device for $2 or something like that, or giant candles shaped like Chess pieces). We had a quick bite at KFC before heading back to Valley Girl on Willis, where we saw Auntie Su, Yining and Liann. Then it was a quick walk up Lambton Quay and Cuba Street again, before heading home to pack. We ended the weekend of awesome food by going to Great India on Courtenay, where, again, we ate far too much.
It's been a really good weekend! And we have more visitors this weekend too \o/
Posted by Jeremy at 10:03am on Tuesday June 3, 2008 :: 0 comments ::