The Book of Ashes

Easter Weekend - Lake Waikaremoana 10:50PM

Easter Weekend we had planned a trip around Lake Waikaremoana. Bonnie and I, along with Bonnie's workmate Lauren, made an early start on Friday morning and headed off up North in the car. It was a beaut day for the lower half of the North Island and 6 hours later we were just short of Lake Waikaremoana, staying the night in a cabin.

There were 7 of us. We had dinner at resturant/bar there and played some darts over a beer. I had forgotten that I used to have a dart board in my first Dunners flat (I remember having a box of coke under the dart board (12 1.5 litre bottles) and missing badly and puncturing a coke bottle. It wasn't so bad until I pulled it out then the coke went everywhere!).

Next morning we were out of there by 10am. The place we were staying at drove us up to the lake and we started our walk. It was a beautiful sunny day on which we had a 1 hour climb up the bluffs then a 4 hour walk along the tops.

Here is the view climbing up.

This was an excellent place to stop for the view. You were on top of the world with an awesome view straight down over the whole lake. It was a steep drop!

View from the side of the track. The bluffs ran along one whole side of the lake.

Another cool photo from the track.

Ash, self portrait. Looking back over the lake.

Jeremy throwng a dart off a steep bit. He didn't know the secret dart pattern and his paper wasn't strong enough to be any good. I so wished I had a good bit of paper.

His dart crashed and burned.

The sunset from the hut. The hut was at the highest point on the bluffs. The last bit was up some steps. We got to try out our new cooker which was cool. The hut was pretty full with a group of teenage girls singing together while others tried to get to sleep.

The view the next day. Looking down over the lakes.

We walked for 3 hours or so down the hill till we reached the lake where we stopped for lunch.

We kept going for an hour or so then came to a side track to the waterfall. It was an hour there and back and we still had 3 hours to go. So 3 of us went while the others went on. We dropped our packs in the bush and went at a fast walk. It was well worth it but hard work trying to catch up with the others. The other 2 I was with got a bit tired as did the others ahead of us. They had walked a good 8 hour day. I loved it :)

Looking back at the bluffs we had walked along the previous day. They were pretty impressive.

We realised we had a bit longer to walk than first thought for the third day so we were up by 6:30am to see the sunrise. The others didn't sleep so well due to the snorer but I slept ok considering I was quite tired.

One of the guys had a sore foot from walking to the waterfall so we shared some of his pack around. Was good to have a full load on me. Shoulders were hurting by the end of it. This day was a 6 hour day.

Our final destination. Everyone was pleased to make it here and put in an awesome effort. Lauren went in for a swim but it was quite cold. I went in up to my knees and they were getting numb after a while. The water taxi came in and picked us up from here.

And took us back across the lake to where we started from. It is always humbling to walk for three days then have a water taxi take you back in 15mins.

What an awesome trip. Didn't even know this lake existed. Quite remote. We got out at 3pm and then had the 6 hour drive back to Wellington. Of course being Easter and all we came to a dead stop in the middle of the highway at 9pm at night. Luckily it was just the end of the traffic and didn't last long. Got home by 11pm and straight to bed. I had to get up the next day and go to work but Bonnie got to sleep in. Some of us have more leave than others...

Pretty cool. Now its been a short week, we had Ben leave at work so I'm now most senior developer there. Had a busy week fixing problems and trying to get things going. This weekend was a quiet one. Caught up on some jobs that needed doing. Purchased a cool hacky and played some of that. Worked up quite a sweat. Had a few shots with the basketball with Eddie and got thoughly rained on (it only rained for 5 mins but we got soaked). Now its time for another short week. Tuesday is ANZAC day so holiday (yay!).