Windy Tops

Tag: rain

  • Wellington Harbour bottle caps

    Earlier today I walked around Oriental Parade and up over the Southern Walkway, and hopping off at Kilbirnie before spending about an hour sitting under the northern end of the runway at Wellington Airport, watching the planes struggle in. It was cold, but the bank below the runway offers some partial shelter from the southerly with passing phases of rain, and it was bearable for a while with about four layers and a balaclava.

    What surprised me as I walked back towards town was the number of bottle caps washed up on that part of the beach around there. There were barely any plastic bottles, but there were thousands of bottle caps. They were typically the variety that comes from soft drinks and bottled water, the latter of which I think is a bizarre, inefficient and pointless thing in New Zealand, but perhaps that’s a topic for another post.

    I suppose the bottles must separate and be carried somewhere else with a different make-up and density, but apparently thousands of bottle caps end up right here. Putting thoughts about lazy thoughtless polluters and the hypocrisy of New Zealand aside, I’d love to know more about the physics of what’s happening here.

  • Trip: Kiriwhakapapa to Cow Creek, Mitre Flats and Holdsworth Lodge

    There’s a certain feeling one can sometimes get when looking at a weather forecast the day before going tramping, to realise the entire country is be converged on by unavoidable freezing heavy rainfall from all directions. It’s a feeling that corresponds with thoughts of wanting to avoid river travel, and thus I was very surprised last Saturday to be happily wading down the Waingawa River in the Tararuas. But then, you can’t really beat the Tararuas on a rainy weekend. As is generally known, the Tararuas and rain are like two magnets with poles reversed. Yep, the Tararuas are awesome.

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    Crossing the Waingawa under Cow Creek.

    It seems weird going back to somewhere where I’ve been as recently as a week earlier, but that’s what I did last weekend. This time it was with the trampey club, and it wasn’t quite the same place. Instead of just walking from Holdsworth to Mitre Flats and back, we began further north at Kiriwhakapapa, then walked back to Mitre Flats before coming out at Holdsworth.

    Dates: 8th – 10th May, 2009
    Location: Tararua Forest Park, Kiriwhakapapa to Holdsworth Road-ends.
    People: Steve, Daniel, Andrew, Justin and me.
    Huts visited: Blue Range Hut (1 night), Cow Creek Hut (0 nights), Mitre Flats Hut (1 night), Atiwhakatu Hut (0 nights), Holdsworth Lodge (0 nights).
    Route: Kiriwhakapapa to Blue Range Hut (Friday night), down to Cow Creek Hut via an old track to Cow Saddle, then to Mitre Flats Hut for Saturday night. Out to Holdsworth road-end on Sunday.
    [Photos]

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

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  • Trip: Holdsworth Lodge to Mitre Flats and back

    I had a free weekend and I realised that I hadn’t been to the Tararuas for about six months! Don’t ask me how this happened because it’s my favourite mountain range. Since I had the time, I made up my mind to get back and visit them again. The weather forecast was changing every hour leading up to my leaving home on Saturday morning, which was probably because the Met service forecasters weren’t very certain about exactly where a particular system was going to hit. It looked as if it might get very rainy, but I guess you can’t really beat the Tararuas when it’s raining. They’re fantastic.

    3501198093_61c6954306_m-6005503
    Between Atiwhakatu Hut
    and Mitre Flats.

    Dates: 2nd – 3rd May, 2009
    Location: Tararua Forest Park, Holdsworth road-end.
    People: Just me.
    Huts visited: Holdsworth Lodge (0 nights), Atiwhakatu Hut (0 nights), Mitre Flats Hut (1 night).
    Route: Start at Holdsworth Lodge, walk straight to Mitre Flats (via the track), then walk back.
    [Photos]

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

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  • Good river stories

    Just in case you had any doubts about how dangerous rivers can potentially be at the wrong time (following from one of my earlier posts), Frank and Sue over at Our Hiking Blog have recently posted a telling story from Tasmania about just how quickly rivers can come up in the rain, how easy it is to be caught out and what the consequences can be like. It’s a serious thing and fortunately everyone mentionde came out okay on this occasion, and also a really good short read.

  • Rain rain rain

    I like rain, and so far it’s been raining a lot this weekend. I have several friends spending their time in the Tararuas this weekend, mostly in the region of Totara Flats. It’d be really nice to have been able to be there, but unfortunately I’m still catching up with a few things that fell behind during the few weeks I was overseas. Last time I visited Totara Flats was also a weekend full of weather warnings, and we nearly became trapped there as a consequence of rising side-creeks flowing over the tracks, which made the excursion a nice little adventure. I imagine they’re having quite an exciting time right now, and a few days from now I look forward to inquiring as to how it went.

    I did get out for a walk in the rain this afternoon, however, starting in Otari Wilton’s Bush (a 10 minute walk from our current residence), and walking up towards the Skyline Walkway. The Kaiwharawhara Stream was as full as I’ve ever seen it — probably still safely crossable (not that there’s a need with all the bridges), but much higher and faster than its usually tame appearance. Walking along it for a few hundred metres was a telling experience, every so often seeing another temporary ad-hoc creek racing down the hillside and crashing into the stream valley at the end, making a lot of noise.
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  • Trip: Rangiwahia to Heritage via Triangle and Iron Gates

    Honestly, who would have thought it’d be rainy fogged-in weather on Labour Weekend? Apparently not us, because we had a fairly intensive tramp planned that would have gone from Rangiwahia over to Howletts, then back via Iron Gates. Unfortunately it rained and it snowed and it didn’t really work so well, but it was still worthwhile and from a personal perspective, I was still able to see places I hadn’t seen before.

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    Steve, Amanda and Paul
    north-west of Mangahuia.

    Dates: 24th – 26th October, 2008 (one day shorter than intended)
    Location: Ruahine Forest Park, Rangiwahia to Heritage Road-end.
    People: Steve, Amanda, Paul and me.
    Huts visited: Rangiwahia Hut (1 night), Triangle Hut (0 nights), Iron Gates Hut (1 night), Heritage Hut (0 nights).
    Intended Route: Walk to Rangiwahia, then around Maungamahue and the back of Te Hekenga , over to Taumataomekura, Teraha and to Howletts Hut for Saturday night. Then via Daphne Ridge, Otumore and down to Iron Gates Hut (or possibly Triangle Hut) for Sunday night, before heading back up to Rangiwahia Hut and out again on Monday.
    Actual Route: Due to weather issues we went straight down to Triangle Hut and Iron Gates Hut on Saturday, before continuing to the Heritage road-end on Sunday and getting out a day early.
    [Photos and movies]

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    After dinner from that Kebab shop at Bulls, we reached the Rangiwahia road-end at around 9.30’ish, I guess. At the very least, after the walk up the hill (which from past experience seems to take about 90 minutes), we were settling down at around 11pm on Friday night. The weather forecast was already dismal, without much suggestion that things would clear up until about Monday. Although we’d made plans to sleep in, Steve was still up and about at 6.30, and everyone followed.

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  • Trip: Cone Peak, towards Neill and back

    We began the weekend with an ambitious plan to start from Cone Saddle, and walk to Alpha Hut during Saturday via Neill, Winchcombe and Hector. It didn’t quite work out, but we still had a good time.

    2855744654_e2bf28a702_m-2407949
    A Tararua Rainbow, looking
    south from near Neill Peak (1158).

    Dates: 12th – 14th September, 2008
    Location: Tararua Forest Park, Walls Whare Road-end.
    People: Alistair, Sarah, Illona, Amanda, Bernie and me.
    Huts visited: Cone Hut (1 night).
    Intended Route: Walk to Cone Saddle and camp on Friday night. From Saturday morning head up to Cone, over to Neill via Neill Saddle, across to Winchcombe Peak, continue to Hector, then follow the Southern Crossing track to Alpha Hut for Saturday night. Out via Marchant Ridge on Sunday.
    Actual Route: We got to about point 1055 below Winchcombe Peak, then decided to turn around and head back to Cone Hut for the night and head back to Walls Whare on Sunday.
    [Photos and movies]

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    We arrived at Walls Whare in coordination with another club group that was indirectly aiming for Totara Flats, with both groups planning to walk the first leg of their trip on Friday night. The others intended to spend the night at Cone Hut, whereas we thought we might just camp up the hill at Cone Saddle, which was marginally closer to where we planned to go.
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  • Trip: Penn Creek Hut on a rainy day

    Last weekend we went to Penn Creek Hut in the western Tararuas.

    Dates: 1st – 3rd August, 2008
    Location: Tararua Forest Park, Otaki Forks region.
    People: Craig, Fraser, Peter and me.
    Huts visited: Field Hut (1 night), Penn Creek Hut (1 night), Parawai Lodge (0 nights).
    Intended Route: Otaki Forks to Field for Friday night, then up to Vosseler and navigate down spur to Penn Creek Hut for Saturday night. Out to Otaki Forks via Table Top on Sunday.
    Actual Route: Straight to Penn Creek Hut via Table Top on Saturday (due to heavy rain), then back up to Table Top on Sunday via spur starting at S26 025307, due to a flooded side-creek blocking the usual track.
    Related bits: Craig also wrote about this weekend.
    [Photos]

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    Saturday night, prior to which we didn’t do much at all: There’s a little mould on the Penn Creek Hut mattress that I’m sitting on as I write these notes. We’ve been here for 5 hours now, since a bit after mid-day. Water drips from the skylight into a bucket. There’s also water dripping into the fireplace, thwarting efforts to get a fire going. We even tried to burn some of Peter’s marshmallows, but that didn’t work either. Did I mention that the trees are dripping? And so is the sky. The bucket was nearly full when we arrived and we’ll need to empty it before we leave.

    There were supposed to be six people in our group, but two bailed on Thursday, citing correlations between the reputation of the Tararua Range and the weekend’s forecast. This meant that before we arrived, we only had Craig’s small billy in which to cook. Fortunately there’s some quite good cooking and cleaning gear at the hut. Craig organised the trip. He looked impressive earlier today, sporting his Oringi Jacket — “the jacket that keeps you and your shorts dry” — just like that guy inside the back cover of every FMC bulletin. Peter’s on his first ever club trip, having arrived a few weeks ago from Scotland. Fraser’s also on his first club trip although he’s been tramping in New Zealand before, particularly in the Orongorongo Valley, and has some interesting stories. Last night I asked Fraser about his pack, which looks about as old as he is and far more worn down. He told me he found it in a dumpster and had to argue with his friend about who’d get to keep it.

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  • I like Wellington

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    Wellington on a fun day.

    A couple of years ago I was walking home from work and noticed a rubbish bin on The Terrace with at least three broken umbrellas crammed in it, which I found rather hilarious. Since then I’ve been trying to remember to pack my camera on days with lots of wind and just too little rain to keep most of the office dwellers inside. Even then, this was the first time I’ve seen anything similar again. It’s a shame there was only one.

    I should make a note that I still need to buy myself a good solid tramping umbrella.