I really had to put my fast packing practice to the test this time. I had about one hour to unpack from wellington and repack for a 3 day backpacking trip to Taranaki volcano. I still had to eat lunch and buy my bus ticket so I was really pushing it. I started cooking rice for lunch while I packed and totally forgot about it and basically filled my whole flat with smoke, fortunately there was no real damage just a really black pot. Viladmir from church let me borrow some camping gear but I only had my school backpack so some how I cramped all my food, clothes, and camping stuff into a pack meant for a laptop and a few books. Since I was in such a rush, Viladmir was super nice and gave me a ride to the bus stop and so I made it just in time to catch the bus to New Plymouth. There I met up with Robert and Kelly a couple of Americans that I was going to be trekking all over Taranaki volcano with. It was about a 3 hour bus ride to New Plymouth where we were spending the night. When we got there we met up with another American friend who was there traveling with her parents and they gave us a lift to our hostel. Later we walked into town and did a bit of the famous New Plymouth coastal walk. There was this strange art piece? along the coast called a wind wand. Basically it was an incredibly tall pole with a ball on top that swayed in the wind. Afterwards we found our favorite grocery store Paknsave and bought some food for our adventure. Earlier in the day we had asked some nice people for directions and the funniest thing happened. As we were walking home with our arms full of groceries the same people, Evan and Michael, so us walking and stopped and offered us a ride. It was such a pleasant surprise as we still had about a mile to walk carrying all of our food, New Zealanders are so great. Once home we made a big pasta dinner to fuel up for our trip and then went eels shining! It was dark and there was a river behind our hostel with eels in it, so we took our flashlights and very and found a few. They were huge, ugly looking things but are a huge part of Maori traditions here.
The next morning I got up early to shower for the last time for the next 2 days. We hired a shuttle to pick us up and take us to the mountain. So Tom and Darren picked us up in a big van and drove us up to the visitor center. As we drove the weather was very misty with a light drizzle of rain...not the best for hiking but like a gift from heave right as we pulled up to the visitor center the skies cleared and the rain stopped. It was perfect timing. The first day of our hike was meant to take 5-6 hours to the first hut. We hiked through heaps of rainforest and had to do some river crossings and even went across a swing bridge. The first part of the loop we were doing actually went up a neighboring peak to the main mountain. About 4 hours into the hike, the trail basically started going straight up the mountain, but it really wasn't bad because there were wood and dirt steps pretty much all the way up. It kinda made the hike feel a little less exploreresque but it was sure nice to have the steps because otherwise it would have very steep and slick, but there were literally hundreds of steps. All those box jumps and stairs I had done with Ema were really paying off and I felt great basically running up the stairs. My hiking buddies weren't quite as keen on the idea of running up the mountain so we stopped and ate lunch the finished our ascent. Finally we made it to the top of mountain, called Henry's peak and the view was fantastic! You could see the ocean, the cities, and of course the majestic Mt. Taranaki. As we sat and admired the view we were a little worried as it looked like an entire wall of clouds was about to close in on us but as we sat and watched it was really interesting because the clouds looked like they were constantly moving towards us but they would always dissipate right as they approached the mountain. It must have been something crazy with the air pressure or wind currents or something, but it was weird. The view was so nice we had to sit and admire it for awhile but the it was back down the other side with more stairs and even some ladders it was so steep. Next was up one more small peak where our hut was near the top. As we made it to the hut the clouds finally decided to really roll in and oh when they came it was like someone put foggy ski goggles over my eyes. The fog was so dense you couldn't see for more than about 50m and even less at times. We set up our tent and had a good dinner. We spent the evening making a fire and just hanging out. When it finally came time to go to bed we could even see our tent only 10m away in the fog but we found it and curl up for a windy night on mountain. We stayed in a tent because it cost $15 a night per person to stay in the hut and the tent was free, so we just used the huts to cook, then slept in the tent. The huts were quite nice though. They had running water and a porta potty outside and then bunk beds with sleeping pads inside. It was quite a winding night and Robert and I didn't exactly have proper sleeping bags so we were all cold so we tried sleep closer together in are already cramped 2 man tent. After we all realized that none of us had been sleeping at about 3 am we decided to head into the hut to warm up and build a small fire. We all ate some snacks and put on more layers to reattempt our sleeping outside. I had an idea that really changed my whole situation. My problem was I just couldn't keep my feet and legs warm so I boiled some water and put it in my heavy duty water bottle and put in the bottom of my sleeping bag. Oh my gosh it made the biggest difference in the world, I couldn't believe it. I actually got warm with just this little hot water bottle and finally got to sleep. I think we all felt better and all got some sleep finally. We were so tired we slept in a little later that we had planned on but finally got all packed up and head out to our next hut around 10:30 the next day. The original plan was just going to be a pretty short 3-4 hour hike to the next hut, so when we got to the hut we had lunch and did another leg of the trail that was about an hour return to a waterfall. It was pretty cool because we had hiked through a swamp and the water from the swamp and the river through it all drained off these huge cliff. By the time we got back from the waterfall it was still only about 3:30 pm and we had nothing to do and since we had been making good time we though we should just head to the next hut about 4 hours away. We had been making good time and thought we could do it faster so we set off to hike about halfway up Taranaki along a trail leading to the next hut. The whole day had been terribly cloudy and we only had very limited views of anything all day so there wasn't much to stop and take photos of as we walked. As we went the fog got thicker and rain started as a drizzle then full on rain off and on. We traversed the side of the mountain and made it over a few scary steep places that if you fell you would be tumbling a long ways so we took great caution. There weren't a lot of signs so just based on the map I had judge where we were and unfortunately everytime I looked at the map I realized more and more we had too far to go and not enough daylight to get there and turning around was even further so we pressed on and didn't stop for anything. The whole day had felt very dark in the fog so even as the sun started to set we couldn't really notice a difference. At one point we made it to a sign pointing directions to the hut we were headed toward with one direction taking 2 hours and the other 1.5 hours. the 1.5 hour trail was a summer trail only...it was early spring so we took the risk of going on the summer trail to try and save time. Unfortunately as it turns out this meant we had to hike through snow. For me I really felt totally comfortable on the snow, I think years of skiing really payed off as I walked across the steep hills of snow forming steps for my friends, for them I don't think it was quite as natural. I avoided telling them that if they did slip they would probably end up sliding a few hundred meters and we couldn't even see what was at the bottom of the hills because of the fog. I just told them what to do if they did start to fall, the best ways to stop. And well it didn't help that just as we started trying to cross the snow sheets, the wind picked up and really started blowing, and with our packs covered in trash bags from the rain, they worked more like parachutes. So we were extremely careful but finally made it down far enough to get out of the snow. We finally made it to a trail that was pretty much a road. We were soaking wet from the rain, the sun had pretty much set, and the wind was howling so with and open trial we started to run. We still had 1 hour according to the sign until the hut. So we ran as much as we could but running downhill after hiking all day, not sleeping much that night, soaking wet and with a 15kg+pack on your bag it wasn't easy. Then finally just as it was getting too dark to see without a flash light we made it to the hut. It was such a relieving sight and to top it off another girl was staying there that already had the fire going. We all changed out of our soaking wet clothes and shoes and hung them by the fire. We ate a ton of food because we were so hungry and needed some carbs to get ourselves warm. We set up the tent underneath the raised hut to protect us from the wind and rain. I heated more water to put in my water bottle and after a back massage train we headed to bed. As I was talking to Robert and Kelly they were saying that what we had just done was the hardest thing they had ever done, so I was pretty impressed with how they did. They hadn't complained at all and just knew what they had to do to get off that mountain. I really hadn't known too much about the mountain but I guess I knew a lot more then them about how to handle the rough conditions so I was glad they were willing to follow me and try and keep up when I told them we had to go faster. I had a lot less gear because I had packed so light in my little bag, had been trying to stay properly hydrated, eating as we hiked, and had been working out heaps before this adventure add that to my experience of being stuck on snowy mountains in a storm I was at a bit of an advantage to my friends.. But strangely during this whole time I felt completely fine, not a single sore muscle, never hungry or tired, not even cold even though I was soaking wet. I could have run back up that mountain if the situation had called for it I think. I didn't have a proper back pack like they had or even real hiking boots, just my running shoes. But I wasn't too worried the whole time either, I was confident we would be ok. I think a bit of adrenaline streaming through the veins and protection from above helped me to feel at peace. We had made a bad decisions to continue onto the next hut but it meant we only had to hike 2 hours in the morning so we could be to our pick up spot by noon the next day, otherwise we would have had to start hiking by 6 am, but it all worked out and made it just in time. That night was little better as far as sleeping as we had learned a few tricks the night before.
We got up at 9 the next morning, packed back up our wet clothes and put on our wet shoes and went back out into the fog that still hadn't left. Our last 2 hours were through rainforest again and we finally made it back to the visitors center where we were getting picked up. I think Robert and Kelly were pretty relieved when we made it, and I guess I was too, but we really had a good time. Even though a little scary at one point, it was a fun adventure, we did wish the fog would have left so we could have seen lot more but it happens a lot in this area so we felt lucky with the one day of blue skies we had.
Darren picked us up right at noon and took us to the bus station, after a short little tour around the city. We were Darren's first group of customers as he had just started working for the shuttle company so he want to make our trip special. He told us if we were ever around again we should swing by his house down on the Maori tribal land and he would show us around. He was such a nice guy. We made it an hour early to the bus and were eager for a hot meal so we found the closest food place which was the mall food court. We looked a little strange looking like we had just come off a mountain with all of our gear and everything sitting in a mall food court but food court curry had never tasted so good! Finally it was time to board the bus, all three of us slept as we were exhausted. I gave up on my wet shoes and took the bus ride in my socks. I took the rest of the journey home in just socks, even when we had to walk to a new bus stop in Palmy, and walking back to my flat, the cool part is that isn't even weird. I made it home with the intention of writing the rest of my report worth half my grade that was due the next day but was just too exhausted. So I went to bed early and got up Friday morning and started writing. I wrote for 7 hours straight for my final report and turned it in at 4:50pm to my teacher right before he left. A fun fact I learn later...I got one of the highest scores in the class, so I guess it turn out ok :)
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The Start |
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Day 1 Robert and Jen |
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View from Henry's Peak |
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Kelly in the Rainforest |
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Swing Bridge |
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Team Heavy Duty Booty! |
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Snack Break! |
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Swamp in between us and the mountain |
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Taranaki |
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Kelly |
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Robert and Kelly |
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Holy Hut |
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Bells Falls |
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Look Erica! Bells is in NZ too! |
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The Fog |
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Last Day |
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The End!
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