Te Araroa Trail (the long path)

The hi-vis vests were useful on the road sections

Auckland Airport to Te Kuiti  

Te Araroa officially opened a couple of years ago.  It is a walking trail of 3000 km from Cape Reinga, at the northern tip of the North Island, to Bluff, in the south of the South Island.  We walked the first 600 km, from Cape Reinga to Auckland, before the official opening, so this time, walking from Auckland to Te Kuiti, we found the route a little better marked, and slightly better known.  We left Auckland on 5 March, and arrived in Te Kuiti on 17 March, having spent a day with friends in Huntly, and a day and a half in Waitomo sitting out the rain associated with a tropical cyclone.

Hinua Falls

Repeater Shelter, Hinua Ranges

Repeater campground toilet dwarfed by kauri tree

Sunset at Repeater camp

The terrain is varied: the route follows walkways, tramping tracks, footpaths, stop banks and road margins.  Consistently it takes in the high points along the way, so a light pack is desirable to make the ups and downs a little easier. For this section through the Waikato we carried 5 days of dried food for when we needed to camp away from facilities.  However, the wilder sections were relatively short, so we spent a number of nights in or near small towns where we could buy real food.

Tree ferns, Hinua Ranges

Misty morning in Hinua Regional Park

Stream in Hinua Regional Park

I was only able to carry my pocket camera, the Olympus XZ1, and without the separate viewfinder that I accidentally left in the USA last year, I found it difficult to frame good images in bright light.  I carried the camera on the belt of my pack, but even so, I found it more of a chore to take photographs on this kind of trip, so I don’t have such a good set of images as I would like.  As usual, my favourites are generally those that I took either at the beginning or the end of the day when the light was best.  It also helped that I had shed my pack by then.  As my blog is about nature photography, I’ve mainly selected photographs of natural subjects.

Waikato River at Rangiriri, where we stayed the night in the pub

Bindweed flower on a damp morning

Sunrise from our camp, below Mt Pirongia

New Zealand Nature

Valley mist, from Amuri skifield

I am posting some images from nearer home this week.  Ten days ago, I went with a group of Nature Photography Society of New Zealand members to the Amuri ski field lodge, near Hanmer Springs, for a weekend of photography.  The conditions were excellent for sunrise shots on both Saturday and Sunday mornings; nor’west winds brought broken high cloud and great colour.

Sunrise from Amuri skifield

Sunrise from Amuri skifield

On Saturday, after shooting the sunrise from a ridge just by the lodge, we walked to the summit of Mt St Patrick.  The views and the alpine flowers were superb.  In the wind, mat plants (vegetable sheep as they are known locally) were the most suitable photographic subjects.

Haastia 

Raoulia and Haastia

I woke before dawn on Sunday morning to a dull, red glow outside the window.  So in spite of the strong wind that had battered the lodge all night, keeping most of us awake for much of the time, I got up to head outside.  My intention had been to grab a few quick shots and retreat indoors again, but the light was too good to ignore, so with camera on tripod I returned to the ridge where I had been the day before.  Fortunately I knew the way this time, so it wasn’t hard to negotiate the route in the half-dark.  The clouds were moving fast, and this was the last shot I took before the sun rose above the horizon.  At 1/20 sec exposure, those little red clouds must be moving in the frame, but fortunately it isn’t obvious.  The articulated screen on my camera was blowing in the wind, so I had to lock it down and almost lie on the ground to see what was happening.  The camera was low to the ground, and rock solid on the tripod, so the image is sharp.

Second sunrise from Amuri skifield

As the wind continued to strengthen, we decided after breakfast to clear up and head straight down the road.  It was calmer in the valley, although still windy.  We stopped to explore an old woodshed.  Also, at the beginning of the St James cycle way, we found an incredible field of gentians, in perfect condition.  Of course they were blowing violently in the wind, and I’m looking forward to seeing images from one of our members who, living locally, intended to return the next morning.

Changing weather, looking down to the Clarence River