Kaingaroa Forest to Waikiti Valley


 This morning was more forestry roads and keeping a look out for a useful puddle to resupply.

After about 15 km I came to a compulsory stop sign at the same time as a truck. It stopped. The driver climbed out to ask if I was all right, if I knew where I was. With that sorted, he said he'd keep an eye open for me on his return from collecting sawdust at the mill at Kawerau.


The forest ended suddenly about 15km later and I found myself on a high plateau looking across pasture to Mt Tarawera.

Which is where my new best friend Mike found me.


This is a Scania with 37 tonnes of sawdust to be turned into pellets for fires. The rig is about a year old and fully loaded like this came off the scale at 58 tonnes. Mike earned 5 demerit points from the onboard fuel economy computer  for slowing too quickly to pick me up. I have never travelled in a modern truck - it even has airbag stabilisers to correct for the road camber!

I hopped out at Waiotapu and walked another 12km towards my brother's farm at Waikiti Valley.


The valley has arms of ignibrite from old volcanic flows and there are geothermal vents steaming in a spooky fashion.

 It seemed to take ages to reach my destination but magine if you can, an outdoor hot tub soak followed by real dinner and now an actual bed.  I did walk 33km today, it wasn't all trucking porn.

Popular posts from this blog

Puniho Road to Cape Egmont

Image
  Using a plantain stem on my AA roadmap I was able to estimate the remaining distance to Cape Egmont as 24km. So at 0545hrs I set off to do 6 hours of walking, downhill all the way. Puniho Road goes like this for miles. This country hall hosted a dance party for dairy farmers in May, when the cows have "dried off". A solitary pohutukawa and its best friend the power pole were upstanding in their field, and I knew I was approaching Parihaka when I saw the pennants flying. Not to be disrespectful, but why does the upper flag have Spades Hearts Clubs and Diamonds and two crossed keys? No way is this the Vatican bridge club. No way could I find out. One of NZs taonga, a monument to peaceful protest, was closed. As usual, keep walking. Still downhill, day warming up. Another puzzle on the corner of Cape Road. It's a Memorial to war dead from the district with an empty lot behind it. Probably a Domain, and a great candidate for a camping area. Just saying. Cape Road led me, fi...
Read more

Te Wera to Stratford

Image
  It was always going to be a long day, so I was out there on SH43 at 0530hrs this morning to crunch the remaining 35km to Stratford. Empty road, nice and cool and comfortingly domestic like this weedy bank. I climbed Strathmore Saddle and admired a house dating back to the earliest road. In turn I was admired by a handsome South American. At one stage I could see the road stretch for miles ahead (left to right in the background of this photo). So, I didn't look. Around midday I saw rooftops ahead and realised Toko might be an actual place, not like Strathmore or Douglas were behind me. Towns gutted by time and better roads. I fantasied about a corner store, a happy half hour wondering if there would be a bacon and egg pie or even an apple. I passed a village hall, a fire station, a derelict garage, Aitkens Transport, and on a corner the " Junction cafe bar". New, Cape Cod chairs on a verandah, exciting, closed. Rats. So I sat on their front steps and made my own lunch, w...
Read more

Reading matters

Image
Here is the 134g solution to the most vexing problem of what to read en route. Unless I change my mind.  I can't be trusted with any novel I can read quickly because that's what I'd do. And find myself with four or five more days before resupply  - the thought of sitting out bad weather or lying awake in the tent without a book is much scarier than my next worst fear. An e-reader would need charging and my powerbank will be strictly rationed for keeping the phone alive (photos). Plus, it might get wet, most stuff does. So, hard copy. When I walked to Bluff I read Proust, having cut the bible-sized epic into smaller sections that I walked towards by including them in the food boxes I'd posted ahead. And shortly after I returned, Radio 4 broadcast a dramatised new translation over three intense days and nights. Never-to-be-forgotten literary experiences, first in my tent and then camping on the sitting room floor so as to listen all night. This time, nothing so enriching ...
Read more