Crisscrossifposs

 It wouldn't be a long walk without a moa, they do pop up in the oddest places. And that shop across the road was where I paid only $19.99 for a cable to link my powerbank to my phone, on Christmas Eve. I'm embarrassed to admit I never thought of checking when I bought the new phone a couple of months ago, and I was in Kaingaroa Forest when I discovered the mismatch. Thanks goodness for battery saver mode and for my brother in law, who lent me a cable in the meantime. I spent Christmas and Boxing days cowering from the heat (29 deg) and solving crosswords and walking the streets of Taumarunui. In the doing I found a fly store. Note to self, check that website. Yesterday, early, I left town. By rail cart. It's a petrol powered golf cart with plastic wheels and a top speed of 20km/hr.  I shared with Opal, one of the rail company workers (she has 5 daughters and 12 grandchildren and is in her forties).  Notice the rails aren't quite parallel? This line from Stratford to Ok...

  Four days ago I walked away from my sister's on Kakaho Road, a long gravelled forestry road into Pureora. When I stopped to enjoy my oat bar breakfast on a convenient boulder I discovered a colony of the native onion orchid, Microtis aff unifilia. It never fails to thrill, finding orchids. But something even more exciting was ahead. I can't tell whether this green gecko is Naultinus elegans or N. punctata. Quite long, so maybe the latter. This is the first time I've ever seen one and Pureora Forest isn't where I'd hope to have this encounter. It was about the best reward I could hope for. Eventually I found my way off Kakaho Road onto the Timber Trail and I'd walked about 34km when I settled on a spot to camp, off the track and uphill just past the 14km marker post. I lay there and read Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford", a gift from Wellington friends that I had the wit to put in the food box I'd sent to my sister. Really lovely novel, everyone ...

  A pair of Californian quail woke me, so I broke camp as the sun arrived. After a few kilometers I was on SH1, where there was a super wide verge and I felt many times safer than on SH2 last week. Maybe 2km later I turned in to Atiamuri village which has awesome trees like this conifer. Yesterday's volcanic plug, actually Pohaturoa Maunga, emerged from the river mist. There is archaeological evidence of 30 whare (dwellings) on the summit, all I can think is water, who had to carry it all up there? My own water situation suddenly improved when I reached the shelter at the start of the Waikato River Trail. Potable water, under pressure! All three bottles rinsed and refilled.  The trail goes for quite a long way under trees, thankfully. I stopped for breakfast near the Tram Road bridge. Somewhere further on there was a very mysterious diurnal owl and huge hayfields. Back on the river I could hear a coach nagging (training) a rower. From here on, it was pretty hard work. Very hot...

  Milking was underway when I left the farm to wind my way for 30km on backcountry roads hoping to reach Ohakuri Dam.  Road cuttings let me read the volcanic history, in layers of pumice, scoria and something very metallic about 60% up from the bottom of the photo. Politics popped up in an ugly way - to invoke hijacking and murder as a way to change our prime minister and government is dreadful and I've seen nothing like it before. So it's clearly only a superficially beautiful valley.  One branch of Lake Ohakuri had the most scintillating algal bloom, and some roads offered a bit of shade. I knew I was making progress when I saw the volcanic plug near Atiamuri  and it was wonderful to reach the dam. I'm under a shady tree to the right of the water spouting out of the turbine race. And I found cellphone coverage! Just, no water except for a puddle. I'll go see what I can get out of it next.

 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 broth...

  From Awatere Hot Springs I turned south in the early morning and kept Mt Edgecumbe (Putauki) on my right shoulder until it was hidden by avocado orchards, kiwifruit orchards and blueberry farms.  At a crossroads, 1 tonne bags of 45.9% nitrogen were being spread on maize, something I thought had stopped. Roadside weeds were looking gorgeous, I think this is a mallow. I walked alongside the Rangitaiki River until I reached Matahine Dam and thought of China. A few kilometers later, I entered Kaingaroa Forest.  It's redolent of tragedy - I read Ruth Park's autobiography in which she described the 1930s work camps where jobless men like her father planted trees and suffered cold and despair and suicide. But it was a nice day for me. I had this huge route to myself and walked until I just couldn't manage another step. Since it is pumice, there are no creeks and I supplemented my water from the only puddle I passed. It was clear. I simply boiled it first. By then I'd found a...