Mount Hector Tramp

The object of this tramp was to climb Mount Hector (1529m) in the Tararua’s starting from Otaki Forks. We never quite made it all the way to the top as the weather started to deteriorate necessitating a tactical retreat. Here are the pictures anyway…

Fishing at Forest Park Lakes

There is very little coarse fishing in NZ and even less in the Wellington region. Forest Park Lakes is a lovely place to fish even it does entail an 80km drive. The venue is very pretty and isolated and the sort of place where you are unlikely to meet anyone else, which is just the way I like it. It was well worth the trip as I caught a very nice bag of Tench.

Xmas Camping Trip

This year we stuck the tent in the car and headed up the West coast of the North Island and just made it up as we went along. In the end we camped in the New Plymouth, Waitomo and Raglan areas.

This one was taken somewhere near Waitomo.

We walked through Waitomo Caves to check out the rock formations and glow worms. This is the entrance to the cave.

Rock formations - I took a few pictures of the glow worms, which alas did not come out.

The cave entrance from inside the cave.

Bridal Veil Falls - this were close to where we camped in the Raglan region.

I took some time out from camping and lattes and climbed Mt Karioi, which is situated just outside Raglan.

Taken from the top of Mt Karioi.

Northland Trip

After taking 9 years to get around to visiting the Far North this is the second time I have been there this year. The main aim of the trip was to visit my friend May and her family in Auckland, which we duly did. Neena and I then hired a car and headed up to Northland to have a look around.

Cape Reinga. This is where the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea meet.

Cape Reinga.

Cape Reinga - looking West.

Cape Reinga.

Rangitoto Island - lava tube.

Rangitoto Island - looking towards the summit.

I took a boat trip to the volcanic Rangitoto Island which is located a few miles offshore from Auckland.