11 December

After the weekend Sean and Kim both had Monday off so we all went out to the Manawatu Gorge and did a walk up through the bush to view the wind turbines up close. Was pretty impressive and not noisy at all.
They then dropped us at the Tiratea Walkway in Palmerston North and we back on the Trail. We walked up through the valley and camped at a lovely picnic reserve called the Kahuterawa Reserve and lo and behold met up with Paul who we had done kayak trip with at Ngunguru! He had been home for couple of weeks and was doing parts of the trail.
The next day we walked the Back Track and the Burttons Track at the start of the Tararuas. The weather was drizzle but not cold. The end of the track wasn't well marked and we ended up on the start of the next track Mangahao-Mangahika Track. We were pretty stuffed as had done about 28km with lots of streams and river crossings so set up camp in the bush. Overnight it absolutely teamed down for most of night so the next morning we tried waiting out the rain but it persisted heavy and constant so we made the decision to pull out and walk out on road to Shannon as the track we were on also had river crossings and we didn't want to get stuck in between two crossings.  It was a good call as the water coming from the hills was amazing and the streams beside the road were raging brown torrents.
We spent last night drying out in the pub in Shannon!
Today we are going to Levin and tomorrow back in to the Tararuas from there. The weather is better today.

7 December

From Whanganui we had some time out from the trail and went to Wellington to pick up Sean's car from the airport. He had flown to Christchurch and was driving back to Palmerston North with his girlfriend Kim so we took his car back to Palmerston North but went touring for a couple of days.
The first night we camped at this awesome campsite out of Wellington called Kaitoke Valley. It is a Regional Council campsite just before you go over the Rimatakas. We camped right by the river. It had flush toilets water kitchen shelters with free gas BBQ and cost us  $6 each for a night.
The next day Saturday we drove out round Lake Wairapa to Cape Palliser. Was a beautiful coastal drive with spectacular views. Neither of us had been there before and the drive was lovely.
Then we caught up with our friends Pam and Rex at Pams sister Audrey 's place in Carterton. They were there for the weekend for a family gathering so was great to see them. Heather their daughter from Timaru was also there so was great to see her too.
We then drove out to Castlepoint for the night as we both hadn't been there either. We camped at the pub at Whakataki. We had a great time there. Great pub great meal great friendly people. Met with Mary and Stacey who both worked there. Mary wasn't working and told us some of the history of the pub which was about 125 years old. We had a pretty windy night in our tent and had to put pegs back in overnight to stop tent falling down.
We drove right out to the beach and light house the next morning. Also is a spectacular coastline. Was very wild and windy the day we were there.
After that we drove some back country metal roads to Eketahuna then on to Palmerston North and had a look around the town.
Wayno had to drive back to Wellington to pick up Sean and Kim as Kim's car developed mechanical problems after coming off the ferry.  We stayed the night in Feilding at some friends of Sean and Kim's.

4 December

The next part of our journey is the Whanganui River part. Most people walk out to Whakahoro then canoe down the river to Pipiriki or all the way to Whanganui. We have canoed or kayaked most of the river before so as there was also a mountain bike option we decided to do that but took it a step further and did the trail called Mountain to Sea where we mountain biked from Turoa Ski Field to the west coast sea at Whanganui. We had a great time but long days on bikes. The first day 1st December (the first day of summer )we started while it was snowing cycled down to Ohakune then did the Old Coach Road cycled out to a  place called Rautiti stayed at a backpackers the night. 7 hours cycling! Our bottoms were objecting. Was about 65km. At least our feet got a rest lol.
The next day we cycled the Umapara Track to the Bridge To Nowhere and really enjoyed that track. It wasn't too technical and was really beautiful. Took us 5 hours and then we had to take a jet boat 32km to Pipiriki where we stayed at the camp ground there run by the jet boat operators Whanganui River Adventures. Great place and Josephine Ken and Thomas friendly helpful people.
The cycle shop we hired our bikes from in Ohakune called TCB got our gear and a trailer out to Pipiriki for us to carry on to Whanganui. Ben helped us with all the logistics of the trail. The next day we cycled the Whanganui River Road to Whanganui again another big day. We had planned to stay at a Doc campsite along the way but it was right next to the road so felt a bit vulnerable so decided to keep going to Whanganui. We stopped at an old historical flour mill met some  locals having lunch and got invited to share lunch with them which was lovely.  The last part of that day was 15km on high way 4 which was pretty busy. We stayed at backpackers in Whanganui for couple of nights at a place called Tamara Backpackers a really nice place.  The next day we had to finish our cycle to the sea part which was pretty shit as the trail along the river from town to sea just takes you through the industrial area of Whanganui.  We cycled back to town and went up in Durie Hill Elevator which is an elevator built in a hill.
We met up with Loic from France again and some Americans all on the Te Araroa Trail at the backpackers. It is nice catching up with others on the Trail and hearing their stories.

30 November

On Thursday 27 November we had been planning to walk part of Round mountain  track from Whakapapa to Ohakune but we were still feeling really tired so hitched round instead. We were relaxing in a bar waiting for Sean to pick us up and got chatting to a couple of blokes from Waiuku and Pukekohe! We spent the night with Sean in Waiouru and then had a wonderful time tramping in the Kaimanawas for 2 days. We did a track called Urchin Track over to Waipakihi Hut stayed there the night and came out on a different track. Was 1st December the first day of summer and we were at 1500m and got hail severe cold winds and even light snow. But it was a great tramp and would love to go there again.  After that we were going to do another part of round mountain track coming in off the Desert Road but the weather was still bad so we ended up going to the Army Museum in Waiouru. We found the museum well worth visiting and would recommend it to anyone. I m not usually into museums but spent 3 hours there and we still had to drag Wayno away! We are spending the night at YHA Ohakune then off on the Whanganui leg of our adventure.

27 November

Hi everyone long time again between blogs sorry. After Taumaranui we got a ride to Owhanga with Bill, a retired farmer from that area and he took us all around and showed us the history of the area. He took us down a long narrow rock lined road that glows with glow worms at night so much you can turn off your car lights and showed us the beautiful Whakapapa River. Then he dropped us at the start of the 42 Traverse which we walked backwards. It took us 2 days and about 50 km. Can't say I really enjoyed that walk. We were supposed to turn onto another track about 22km in but there was no marking and we missed it. It would have taken about 10 km off. We stayed at  Tongariro Holiday Park after that for one night and then did the Tongariro Crossing on the 26 November.  The day started off cold and wet so we waited for a while before setting off. We had to walk the 7 km to the start so had a big day 26km including the Crossing. The weather cleared and we had great views. We got over to southern end of the track pretty tired and too exhausted to walk extra 10 km to Whakapapa and got offered a ride from a lovely  French lady called Caroline. We spent the night at Campground at Whakapapa.
We are off to Ohakune tomorrow to meet up with Sean. He is taking us on a weekend tramping for a change. LOL.