By NZ standards, the Tama Lakes walk, around the Whakapapa side of Mt Ruapehu, isn’t difficult. Until the first, or lower, lake the track is mostly wide and hard-packed gravel, some rocky parts and a couple of wet areas where water has adopted the path as its own (a common occurrence anywhere water runs down […]
Tag: Hiking
I Walked Waiheke
In the country of my birth it’s easy to find a path into the outdoors. No matter what the terrain alongside the road, before long there will be a gate, or an opening in a wall, maybe a stile over a fence, an accompanying sign pointing away from tarmac and bearing the words Public Footpath. […]
Waitonga Falls – Revisited
I miss snow. Growing up in Stocksbridge, Yorkshire, there were few winters we didn’t get a couple of good dumps and snowy streets were a regular sight. It was normal that cars would sit unused for part of the season, a thick layer of white frozen onto them. One year it was over three feet […]
On The Mountain: Waitonga Falls
I love walking in the open where I can see for miles. Despite the incredible vistas to be found here there’s not a lot of this type of walking in New Zealand, where the natural state of the landscape is mainly bush or lowland forest. There are, of course, some exceptions, but to get above […]
Wet, Wet, Wet
A return to last year and our return to Sheffield (via Northumberland) in November 2019. Northumberland is one of my favourite places: open countryside for miles, historic towns – Alnwick, a charming old market town, grey-stoned, with its huge castle dominating – and a wild coast that varies between wide sandy beaches and rocky outcrops. […]
Great Britain: Part Five – The Frozen North
Circumstances have stymied my blog posting in recent weeks, including lack of access to decent internet that would allow upload. I’m still playing catch up from our travels last year and, given the current situation with the covid-19 pandemic, expect to have plenty of time in the next few weeks to do so. As we […]
Great Britain: Part Four – Grabbed by the Trossachs
October 2019 I’m a big sky girl and Scotland is a big sky country. So I’m a little disappointed when the clouds close in and truncate the view, flatten the tops of hills, hide beauty that I know is there. We turn to the Queen Elizabeth forest (clearly not Scottish Nationalist territory) surrounding Aberfoyle, walking […]
Great Britain: Part Three – Lakes and Hills.
October 2019 There’s a stark beauty to Bowness. Here the houses aren’t the warm hues that make other parts of the country picturesque, rather they are shades of grey. The stones here are harder so even though they seem to be haphazardly piled on top of each other, random shapes and patterns, they are straight-edged […]
Great Britain: Part Two – Into the Dales.
October 2019 The sky hangs low, cutting off the hilltops, and rain splatters the windscreen. In this light the grass is vividly green, snakes of pale wall dividing fields into random shapes and sizes. It is a sight unique to this country and typical of this county: Yorkshire. God’s own county. (Kiwis please note the […]
In The Julian Alps
We get to the Vogel gondola by 8.30am but still it’s busy, the car park crowded. A young woman by me complains at her inability to get near the window to get a good picture. I’m quite glad I can’t see out. As the cable rolls over the top of a tower, the car sways, […]
Tracy Annenberg 