Tag: Ruapehu

Walking?

On a sunny day there’s nothing better than putting on hiking boots, grabbing a pack and a picnic, and heading out for a walk. Walking: putting one foot in front of the other, sometimes going uphill, sometimes downhill; the path may be smooth or maybe a little rough, meaning you have to tread carefully to […]

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Although we’re rarely sitting-on-our-arses-doing-nothing types, we’re not always up for a long walk at this time of the year. We might do a quick blat around the block or a shorter walk up the mountain, but if the weather isn’t particularly good we’re just as likely to look out of the window and think, nah, […]

Tree Trunk Gorge

About an hour’s drive northeast of Ohakune, deep in the Kaimanawa Forest, the Tree Trunk Gorge track leads off a narrow road and into the bush. It follows the line of an old road associated with the Tongariro Power Scheme and is mostly wide and straightforward, albeit shared use with mountain bikes. Neil rode it […]

To Joe’s Hut

Having talked about Joe Blyth’s track, it would be remiss of me not to mention the other local place named after him, Blyth Hut*, especially as it’s one of my favourite places on the mountain. I suspect that at one time the Old Blyth track was the main route to the hut but it’s now […]

The Lockdown Files

A couple of fellow writers recently shared that they ‘loved’ lockdown, plenty of time to write and no need to go out and interact with other humans. They are clearly much more motivated individuals than I am, my lockdown life being seriously unproductive in terms of writing anything of value (not that I’m sure I […]

Tama Lakes

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 […]

New Zealand’s Mountain Town

Ohakune: with a permanent population of 1100 it would be a village in most parts of the world; in NZ it’s a small town. It’s typical of most in this country, the main street on a state highway and smaller streets of homes running off it. There are a few shops, servicing the homes within […]