Whanganui River Adventure

We booked a tour bus to take us the 35 KM or so to Pipiriki. Whanganui River Adventures is operated by a Maori family. We travelled in a jet boat 32 KM up the Whanganui river to “A bridge to nowhere”. The bridge was built in 1936 to join what was to be two roads that ended up not being built. We had a most interesting account of the history of the area from the driver Tom - the son of Tom senior who had driven the jet boat in 2014.

We encountered many canoeists. One group of 28 people doing it and the prime organiser had done this every year for about 42 years! The canoe trip takes about five days. All the canoes have to have waterproof containers as they often capsize. We witnessed a group of about four capsizes and our jet boat even helped to rescue one pair in which there was a somewhat frightened young girl.

Tongarioro Alpine Crossing

This hike in Tongariro National Park in the center of the north island is extremely popular. It is however fairly challenging - 19.4 KM and about 1000 meters climb. The weather was perfect - sunny and fortunately a cooling wind at the top. There are buses which drop one off and pick one up at the end of the trail. Our driver estimated that about 2000 people did it this day. On weekends they sometimes get up to 5000 people doing the crossing. Views were spectacular. Hugh and I did this and had to keep going. We felt reasonably fit after doing the Kepler tramp. Caroline sensibly decided her knees were not up to it.

Train to Ohakune

We were now retracing a trip that I did on my own in 2014 because I thought that Hugh and Caroline would enjoy it. Kiwi rail takes about eleven hours from Wellington the Auckland. We broke the journey for three days at Ahakune and stayed in the YHA there. The train winds its way through spectacular scenery and crosses several gorges where the train even slows to give passengers a view.

Wellington cable car

This cable car was built in 1902 and is worth a ride up - we then walked down through the botanical gardens. After this we saw the Parliament buildings (known as the beehive) and down on the waterfront did a quick tour of the Wellington Museum. A free museum funded by Wellington City Council. The maritime part was interesting particularly the account of the Wahine disaster in about 1957 when an inter island ferry foundered in a storm at the entrance to Wellington harbour.
We returned to the AirBnb then went back to the waterfront for dinner that evening.

Riding the cable car.

A panoramic view from the top of the cable car.

Wellington the Weta Workshop

Wellington became a famous film making city with the success of the films “Lord of the Rings” and “the Hobbit”. Peter Jackson was the film maker. In 2014 we had visited the museum in Blenheim where he had created an Air Museum focussing on the WWI planes some of which are still flown. The Weta Workshop is now a regular tourist destination where you can see how many of the models have been made over the years. Initially the models were moved mechanically. Then they were created and digitised. Nowadays most film making uses digitally developed models and there is a separate company called Weta Digital that contributes to many block buster movies.

Wellington Te Papa museum

This museum was our first stop and had been recommended by friends. There is a spectacular Gallipoli exhibit with twice life size models of soldiers and particularly the story of the landing on the Anzac beaches in Turkey. Young New Zealanders were killed at a higher per capita rate than any other country in WWI. We had visited the Anzac beaches about ten years ago with some young Australians on a tour out of Istanbul.

Upstairs in the Te Papa museum was another great exhibit of the history of the Maori people in New Zealand and also their involvement in both WWI and WWII.

There was another exhibit showing the migration of the Pacific Islanders to New Zealand and a third exhibit that I visited showing how New Zealand had taken in refugees from many countries over the years.

That first evening we made supper at the AirBnb and enjoyed sitting out by the pool with the temp about 26C.

Views of Wellington Harbor from the Te Papa museum.

On to Wellington

Michael and George took the bus down to Invercargill. Hugh and I to Queenstown airport from where we flew to Wellington and met up with Caroline who had just flown in from Vancouver. We had booked into a very comfortable AirBnb hosted by Sharron. Two bedrooms, a wonderful backyard pool, extremely well equipped apartment on a hillside with views of Wellington Harbour. The first evening we hiked to what was meant to be the nearest restaurant which took us 45 mins through very nice parkland. After this we decided to either go to town by taxi or Uber.

Leaving the YHA in Te Anau.

 Our very comfortable AirBnb in Wellington

Day four Kepler track

The track was relatively flat and we covered about 18 KM back to the hostel. The track crossed wetland area then we came to the Rainbow Reach bridge when some hikers cross to pick up a bus to Te Anau. From there we hiked along the river (which was flowing fast due to the control gates being open). The control gates are the official end to the track but we still had to hike back to the hostel. We treated ourselves to a great dinner that evening - I had venison!

The end of the trail! 

 Our legs would have benefitted from visiting this clinic!

Day three Kepler track

It was 16.2 KM from the Iris Burn Hut to the Moturau Hut. It is described as a steady tramp through beach forest and a gorge, generally following the Iris Burn. Nearing Lake Manapouri the track turns left through lowland beech and podocarp forest. We then followed the lakeshore to the Motorau Hut, situated beside a beautiful beach with panoramic views of Lake Manapouri. All four of us enjoyed a cleansing dip in the lake where the water was moderately warm. That evening the Phil the Ranger gave a fascinating talk on what turned out to be a major success story of the New Zealand environmental movement that resulted in the level of Lake Manapouri remaining the same rather than being raised 30 meters to create more electricity to power the Aluminium smelter at Invercargill.

Day two Kepler track

Unfortunately the weather turned and this was a day of clouds, rain and not too many photos. However the alpine scenery in fog and rain was spectacular. For me this day was the one when my legs turned to rubber or jelly and the last couple of hours when I had to stop every twenty minutes or so to let the legs recover. It would have been nice to do this part of the tramp in fine weather for the remarkable views of the terrain (which we caught many glimpses of ). We hiked 14.6 KM to the Iris Burn Hut. The Luxmore summit (1472 Meters) was in cloud so we did not attempt it.

The Luxmore Hut and Luxmore Cave

Each of the huts have a DOC (Department of Conservation) ranger. Pat was at the Luxmore hut and gave a guided walk on the many different types of grasses as well as the Stoat/Possum control programs. The next morning we visited the Luxmore Cave with its Stalagtites and Stalagmites (only a 10 min walk from the hut. The Kia bird is a parrot like bird that has a reputation for stealing food and even peoples boots.