Dubai and Home

So after leaving Ohakune and NZ we flew to Dubai for a weeks holiday. It has changed a lot since I was last there in 2005 and Robyn had never been so we were both pretty excited. We arrived early in the morning and dropped out stuff off at Golden Sands and got stuck in straight away. Over the next few days we visited lots of big shiny malls, including Mall of The Emirates and Dubai Mall, the latter containing a huge aquarium. The malls were all very cool but unfortunately we didnt have enough pennies to buy much there. We did however visit Dunkin Donuts quiet regularly... Aside from the malls we visited lots of souks (markets), places like the gold souk, spice souk, and lots of traditional old souks. Seeing as the prices are all negotiable we spent a bit more money here than the malls, and Robyn ended up probably paying rent for one trader for a month with millions of scarves. We managed to get around pretty cheaply, catching the metro around during the day and walking at night, and buying food from the markets instead of in restaurants. Robyn was quite partial to a shwarma. We had a trip up the world's tallest building, The Burj Khalifa. The lift did 124 floors in about ten-twenty seconds, and the views from the top were spectacular. On one morning we had a guided tour of Jumeriah Mosque which was very interesting, and the only mosque in the Emirates where non-muslims can enter. It was a busy week, trying to fit in a cut-throat razor shave, visting Dubai Museum, riding an Abra, shopping, swimming in the rooftop pool with views of the Burj Khalifa and Burj Al Arab and visiting Dubai Marina! We had an over night flight back home and were met at Leeds train station by all of our parents which was a lovely surprise, and had a nice breakfast out. Since we've been back we've been trying to get around to catching up with lots of people, and are very nearly through a Cambridge CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults), with a view to finding more work overseas, hopefully as soon as we can. It does seem strange being home after two years away but is really nice to see everyone! http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.182368565214755.39407.100003248394000&type=3&l=7c4b322b2d

Leaving Ohakune

We have now left Ohakune. After saying tearful goodbyes to friends and a last meal out we boarded the Overlander train and we were on our way to Auckland. Very sad to leave but excited for what’s next. The train takes 6hours, although it’s not that far to Auckland, but the train is lovely and travels through some fantastic scenery.
We arrived in Auckland Friday night where we were picked up by our friend Tracy. After a quick stop for some fast food at Mission Bay we headed to her house in Omaha Beach, around 1 hour North of Auckland. Saturday morning we went for a walk on the beach, which was 200m from the house and to get there we walked past John Key’s house– NZ Prime Minister! He wasn’t in though…
After breakfast we headed out on Ian’s boat for a couple of hours and he took us fishing. First time James and I have ever fished but it was brilliant. James dropped his line and had to pull it out immediately because he had already caught a fish, and that set the tone for the day. I caught 7 fish! But only 1 was a keeper, the rest were too small. James caught 2 keepers and Tracy caught the biggest of the day. They were all snapper except for one Kingfish that Ian caught, but it was too small to keep, even though it was much bigger than the snapper. The sun was out and it was so nice sat on the boat. We then took the boat to a nearby island and looked at Mansion House, walked around the nice gardens and jumped off the jetty into the sea. James and I spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach swimming in the sea, on holiday!
Sunday morning we went to the Matakana markets, which were really good. Although not many arts and craft stalls there were plenty of food stalls where we had steamed pork buns, coffee, smoothies and a few samples! Then we went snorkelling at Goat Island, which is a marine reserve. Although not as sunny, we had wetsuits on so spent a while looking for fish. We saw plenty of snapper (but you can’t catch them) and zebra fish, it was really pretty and once James got the hang of using a snorkel he was fine too! Sunday afternoon the sun came out so we went back to the beach and took the body boards and played in the waves.
Monday morning we packed up to leave Omaha but stopped for a Gelato first on our way, peanut butter choc chip and Ferrero Rocher flavour, and then headed to a rifle range. We each had 40 rounds with an air rifle shooting at moving animal targets. I shot 2 big fat pigs and that was it, I was pretty rubbish. James was great and scored lots of points; clearly his hunting has paid off! We also went to a baseball batting cage which was brilliant; I was much better than expected and surprised everyone by hitting the majority of the balls. James was great too, but that was expected. Then Tracy dropped us off in Auckland where we are spending 3 nights before flying out of New Zealand to Dubai and then home.

Last leg of our Whanganui Journey

Yesterday we paddled a 35km section of the Whanganui river, the only section of the 145km of navigable water we have never done. The river journey is one New Zealand's 'Great Walks', meaning we have now done two, the other being the Tongariro Crossing last month.
Our day started at a DoC (Department of Conservation) campsite called Ohinepane, about 22km into the river journey, around 15mins drive from the town of Taumarunui. We loaded our big purple canoe (which Robyn named Gertrude, Trudy for short) up with a couple of barrels and dry bags and set off round the corner straight into a rapid. With an audience watching from the campsite we were both pleased we sailed down it with no problems. After leaving the watching crowds behind we hardly saw anyone else until our end point at Whakahoro a few hours down the river.
The first couple of hours had a few small bouncy rapids and a few longer flat sections, and with the sun out made for a very pleasant paddle. We rounded the corner to Poukaria campsite and made our approach to the rapid of the same name only to see a couple of other canoeists fishing their paddles and gear out of the trees. This gave us a very clear marker of where not to go....
Morning tea was at the campsite with a nice hot coffee out of a flask and a couple of hard boiled eggs. We had a little nosey around and then hopped back in Trudy for another 17km, our next campsite stop being at Maharanui. Along the way we had another few rapids to negotiate, most with a very clear line down them which makes it nice and easy. Before Maharanui we had a stop at Maraekowhai to see the Niu poles, two of only three left on the river. One is for war and one for peace. The war pole, Rongo Niu, was erected by local Maori to try and repel the Pakeha (white man) around 1860. The peace pole was then erected after the settlers war to try and dampen the influence of the war pole.
From Maraekowhai we had about another hour to Maharanui, in which time the heavens opened and we were on the receiving end of a couple of heavy thundery showers, not that much fun while canoeing really. As Murphys Law would state, as we pulled up at the campsite for another drink and bite to eat the rain stopped and the sun came back out, highly frustrating. Maharanui was like lots of other DoC campsites and we didn't really stay long before heading off to tackle the last 4 or so km down to Whakahoro, the starting point for a three day river journey, and last road access for 87km.
To reach our destination we had to paddle around 400m up the Retaruke river, a very dirty tributary of the Whanganui, responsible in part for the Whanganui's very unique colour.... As we started our paddle up the Retaruke we passed Lacy's Landing, one of the best preserved paddle steamer landings on the river, and further up the site of the old house boat mooring, where the house boat which ran from Whanganui to Taumarunui stopped overnight from 1928 to 1934 when it was destroyed by fire. We powered up to the boat ramp and emptied out our gear, then stashed Trudy in the bushes, ready for a big hire group later in the week.
Our overnight stay was in the Whakahoro bunkroom, formerly the school house for the lower Retaruke valley. Original intake in the 1940's was eleven students, and it then closed in the 1960's at which time DoC took it over and converted it into backcountry accommodation. An interesting place to stay, we learned this morning that it is due for an upgrade, repostioning in the campsite, and listing as a heritage hut. Good job we stayed while it is still cheap! A nice bottle of wine and some pre-cooked food did the job as the facilities are pretty basic, long drop toilets included.
We had arranged to catch a ride back to HQ with another canoe operator, who turned up 90mins late, meaning we had lots of time to soak up the scenery this morning while enjoying a coffee courtesy of Blue Duck cafe.

Kayaking the Rangitikei

So this week we said bye to Graham aka G-Force Vaughan, one of the guides we have hung out lots with this season. He's flown back to Canada for a few days before heading off to his next job, sea kayak guiding in Chile...what a life.
We had a spare afternoon this week so another one of the guides, Raymi, and I chucked a couple of whitewater kayaks in the van and headed off down SH1 towards Taihape to paddle the Rangitikei river on my first proper kayaking mission since learning a few skills in the local lake.
We dropped our shuttle vehicle, Raymi's car, off and stashed the kayaks at the start, before dropping the work van at the finish, which would hopefully be waiting for us at the end of our paddle.
The section we did was around 11KM, and was a mix of flatter sections of water mixed with grade 2 rapids. The rapids and scenery are very different from that on the Whanganui, with high rock cliffs flanking the river, the water being a lot clearer and also filled with more rocks.
We suited up about a kilometre off the main highway and got dressed up with all the usual gear; lifejacket, helmet, sprayskirt and enough safety gear to refloat the Rena (look it up).
The first few rapids were reasonably easy with long-ish wave trains and easy to avoid rocks although we both seemed to have a sore bum after one particular trap. The view from a kayak is pretty different to when sitting off the water in the saftey of a canoe, and we both took a few splashes to the face along the way from the waves. As we progressed down the river the rapids became a little more technical, and we had to enter and stear away from some rather large rocks, while the current was heading straight into a wall, so a little more interesting than just riding waves out.
I did have a little swim about two thirds of the way down, trying to avoid some meaty waves I caught an eddyline and ended up flipping myself over. Instead of waiting for Raymi to come and flip me over my skirt decided to pop off, meaning I was now having a full on swim, good job the weather wasn't too bad.
We finished near the Mangaweka campground and practiced some manouvres along the way such as ferry glides, getting into and out of eddys, and seal launches which were all good. Our return journey back to Ohakune took about an hour, after a stop for a well earned long black and meat pie!

January

Happy 2012! We started the New Year with a party at a friend’s house and then moved onto a bar in Ohakune for the countdown. Since then things have been steady away at work but are a bit quieter now it’s the end of the school summer holidays here.
A couple of weeks ago we did the Tongariro Crossing, it’s a 19.4km walk that claims to be the best 1 day walk in the country. It was pretty popular and although we were on the bus at 5.50am and walking at 7.30am there were plenty of people there already. The walk starts at Mangatepopo hut, with the 1st hour of the walk to Soda Springs being pretty easy and only slightly uphill. We stopped at Soda Springs for a snack and a drink before tackling the Devils Steps. The Devils Steps are a man-made staircase that takes you in-between Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngarahoe (aka Mt Doom LOTR) and we were told by our bus driver that the steps would take 2 hours to climb. Initially quite worried as 2 hours is a very long time to be walking up steps, but thankfully it only took 35mins. Clearly the bus driver is very unfit. From here you walk through the South Crater which is thankfully very flat! As we were walking through James looked around and said ‘this must be what the moon looks like!’ Made us laugh for ages! From here it’s a steep but short climb to the top of the Red Crater where the land surrounding it is red due to the mineral content. There were still a few pockets of snow dotted around, but as this is the highest point and 1900m above sea level that’s not surprising! The rest of the walk from here was all downhill. First it was down the Emerald Lakes, which are beautiful and then further on is the Blue Lake, equally as lovely. From the blue lake you walk to the Ketatahi hut, where we stopped and had lunch. After the hut the walk is quite long and there is not much to see, some people suggest turning around and walking back at the Blue Lake, but then you couldn’t say you had done the Crossing! We finished earlier than anticipated and couldn’t get a bus back to Ohakune at the time; however there was a bus willing to drop us off at the pub so we could have a drink while we waited – even better!
Only 7 weeks now and we will be flying out of NZ and heading to Dubai for a week before coming home! Looking forward to seeing everyone, it’s been too long!