Kahurangi

I stayed 3 weeks with my dutch family enjoying some beautiful experiences with them, including a beautiful wedding held in a field which was made up by the couple, and a nature skills day looking at bird calls and animal movement, its great fun trying to walk like a dog, or a crocodile, try it - especially running like a dog! Although give yourself plenty of room...
As one of my tasks I got to make a hurdle (a woven fence) out of sweet chestnut as a goat barrier, which i loved doing, and to cut down 130 sweet chestnut trees with a saw. Although I got to be with the children a lot, which is always revitalising. Unfortunately my time there ended when the father (Rob) had to fly out to Holland unexpectedly to attend his ill father. So the family needed space.
So again i moved on to an acquaintance in the area, a German family, who were further up the valley - closer to the Kahurangi National Park - which i was planning to do a 3 day trek in.

The plans worked out perfectly and the following day I was able to get a lift to an entrance to the 452,002 hectare park (1,745 square miles - bigger than Cornwall). It is mountainous (in the Mt Arthur Range) with peaks coming out of the bush line up to 1800m, but the majority of the park is ancient beach forests. My 3 day walk started by climbing up Mt Arthur - 1800m - where I had lunch in the most perfect conditions, warm, sunny, no wind, perfectly clear, I could see for about 80miles in every direction, including Mt Taranaki poking out of a cloud 300 or so km away on the North Island! My day finished at a Department of Conservation (DOC) hut and I was just boiling some water when 3 Americans my age passed going back the way I had come to a different hut, and I was invited to join them as I was stuck with a bunch of old folk for the evening otherwise! So I walked back the way i had come for 2 hours to spend a really fun evening with them in a DOC shelter, well worth it (not that i really wanted to avoid the old people or anything!) They were actually really lovely people, I shan't slag them off.
The following day I popped up another mountain for luncheon at 1650m consisting of Peanut Butter and crackers and down along a ridge to the valley, and the beautiful clear cold river, which I couldn't resist a swim in. And trudged barefoot the last 20 minutes to the most amazing shelter Ever!

Which I will tell you about in my next post as I really need to go now :(

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