Hauraki Rail Trail

Queen's Birthday weekend 2014 saw us needing a trip away. Hawaii called, Sydney loomed near, however the Bay of Plenty won. The Hauraki Rail Trail between Paeroa and Waihi became the challenge.
We picked up our rental bikes in Paeroa and set off through the local dairy farms on a dedicated cycle trail.

The trail followed farm tracks through the outskirts of the pretty town of Paeroa.

We rode to the Karangahake Gorge. Here the 100 year old rail line (now only occupied by cyclists and walkers) went through a 1km bricked tunnel.

Overhead lights kept us safe

Lots of riders and walkers congregated at the entrance/exit of the tunnel as it then met a bridge over the Ohinemuri River.
The cycle trail followed the old rail line down the river edge.

We stopped at the historic Victoria battery which was one of the many sites on the river that a century ago were industrial plants processing ore to produce gold. The batterys smashed the rocks, to gravel and eventually fine powder before processing using huge towers of pottasiun cyanide and mercury to extract the gold (not so many greenies then ...)

We stopped in the 'rocket park' in Waihi to eat our sandwiches and rest our nethers.

After lunch we set back on the return 24km to Paeroa.

The ride back seemed quicker and easier (we think it was somewhat more downhill), however the views were just as stunning.

Headlights on and back through the rail tunnel at Karangahake.

Finally back to Paeroa after a 50km round trip.,

We stopped at Karangahake gorge on the way home for a walk around the DOC trails. This area was and industrial centre for the Talisman, Victoria and Crown batteries.

The 'Windows walk' talk us over a suspension bridge ad up to the ruins of the Talisman battery. Beyond that we went into tunnels carved into the cliffs with 'windows' back out into the gorge. In one gold mine tunnel we met some part-time miners chiselling quartz and who gave us some pieces containing gold.

An old tramline led us in and out of tunnels.

The walks around the old mine sites and the river were stunning.

The scenery here was very different that from 100 years ago

Some of us took different ways of getting round.

The Hauraki Plains Rail Trail and Karangahake Gorge  are definitely worth a look

Mangere Mountain

So, Aucklanders, if you are anything like me then you've spent a lot of your life in this city, but when you haven't, you've whizzed over the Mangere Bridge out to the airport. Turn your head to the right and there is Mangere Mountain

We went for a walk on Sunday morning.

It was quite a walk to the top. The dogs loved the freedom to run.

Anton and the dogs ran to the bottom of the crater chasing rabbits

The views back across the city were really nice.

The crater has a dome plug. This is where the molten lava hit cool enough air and stopped.

We all made it to the top

Julene and Anton take in the views

We walked round the crater rim

We had a lovely morning at Mangere Mountain.

Tongariro - Tama Lakes

We had planned for some time to do some hiking in New Zealand and more specifically, see if we can do the nine Great Walks. The first of these was to be the Tongariro Crossing. We drove down to the Tongariro National Park on Good Friday and endured the holiday traffic southbound. Six hours later after parking on the Waikato Expressway then horrendous rain storms on the road through Otorohonga to National Park we made it to the camp site at Discovery. We put the tent up in the gap between the heavy rain showers.

We were scheduled for the 0610 bus and set our alarm for 0515. To confirm for the younger viewers that is 5:15am!!
We got on the bus at 0605 and the driver gave us the briefing for the weather on the crossing. "Likelihood of high winds and rain, freezing wind chill factor". Given that we wanted to see the mountains and complete the crossing as a family, we decided that we'd skip today and got off the bus ...

We elected to walk to the Tama Lakes. Hit the carpark att Whakapapa behind the Chateau at just before 7 and started walking at 0700.

We got some beautiful views of the plateau as the sun came up and lit up the grasses and shrubs around.

Even at the start of the walk it was evident that we would be in for all sorts of mountain weather. We stopped to put on our rain gear and minutes later stopped again to 'de-layer' when the sun came out.

We walked for a couple of hours over the flat and undulating terrain. 

The scenery was rugged but spectacular.

We stopped often to check out the scenery.

We got up to the Lower Tama Lake at about 10:00. Time for a break, photos and a snack; the boys got a filling on chocolate OSMs (One Square Meals).

Anton decided that rather than walk the track with us, he'd run to the bottom of the crater, trek across it, climb the rim and meet us on the other side.

We went the conventional route and got hammered by some very fierce cross-winds and heavy rain. This was a taste of what was happening higher up on the crossing.

It was quite a hike up to the Upper Tama Lake, but the views made it worth it.

It was time for a rest or celebration of what we had achieved.

Anton and Joseph went for a bit of an explore

The trip downhill was a lot faster, but gave us a chance to see the landscape that we had climbed up.

Anton checked out where he had done his crater run

We walked past the Taranaki Falls on the way back and four boys managed to get under it.

From a 7am star to a 1pm finish, we were on our feet for six hours. Even though we didn't do the crossing (which we heard later in the day was as bad as the bus driver had said it would be), we had a remarkable exposure to the beauty of the central North Island and will be back.