A city bolthole

So we thought we'd have a little adventure as kind of an early birthday present for me and decided on a trip to one of the local Department of Conservation (DOC) huts. There are loads of these scattered around NZ and our local ones in the Rimutaka Forest Park are only 45 minutes' drive from Wellington - and bookable online so that you have the place to yourself.

The one we were interested in doesn't have any cooking facilities so we had to take a camping stove. For some reason I sold my trusty Trangia before I left the UK (don't ask me why, I don't know) - so had to buy another one. Turns out they are $200+ in NZ or 40 pounds from amazon.co.uk (i.e. half the price) so I bought one from amazon.co.uk. They wouldn't ship it to NZ for some reason so mum kindly mailed it on to me - and good old Royal Mail, it just arrived in time.

We left it a bit late booking so could only get the hut on the Friday night so we left work early to get there on time. Plans went a bit awry when one of our tame estate agents contacted me with a very interesting house which we arranged to see on Friday afternoon. Turns out it was almost exactly what we were looking for, but had a rival already making an offer on it so before we knew it we were down the estate agents making a competitive bid. We find out on Monday if we've got it.

Anyway that distraction meant we didn't leave Wellington before 4.30 and didn't get to the car park for the Rimutakas until 5.10. Sunset was 7.30 and it's a 2 hour walk to the hut so it was a race against time.

The Orongorongo Track is apparently one of NZ's most popular walks - probably due to the proximity to Wellington. Of itself it's a pleasant bush walk through jungly beech and rimu forest with various bridges to cross. We didn't see anyone along the way until we reached the Orongorongo River which is a wide braided pebbly river bed with several streams running through it. We were running ahead of time and according to the instructions our hut was just across the river.

It turns out there was no bridge across the river - this had not been made clear to us - so we had to wade through the channels to find it. We walked up and down a few times looking for a good place to cross but eventually realised we were going to have to get wet! Not having gaiters we rolled up our trousers and took our boots off. I insisted we had sticks to steady us (I've watched Ray Mears and Bear Grylls enough times) and we made it across ok.

By this time it was about 7pm and we still had to find the hut. The instructions were terrible and we doubled back several times and called for help from one of the neighbouring huts who kindly offered to let us sleep on their floor if necessary. But just as the light was fading I spotted it. It was dark inside so I failed to see the woodpile in the corner and we spent the evening trying to light a fire with damp wood. We finally succeeded then had to endure a smoky night as the damp wood burned and kept setting off the smoke alarm. But toasted marshmallows on an open fire will cure all ills :-)

In the morning we tidied up and headed back the way we came. We met Charlie on the way who walked back with us. He had spent the night in a different hut with his friends who were having a 20th birthday party. He had hiked out to the hut wearing plimsolls and carrying a rucksack full of beer but no food - and hadn't eaten anything for 24 hours so understandably was a bit the worse for wear.

The weather was great, it was a beautiful place even if we didn't spot any kiwi, but it's so close I think we may go back .

The end of the road?

I suppose we have been too busy living our lives to update this for a while. Looking for jobs while camping was incredibly stressful and an experience I have absolutely no wish to repeat. The alternative was staying in overpriced hostels while gap year students partied their hardest around us so I suppose camping was the best bet on the whole.

We managed to pull in a few favours and stayed with various people including Dad's old colleague Bethwen who lives in a remote village near Taumarunui, itself one of the most remote locations in the North Island. While there it was Steve's birthday and we hired kayaks for the day to do the first day of a five day trip down the Whanganui river. We went through loads of rapids without falling out, which the kayak hire place were a bit surprised about (apparently 1/3 of people fall out) - More luck than skill I think...! We also went for an impromptu dip in the freezing but beautifully clear stream on the Tongariro plateau. Our swimming costumes look a lot like underwear but don't be fooled.


















Anyway, we did finally get sorted and have settled (for a while) in Newtown, Wellington. People who know Bristol and Wellington tend to compare the two and they are oddly similar - similar size, port cities, same cool community feel, kind of alternative. And strangely Newtown would be the Wellington equivalent of Southville or Gloucester Road with lots of cafes, indian and chinese restaurants, pound shops and an excellent mediterranean cafe/shop (the only place we've found selling rioja) so I think we have landed in the right area in the right city almost completely by chance. The house is a round about 1900 built wooden cottage and is icy in cold weather with no insulation to speak of. You really can't imagine how miserable to live in a house you CAN'T get warm unless you've tried it. We have every intention of buying our own place and insulating it to the max!

My office is on the 8th floor of a building overlooking the harbour, with stunning views towards the other side of the harbour to distract me. There was snow on the hills this week. You can even see a beach from my desk, how's that for a good view. Speaking of the beach, tomorrow is the annual midwinter dip - it's a kind of compensation for xmas not being in winter here - go for a swim in the sea on midwinter instead! So that will be fun.














Meanwhile life is moving on for us, Steve is working in a cool company, the kind that provides free alcohol for staff on Friday nights and has a Nintendo Wii in the office. Can't say the same of my place, people are more interested in going home to their offspring than partying!

We are playing a bit of tennis and I have also taken up rowing and have entered a 10k run. This week we start netball - it's a mixed sport over here and we have a team with people from Steve's work. At the weekend we also saw our first All Blacks game which we got into the spirit of (a great experience, the best bits were the Haka and a fully dressed streaker being literally rugby tackled by a steward). Oh and the rugby was good too!

I don't really want to finish the blogging because then we will have finished the journey which was a wonderful experience. I'd heartily recommend it to those people out there thinking "oh, but it's too hard..." The beginning and end were absolutely awful (packing to leave and arriving in NZ looking for work and stressing about money) - but the journey itself had some wonderful elements. I may even write a blog about our highlights. I am sad we didn't manage to do the whole trip without flying but realistically I'm a very straight up and down person and it would have meant hanging around dockyards in Jakarta to find a boat to take us to Australia which was just too illegal sounding for my liking. Anyway we've made it and so far apart from the freezing houses everything is going pretty well. The best bit about Wellington and I guess NZ generally has to be the environment. We can walk to a surf beach from our house and were swimming in the sea in mid April (like swimming mid October in the UK). Vineyards and ski fields both less than 5 hours drive away. Come and visit us!