8-12 November 2007

From the Psychotic to the Sublime

The Lake Waikaremoana Track

Day 3, Page 7: Waiopaoa to Marauiti

We're climbing again, through open beech forest.

and coming down again. Duke of York stuff. Walking in country like this is exhilarating and yet at the same time peaceful. Taking a purely anthropocentric version of creation, it was made for walking through.

A couple more fallen trees remind us again of the capacity of this country - and much of the New Zealand high country - to turn suddenly savage.

Sheltered gullies sprout their crop of tree fern

Packs off for a few minutes. Forage for some fruit leather.

Last year's harvest of plums mostly wound up pulped and frozen and before we came away, Miranda thawed a whole lot of it, combined it with yoghurt, and dried it into leather in the EZIDRI. The yoghurt takes out some of the sharpness that can be present in the frozen plums by themselves. It was wonderful, whether eaten as leather, or placed in a bowl overnight with rolled oats or muesli and a little water to serve for breakfast.

If you overdo it, there's always a few koromiko tips to be had along the way as an antidote.

Whole banks full of filmy fern. My instinct with this stuff is to reach out and run the back of my hand across it.

Now, how far do you reckon we've still got to go? Up in the top corner of every fathmandu page is a small plug for MemoryMap software, and for printing off local area maps for tramping it's ideal. Scale can be what you want.

Down we go again

There's some serious descending along here. Note again the way the sticks contribute to balance.

Some small flowers poke out of the scrub.

A few metres on and a veritable display of them identifies them as Libertia ixioides, the New Zealand iris. You'll find them in most nurseries, but this is the first time I've come across them in their natural environment. They are all along the lake from here on.

I saw this earlier in the day, but not as far advanced in flower. I've still got to identify it.

Mapau just occasionally finds a little space around it and emerges as a "specimen" tree. I find them quite delightful, and they have the quality possessed by many plants of altering the nature of the light around them. (Quintinia is another such plant.)

Ahem... Eyes left and the trail of destructionleft by these two on their way down is still evident. More disturbing is another rock just as big poised about 50m up the cliff, supported by a couple of thin-looking and gravity-defying kanukas.

We're down close to lake level for a little while here as we head up the Maraunui inlet.

and here we pass the first of a couple of baches which have somehow escaped public ownership.

The second has a small and valuable nod in the direction of those passing through. It may be self-evident that water is what comes out of taps, but the notice is implicit permission to top up our water bottles with good quality water, and it's been a long day and they are close to empty. I've been consciously rationing mine for the last half hour or so, thinking to top up at the Maraunui campsite.

So thanks to this particular bach owner.