Routeburn-Greenstone

Last week Raewyn and I ticked off number seven of the nine Great Walks: the Routeburn track. Since I'd already done it with Mike back in 2011 Raewyn kindly agreed to make a loop walk out of it by doing the Greenstone track as well. This has the added benefit of us ending up closer to our starting point on Lake Wakatipu, rather than at the Divide with a 320 km bus ride back to Queenstown.

Day 1: Routeburn car park (480 m) to Routeburn Falls Hut (976 m)
10.5 km, 985 m ascent, 2:57 moving time
Plus side trip from the hut to Conical Hill (1505 m), 9.4 km, 785 m ascent, 2:59 moving time

Our shuttle from Queenstown to the start of the track had a half-hour stop in Glenorchy. From the jetty we had a view of Mt Earnslaw. We could not complain about the weather!

All smiles on day 1, even going uphill!

Routeburn flats and the Routeburn Falls hut (for us) and lodge (for guided walkers).

The obligatory selfie from the top of Conical Hill.

From Conical Hill you can see all the way to Martins Bay on the west coast, on a good day.

View up the Hollyford valley from Conical Hill.



Day 2: Routeburn Falls Hut (976 m) to MacKenzie Hut (890 m)
11.3 km, 580 m ascent, 3:51 moving time

Heading up from the hut towards Harris Saddle.

Looking back towards the Routeburn valley.

Lake Harris. Conical Hill is in the centre.

Harris Saddle with shelter.

There was some cool cloud below us in the Hollyford valley.

Descending to Lake MacKenzie and the hut.



Day 3: MacKenzie Hut (890 m) to McKellar Hut (625 m)
15.6 km, 640 m ascent, 4:42 moving time

Another glorious day, weather-wise. Snow on the Darran Mountains across the Hollyford Valley.

Earland Falls.

Lake Howden. We stopped at the hut for lunch - a good place to take refuge from the sandflies!

From this point we followed the Greenstone track down the side of Lake Howden.

Flats north of Lake McKellar.

Lake McKellar.

McKellar hut. During the afternoon more and more people arrived, and given that we hadn't slept well the night before due to there being so many people moving and making noise, we decided to pitch the tent outside and sleep in that.

A rock wren that had flown into the hut.



Day 4: McKellar Hut (625 m) to Greenstone Hut (520 m)
18.7 km, 634 m ascent, 4:53 moving time

The morning dawned with a bit of drizzle around, but not enough to bother wearing a raincoat while walking.

The Greenstone valley has its own unique hazards.

This part of the valley reminded me of Fangorn forest (although this wasn't the actual filming location).

The track crossed over a huge shingle fan.

Walking down the valley flats means you can cover some considerable distances.

It's still hard going on the feet though.



Day 5: Greenstone Hut (520 m) to Greenstone road end (325 m)
12.1 km, 535 m ascent, 3:17 moving time

The drizzle was a bit heavier this morning, but was forecast to clear later on.

The sun made an appearance.

We came across this hidden waterfall, which isn't marked on any of the maps.

A really deep pool in the Greenstone River.

View up the Caples valley.

Crossing the last bridge, not far from the carpark.

End of year wrap-up

Hmm, only 6 posts this entire year... sorry about that! I don't have any excuses; more like I'm not sure whether the few people who might visit this blog are interested in reading about yet another synchrotron trip to Melbourne. Not that I've had very many this year, but that's another story. Anyway if you are reading this, I'd appreciate it if you could let me know what you like reading about in terms of what's going on in my life - whether it's work, travel, tramping, church stuff, flying, what I've had for breakfast*, ...

*Never going to appear on this blog.

Since we are only a week away from the end of the year I thought rather than trying to write a whole bunch of posts and backdate them, I'll summarise some of the major highlights.


Work
Steady as she goes. The only constant is change. Et cetera. Not terribly exciting. There is increasing pressure for me to do synchrotron stuff for industry. I organised a half-day workshop for back in August and had about 14 people turn up. That led to 2 or 3 possibilities, which has led to $0 in contracts. Ah well, it's a hard sell. Isn't that why we have a marketing group?


Travel
I already wrote about the holiday that Raewyn and I had in Melbourne/Bendigo back in April. Boy does that feel a long time ago. I had two trips to the Australian Synchrotron for experiments, in June and August. Both were looking at different stages of the animal skin to leather process. I was back there again in November for the annual user meeting, which was a bit ho-hum, not sure why.

I also had my first experience with neutron diffraction, at ANSTO in Sydney. I was there for about a week and was able to visit the Calvary Chapel in Castle Hill. It was small but friendly - kind of like our church, so I felt quite at home.

In August I had a second visit to the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley to look at iron-enriched milk (the first was August last year, which I seem to have forgotten to write about). Maybe I should show you some pictures of that.

My colleague Alistair loading some samples into the vacuum chamber on the beamline

Fiddly liquid sample cells chilling on a cold block


Church
Still going well, with the 11-14s on Sunday mornings, Friday night youth group, and worship. We might look at changing things up regarding the Friday nights for next year.


Sports
Badminton: We came second (I think) in the North Island Division 4 this year. I played #4 ladies singles and actually won about half of my games. Just changed a few little things - trying to get back to base and clear it to their backhand. Works almost every time. We had two trips away, to New Plymouth and Auckland. Remind me next year that if I end up organising the accommodation, to insist that people pay in advance.

No crazy bike challenges or marathons this year!


Family
Stu and Nicola welcomed Sarah on 22/2 (best said like Richie Benaud) as a little sister for Aaron. It's amazing to watch them grow - it happens so fast!


Home
I finished re-wallpapering, with a little help from my friend. (Ooh I get by...)

From this...

...to this!

Kitchen


Flying

Getting back into flying has probably been the biggest change for me this year. After an 11-year break, I had forgotten how much I enjoy it.
Obviously I was pretty rusty in the first few sessions - couldn't remember any of the mnemonics for the checks (engine runups, DVAs, downwind, etc.) but when my hands touched the control column and the throttle it felt like the most natural thing in the world. My biennial flight review was signed off after three sessions, although I did a couple more flights of solo revision before taking a passenger. After that it was getting familiar with the new glass cockpit setup in the aero club's C172s - and again, a couple more solo flights before taking passengers.

I've since taken a few people from work up, and from church as well (in conjunction with our retreat up at Waikanae in November).

The club hosted the Cook Strait regional competition in early November, so I signed up to compete in the non-instrument circuit. I had previously had a go in a comp that Welair had had, back in 1999, and came second, so figured I had a pretty good shot (and that it would probably be one of the less popular categories). Despite having five practise sessions, I got thrown a few curveballs on the day - (1) the aircraft I had used wasn't available, so I had to switch; (2) most of my practise had been into a southerly , but on the day it was a northerly so all my 'cheat' visual reference points were gone; (3) most of the time I had practised taking off and landing on the grass runway, but the instructor who was judging wanted to use the seal. I felt like I did a lot worse on the day than in my practises, but anyway I came second. Maybe next year.

In conjunction with practising for the comp, I ventured out on a few cross-country trips. I took Raewyn and Dad on the first one, to Blenheim; a workmate, Pauline, to Palmerston North and back (to practise approach and landing at a controlled aerodrome); solo to Dannevirke and back (as preparation for going to the Hawkes Bay); culminating in a trip to Hastings. The plan had been for Raewyn and I to fly up on a Friday night, stay at her parents' house, go for a scenic on the Saturday morning, and fly back to Paraparam in the afternoon. Unfortunately despite the weather being wonderful on the western side of the North Island, it was complete rubbish on the eastern side. So Raewyn drove up on the Friday night, I flew up on the Saturday morning and the rest of the plan proceeded as before. It was a great experience - a chance to put some of the advanced navigation skills I am currently in the process of learning into action - but pretty tough in terms of mental overload (not to mention the bank balance). Total flying time for the day was 3.8 hrs; by the time I came back across the ranges just south of Palmerston North, I was shattered. Hopefully with more experience, it will get better.

I'm currently about half-way through the training syllabus for an aerobatics rating (have had lessons on spins and loops, next one is on Monday for aileron rolls). I've also started on the road to a CPL, having passed the Law exam and booked in for Navigation on 10 Jan, and working through some navigation exercises on the ground (with the first CPL cross-country training flight booked in for 13 Jan). The CPL cross-country training syllabus requires a minimum of 30 hrs cross country, of which 10 hrs is with an instructor on flights >200 nm (nautical miles) in length, 10 hrs is as pilot-in-command on flights >200 nm and at least one >300 nm, and the remaining 10 hrs can be shorter. I have 12 months to complete the requirements for the first two (and a flight test), from the date of the first training flight. So I'm currently thinking where I could go that would make a round trip of 200 nm... for reference, Paraparam to Hastings is just over 100 nm in a straight line one way. So maybe Kaikoura? Taupo? Takaka, flying over the Abel Tasman National Park? So many choices!

A picture one of my passengers took during a local scenic flight, over the Tararuas looking northwards.

View out the front window between Masterton and Waipukurau, on the way to Hastings.


What's on the horizon

In no particular order:
- tramping with Raewyn: Tararua Peaks over New Year's, Routeburn-Greenstone in February (since I'll be in Queenstown for the AMN-8 conference), church youth trip at Wellington Anniversary Weekend where we're aiming to do the Southern Crossing
- a crazy period of travel in February and March: two conferences (Melbourne, Queenstown), holiday (see above), beamtime (Melbourne), more beamtime (Melbourne then Sydney)
- cross country flight training (see above) and more theory exams

Fly like a bird

As most of my readers will know, I have been interested in aviation for a long time, since I was around 11 years old. In high school I joined air cadets and had a lot of fun with that - gliding camps, tramping, 'Live and work' courses with the RNZAF. In my final year of high school (1997) I applied to become an air force pilot, made it through the local interviews and tests, and went up to Auckland for the Personnel Selection course, where I failed the co-ordination test. Thus ended my aspiration to become an air force pilot - but it didn't mean I couldn't be a normal pilot. The following year I went on the ATC national power flying course and went solo in a Cessna 152. I quit cadets a couple of months later; they didn't seem to be interested in promoting me and it was getting to be quite humiliating going to combined unit camps and having people whom I considered my peers at NCO courses and the like being two or three ranks above me. But my dream of flying didn't wane, and one day when I was looking through some of the material from the power flying course I noticed that it had my instructor's name and an address for a flying school in Paraparam. Sure enough, that was where he was instructing, so in July 1998 I started having lessons again.

I gained my Private Pilot's License in July 1999, one month after I turned 19. For the next few years I took loads of friends, family etc. on local scenic flights. Then in 2005 I moved to London for my post-doc, and made a conscious decision that the flying would have to be put on hold for a while. I joined the Imperial College gliding club while I was there. A year later when I moved to Stanford, it didn't even cross my mind to pick it up there - the thought of the reaction that a foreign passport and foreign pilot's license would elicit (not to mention that I had no free time) made that decision kind of easy.

Within a couple of months of moving back to NZ in 2007 I had bought a house. I'd tell people, 'Yeah, I have my pilot's license, but when I went overseas I let it lapse, and now I have a mortgage. But once I pay it off, then I can get back into it.' Well, that day has come. I'm now current again and a signed up member of the Kapiti Aero Club. So if you're in town and interested in going for a flight, just let me know!


The story in pictures:

Checking out a Wasp at 3 Sqn. RNZAF as part of a Live and Work course with air cadets, 1997

The obligatory photo with my instructor, John Neill, having just flown solo at the ATC National Power Flying course, 1998

Receiving my solo certificate at the ATC National Power Flying course, 1998

Taking some university friends up for a flight in a Cessna 172, 2002

Taking some Sunday school kids on a flight as a prize, 2004

Gliding at Lasham airfield with the Imperial College gliding club, 2006

Taking part in a forced landing competition at Kapiti Aero Club after only 2 refresher lessons, 2016

Youth group

This year we decided to try holding our Friday night youth group every week rather than twice a month. While it's a lot more work, it's been manageable so far. And of course it makes building those relationships a bit easier when you have more contact.

Indoor rock climbing at Hangdog

The chaos that is bubble soccer

At Queen's Birthday weekend (4-5 June) we organised a tramping trip from Walls Whare to Tutuwai hut as a round trip (in via Cone hut, out via Mt Reeves). Clear skies and hardly any wind made for a great weekend.

Bendigo

In April, Raewyn had a workshop/conference thing on in Melbourne for work. When she first found out about it, she suggested that if I was there for beamtime at the same time, perhaps I could show her around the synchrotron. I said, even if I'm not there, I could come over, since I have spare airpoints and it would be about the time I paid my mortgage off. So that's what we did, and took an extra few days' holiday where we drove up to Bendigo.

Why Bendigo? Why not - neither of us had been there before. It was actually quite enjoyable. We booked a holiday house for a few days.

Here's what we got up to:

Raewyn having a private tour with Chris Ryan, beamline scientist for the imaging and medical therapy beamline. There's nothing like a physics brain explosion to start the day.

Bendigo - mostly flat (like most of Australia), but dotted around the place you can still see some of the gold mine shafts.

We went on a mine tour at the Central Deborah gold mine as part of the Bendigo Explorer package.

The package also included an hour-long pottery lesson at Bendigo pottery. Lots of fun!

On day 3 we hired bikes and cycled along the O'Keefe rail trail out to Lake Eppalock and back. Not the highlight of the trip; I'm not sure if that was due to the hardness of the saddles or the sameness of the scenery.

On our way back to Melbourne airport we drove up to Mt Macedon and went for a bush walk. This included a visit to the memorial cross.

Autumn colours near Macedon.

Mt Matthews

Mt Matthews is the highest peak in the immediate Wellington area, situated in the Rimutaka Forest Park. It stands at an elevation of 941 m, and although there aren't great views from the top because it is covered with trees for the most part, it's a prominent peak you can see from many places in Wellington.

About 20 years ago I was on an ATC camp over in the Orongorongo valley where we talked about going up there, but didn't, and I never really had the opportunity or the company until recently, since Raewyn started getting interested in tramping.

One weekend in mid-March our church had a memorial service on Sunday for a member of our congregation who had passed away. Neither Raewyn nor I knew him particularly well, and with the weather forecast looking great we decided to wag church for the day (!) and go tramping instead.

Saturday we had tickets for the first test match at the Basin Reserve between NZ and Australia in about 10 years. That was mildly unfortunate, but we figured we could leave the cricket at 5-ish, pick up some takeaways on our drive to Wainui, walk over the 5-mile track and up the river valley as far as we could and find a place to camp overnight, then tackle Mt Matthews on the Sunday. This was also an opportunity to try out the new tent I had recently purchased from Macpac.

We made it further than we were expecting - in fact, all the way to Matthews Stream. With fading light and no wind, we decided to just pitch the tent on the flattish gravel bank on one side of the valley. The new tent was a bit cosier than the 3-man tent it replaced, but it was worth it for carrying 2.3 kg instead of 3.7.

The next morning we had breakfast, packed a day pack with water, lunch, cameras, jackets and headed up the hill. And up. And up. We did have views every now and then - north along the main spine of the Rimutaka ranges with glimpses of the Wairarapa, west towards Wellington, south down the Mukamuka valley.

We had lunch at a clearing just above the south saddle, by which stage it was getting quite hot. We were glad we had had a head start on the sun. Back down to our tent, which we packed up and walked back out to the car. They reckon it would be a 10 hr day trip from the Catchpool carpark; we reckon it would be longer - but then we were carrying more than just day packs between Catchpool and Matthews Stream.

Some bits of the track, particularly just above the south saddle, were a bit loose and scrambly. Apart from that, it's just steep and rooty...

View looking up Matthews Stream from our campsite. The track is marked on the right hand side. Mt Matthew is hiding behind the 'peak' in front.

View from the clearing above South Saddle looking up to Mt Matthews

View of Wellington from somewhere along the tops

View of Palliser Bay and Lake Ferry from the summit (end of marked track)

Descending to the turn-off to South Saddle and the Mukamuka valley

Waikaremoana Great Walk

Back in January, Raewyn, Jen and I went up to Lake Waikaremoana to do the Great Walk track over 3 days and celebrate Raewyn's birthday at the same time. Sorry for taking so long to put photos on the blog - better late than never though, right?

Day 1: Whanganui landing - Marauiti hut

We decided to do the circuit anticlockwise, so that we encountered the big climb up Panekire on the last day with lighter packs, rather than on the first day with heavier packs.

We were on the water taxi at around 9:30 and enjoyed a pleasant trip across the lake. We started walking at about 10:00 and made good time to Waiharuru hut for lunch. A family that had been on the boat with us caught up and we watched as they headed down to the lake for a swim. The walk is popular with families, and the distance can be covered leisurely over 5 days or at a faster pace in fewer days. After lunch we carried on to Marauiti hut and went for a dip in the lake. To our surprise the family arrived later in the afternoon (and proceeded to go for another swim).

GPS data: 12.1 km, 3:19 moving (4:27 total), ascent 710 m, descent 706 m.

The three musketeers at the start of another Great Walk

View across the lake to Panekire Bluffs

Marauiti hut


Day 2: Marauiti hut - Waiopaoa hut

Another beautiful morning greeted us. Thanks to sunrise being so early, we were breakfasted, packed, and ready to go by 7:30. Again we were making good time and opted to take the side trip to Korokoro Falls. This was about the only part of the whole track where the time indicated on the sign was remotely close to what it took us to walk (half an hour each way). Upon arriving back at the main track we had lunch before carrying on.
We had another swim when we got to Waiopaoa hut, and while Raewyn was getting changed I prepared her birthday cake (applying icing, M&Ms, and candles). On a youth camp a couple of years ago I had smuggled a cake in, and I knew this time was going to be a bit more difficult, but not impossible - and it was worth it :)
We met a couple staying at the same hut that night who lived in Rotorua and were also Christians, turned out they had some mutual friends in common with Raewyn. Small world.

GPS data: 15.8 km, 4:38 moving (6:16 total), ascent 904 m, descent 895 m.

Early morning mist over the lake near Marauiti hut

Reflections on the lake

Korokoro falls


Day 3: Waiopaoa hut - Onepoto (road end)

Once again we were up early, this time with a mission to get as much of the climb out of the way before the day heated up too much. It was hovering around 30 degrees the previous two days and expected to be similar on the third day too. We were walking by 7:30 and arrived at Panekire hut by 10:30 - too early for lunch, so we carried on. The views from along the tops were expansive, although the track kept mostly on the non-lake side of the bluffs with only a few opportunities to see the view. Coming down was equally as interminable as going up. Maybe I'm getting old, but my knees don't seem to like going downhill like they used to.

GPS data: 17.8 km, 5:29 moving (7:43 total), ascent 1109 m, descent 1117 m.

Raewyn on the track about half an hour after leaving Waiopaoa hut

View from one lookout point along the tops

Another view


Overall impressions

I can't quite put my finger on it, but I wasn't as impressed by the Lake Waikaremoana track as I had been by most of the other Great Walks. Maybe its the long drive to get there, to find that most of the time you're walking through bush which looks pretty similar to the bush virtually everywhere else in the country. The only novelty factors are the views from the tops (of which there aren't as many as you would think, looking at the track) and the freshwater swimming opportunities.

One thing that irritated me a bit was the signage. As mentioned, we were considerably faster than the time indicated on all the signs, apart from the side trip to Korokoro Falls. Why is this a problem? Well, first of all, it makes things difficult to plan. We could possibly have done the walk in 2 days if we'd pushed it, but in the planning we were wondering whether trying to do it in 3 was too ambitious. Obviously we needn't have worried. I don't like having heaps of time sitting around with not much to do. But a second, more nagging issue, is regarding the people who come here, walk a section in 2 hrs that according to the sign should take 4, and think that the same sort of ratio will be true for every yellow and green DoC sign all over NZ. It could cause these people to overestimate their own ability. Yes, on the one hand, if it is mostly families walking the track, they will take longer, but in my opinion DoC should put the expected times on signs throughout the country according to some standardised walking pace (as actually walked by someone, not just calculated according to track condition, distance, and elevation gain/loss) and then it's up to individuals to mentally adjust their own expected times if they are faster or slower.

Another thing I found irritating was the lack of rangers at the huts to check people's passes. Huts on Great Walks have premium prices and are booked out months in advance, and we came across more than one person who decided on the day to carry on to the next one. No-one was at the huts checking passes. I was very surprised by this.

So it was a good walk, and a good one to take kids on, but I don't know that I'd be quick to recommend it as a great walk. Tongariro and Milford still take the cake for me as the best of the Great Walks.