Kaweka`s

Cool thanks bigpaul, was that via Whetu or the main track to Makino?

By the main track whetu would take a bit longer but on a good day would be worth the diversion. fruitbat did that track a couple of weeks ago if memory serves me.

We didn't go up to Whetu in the end because of the gale force winds and ended up walking into Makino from the road as it was getting a bit late. We were a bit put off walking from Middle Hill to Makino because of the track description. Apparently you have a long uphill, followed by long downhill to a river, 3 times.

Yup sounds like the Kaweka's to me nice walking though

Yep, up and down, thats the Kawekas, or any where really. Have you noticed that there seems to be always more uphill than down hill.

I have a theory on this. Normally there should be the same amount of uphill as downhill if you start and end in the same place. Most people would say that, anyway. But with mountains eroding all over there's really a little less downhill than uphill. You climb all the way to the top, but while you're there the mountain gets slightly shorter so there's less to climb down. Realistically with all that erosion going on, you may as well have stepped into an elevator to get down once you made it to a summit. In practice the erosion is countered by things like tectonic plate motion along alpine faults and volcanic activity that results in mountain ranges increasing in height. All of this keeps the heights of mountain ranges at a happy equilibrium. Obviously neither of these opposing actions happens perpetually. They average roughly equally over a long time, but it's only apparent over a much longer time than what's convenient to visualise within a human lifespan. So in exploring the outdoors, it's possible to design the scheduling to get the preferred ratio of uphill to downhill. If you like climbing hills more than descending, you should go out in bad weather. Better yet, climb to the top of something in nice weather, camp out until it gets bad, then go down. Clearly people with dodgy knees should venture out looking for bad weather. If you prefer to go down hills more than up, just make sure you're on the way up a mountain range during a nearby earthquake or a volcanic eruption. It'll be a free ride up! Actually not completely a free ride because the Earth expends a little energy in pushing you upwards, and you'll be responsible for the range ending up very slightly shorter overall when you head down again, but it's *practically* a free ride. Not one that any environmental watchdog has figured out how to charge for, in any case.

I remember some friends who were on a glacial neve in the Southern Alps in a white out. They were climbing steadily all the way towards the pass at the head when they crossed some foot prints. They followed them for a while before it became obvious that these foot prints were their owm from earlier in the climb. Mortified they scuttled back down to camp and wait for a clearer day. izogi's theory of mountain building and contenental drift may possibly explain that!

I was just scanning Middle Hill on Google Earth before coming online here, planning a new trip, and thinking "I don't ever want to do that trip from the Makino spur to Makahu saddle via Middle Hill again" Yes there are 3 descents and climbs and from memory they reduce in depth as you get closer to MH but one is a 300m descent and climb. We did it in a day from Te Puia to Makahu. It was dark, we were exhausted when we arrived and only about 30 years old (long time ago).

Hills are there to be climbed. Strap on ya boots and go hard.

" Hills are there to be climbed. Strap on ya boots and go hard." Amen