Rotorua Lake Waikaremoana

Hi again, made the walk this week in 3 days. The first day was awesome with a lot of great scenery views. The 2nd and 3rd day was pretty hard because of lots of rain. The best way to get there is probably by car from the Onopoto site. I hadn't the opportunity and it took me 1,5 days to get there. I have taken the coach to Gisborne, stayed there for a night and took the bus to Wairoa the next morning. From there I was picked up by Big Bush Shuttle Service (50 $). Besides this you will spend probably further 50 bucks for the water-taxi. I was lucky I met Anita she took me along to Napier. Otherwise I had to spend 50$ for the return trip to Wairoa, some bucks for IC coach and 35 for a cabine at the Big Bush Lodge (a campsite had been for free - but the rain... ) Finally I cannot recommend the trip for those who are going by public transport although the walk is really great ;-)

Good on you for doing it though. Many, many years ago a group of three of us did it in June. The plan was to hitch in. Zero traffic from from Ruatahuna onwards, but eventually a truckie took pity and dropped us off at the Bluff end of the track. Great trip - although the one thing I remember was overnight at the first hut high up on the bluff (which was a pretty old shack in those days) was a billy of water - inside the hut - freezing solid overnight. The truckie had let us know that if we made it out by a certain time a mate of his would be coming back out and he'd let him know to pick us up. And he was true to his word. Except there was no room for three in the cab. So I got to ride on the load. It was an old Mercedes that was none too grunty and the load was a solid mass of sawn timber. I doubt we exceeded 40 kph the whole way out to Murapara. I sat up there with a glorious view, hanging onto a chain and ducking under low branches. You'd never dream of getting away with such a stunt these days. By the time we finally made it out I was almost hypothermic - but it was a very memorable trip. Such is the stuff of tramping.

That's classic PhilipW :) I wonder if we haven't lost something with health & safety being what it is now? Maybe a bit of that still goes on, but it's on the hush hush.