Jaysus, he's out in the boonies again

They let me out ot play in the Kiwi countryside again. This time in a place called Otaki Forks which is in the Tararua Ranges. I had decided to up the ante and try to do a medium walk after the jaunt to Mount Ruapehu - a medium walk is usual 5-8 hours long - so it was into the van and off to the wilds north of Wellington to spend another weekend away from my nice warm bed.

We spent Friday night in Parawai Hut and then were up and out for a 7:30 start to head into Rae Ridge on our way to Kime Hut (located at 1400m).

As this was a medium walk, we didn't follow a normal marked route instead we navigated a route that we were told was there, just not on the map! To cut a long story short, we ended up on a detour and had to spend the last two hours of the tramp walking in the dark - good job we had head torches :o) We spent 12 and a half hours getting to the hut - not even the one that we had planned to reach, and I have to say that I slept well that night. But the tramp was really great and the scenery amazing.

Anyway, enough of the boring chat and onto the photos - the huts are very comfie inside, honest, the group shares carrying the cooking equipment and food and the necessary gear for the weekend, so you can't really afford to loose anyone as they bound to be carrying the billy!

Looking down onto Otaki Forks

The footbridge over the river to Parawai Hut

Field Hut - one of the oldest DOC huts in NZ

Sunset from Mount Dennan (still two hours walking left!)

Parawai Hut, at the foot of the Tararuas

The well maintained path ;o)

Relaxing Rarotonga

On a very rainy day in Wellington Clyde was driven to the Doggy Holiday Home and we headed for the airport for our first holiday in nearly a year that was longer than four days.
After a slight hiccup with our accommodation we moved into our beach hut at Rarotonga Backpackers.
To the left is our balcony of our beach unit where numerous gin and tonics were consumed while waiting for the sun to set - this could take hours when you started at 2pm!
The day we arrived was market day. As we waiting for the bus at the side of the road we were picked up by a local in a 4-wheel drive that probably shouldn't have been on the road but it is only 32km round the whole island so what could possibly go wrong!
On one of our non-diving days Derek ran away - well about 20 metres down to the water with the camera and got this lovely shot of a Blue Starfish - yes that is it's actual name!
We managed to get some diving in although not as much as we would have liked. The visability was at least 20m and the temperature a tepid 23 degrees.
This lovely little boxfish kept a close eye on us while we cruised around the reefs.

Let's just say the weather wasn't fantastic for the most part but the temperature was just lovely. And we were sheltered on the balcony and when we weren't sitting there we were underwater so we weren't too fussed.

These baby clown fish definitely didn't want to get too close!







This photo was taken at a dive site called the Mushroom Forrest. It was definitely one of our most favourite dives - you can just see the mushroom corals in the background.







This little moray eel was sitting in amonst the coral just at the bottom of our mooring line - I wonder if he was waiting for lunch to arrive!








And last but not least, my favourite find on any dive - the Christmas Tree Worm. Get too close and they will let you know by doing a disappearing act. But hang around and they'll come back as long as you're quiet!

Our last night was spent in the usual fashion by having an early dinner at The Waterline Restaurant. It was just us and the owners until gay Peter (his phrase not ours) turned up and entertained us with his stories. After he left there was again no one but us so the owner drove us back to the backpackers to pick up our bags, then it was off to the airport to check in. As we had a bit of time to spare it was off to the bar up the road for a couple more with shot chasers in typical Derek fashion. Back to the airport where Derek missed out on the duty free shopping and a toasted sandwich due to falling asleep - again in typical Derek fashion. It was a fantastic holiday and we would highly recommend it.