31st August - Kaweka J

Kaweka J is the tallest mountain in Hawke’s Bay. Climbing to the top of Kaweka J has been at number one on my bucket list for the last few years.

Kaweka J stands at 1724m tall and is the 8^th highest mountain in the North Island. Check it out on Peak-bagging NZ:

http://www.peakbagging.co.nz/index.php?title=Kaweka_J

I decided years ago to only go in the serious backwoods with a group and went out on 31^st August with Napier Tramping Club. Kaweka J was still covered with snow so it was a real alpine adventure as well.

The serious trampers headed on and left me to follow the path alone to the summit. At least they knew approximately where to find me if anything went wrong! It was a nearly perfect day with only light clouds hanging round the summit.

I found two geocaches on the way to the summit and when back at base learned of a third geocache near the War Memorial cairn at the summit. I left trackables at both found locations and will be observing their travels on the geocaching.com website.

Walking on/in the snow was challenging at times. It was far deeper than the experienced trampers had been expecting and several times, I dropped through at least 1m of the white stuff. I had two walking poles with me which was useful to work my way out!

Having done the climb in winter I am keen to return in summer!

I still have not decided what the new number one on the bucket list is going to be…

(For the record, Knocklayd is 514m, Slieve Donard is 850m and Carrauntoohil is 1,039. More information at mountainviews.ie)

Tuesday 12th July - Ballyclare Fail

So after five years here, Ballyclare manages to be on New Zealand TV News for the first time with images of burnt-out cars....

... so how many flags will sort out poverty or famine?

Monday 4th July - 10 years - no justice

... only silence

Friday 29th April - living on an island for 2 days

Here in Hawke's Bay we are living in a 'state of emergency'.

The rain started here on Easter Monday / Anzac Day about 10am. It rained for the next 60 hours non stop. We had torrential rain for all of that time. No wind. We ended up with more than 300mm (12 inches) of rain in that time. That is half of our annual rainfall here in Napier.

The photo above was taken on Tuesday morning. Click on it to enlarge. Our corner fence post is just visible in the middle of the photo. Where you see water is normally grass. The water was still rising. The causeway on the left has never been covered in water before. By Tuesday night, it was knee deep. Our only way in or out was by walking 100m through this lake for 2 days until Thursday afternoon when the water started to subside.

It is the worst storm ever to hit Hawke's Bay and it came with no gales or hurricanes. South of Napier along the coast, tens of thousands of hectares of farmland have been destroyed, washed away with slips and floods. Some parts had 550mm of rain. Whole farms have had their fences washed away. Some farms have had 80% of their topsoil washed away. Houses, bridges and roads have been destroyed.

No earthquake, no hurricane, no tornados. Just rain for 60 hours. A disaster.

looking up the Tutaekuri River

sunset on 12 Rotowhenua Road

View from the road. I have stripped branches off 8 of the lower pine trees so far. Medium term plan is to fell the pine trees to give the gum trees more space to grow. The pines are growing in height by 3-5 metres each year.

Tutaekuri River - Puketapu Bridge

Autumn sunset - on the Puketapu Bridge - spot the photographer?