Taranaki trip

“A 'Bummel',” I explained, “I should describe as a journey, long or short, without an end; the only thing regulating it being the necessity of getting back within a given time to the point from which one started.  Sometimes it is through busy streets, and sometimes through the fields and lanes; sometimes we can be spared for a few hours, and sometimes for a few days. But long or short, but here or there, our thoughts are ever on the running of the sand. We nod and smile to many as we pass; with some we stop and talk awhile; and with a few we walk a little way. We have been much interested, and often a little tired. But on the whole we have had a pleasant time, and are sorry when 'tis over.”

(Three Men on the Bummel, by Jerome K. Jerome)

From Wednesday 9th to Thursday 14th, we booked in for eight nights at an airbnb flat on a farm just out of New Plymouth.

Besides that, we had just three other arrangements regulating our activities for our nine days away.

The first arrangement was done quickly and easily.  On our drive down from Auckland, we briefly stopped off in Huntly to do a property inspection of an investment property we own there.  It was all good, and we were away again within 30 minutes.

In Taranaki, we missed our accommodation when we first drove past it, thinking it was just the barn.  But actually it was perfect for our needs -- peaceful, good sized, and ideally located between New Plymouth, Inglewood and Mt Taranaki.  The flat had a piano and music books, which the girls played; Miya learnt a couple of new songs during our stay.  Unfortunately the piano was really badly out of tune!

For most of Thursday we relaxed in the local peaceful environment, in preparation for our second arrangement.

Our second arrangement, which was also the original motivation for our trip, happened on Thursday afternoon and Friday.

The North Island children's athletics competition, The Colgate Games, was held over the weekend in Inglewood.  Mulan had signed up to compete in the long jump and 80m hurdles.  Miya decided not to compete.

On Thursday afternoon we drove to the track to pick up Mulan's competition gear and check out the conditions.

All of Mulan's events were on Friday, so we were up bright and early for the opening ceremony at 8am.

Mulan's competitions were an emotional up and down.  As always when competing, some things go well and some things not so well.  All we can do is prepare well and do our best on the day, then accept the results, whatever they are.

Mulan's long jump was at 11:30am, and she had an ideal warmup.  Her first jump was an okay 4.09m (her best is 4.44m).  Her second jump just didn't have the power and was only 3.54m.  Her third jump was awesomely powerful, and I reckon it was near 4.50m, but unfortunately with all that extra power she overstepped the board and it was a no-jump.  Sadly, this meant that her 4.09m jump was her best, and it put her in 24th place overall for the 13 girls (out of 40 competing).  (A good jump would have placed Mulan 14th overall.)

It was then a short break until Mulan's 80m hurdles at 1pm.  There were four heats, with the fastest 8 getting through to the finals.

We really didn't know what to expect with the hurdles.  Mulan had only raced the event three times previously, and had a PB of 15.36sec.  Since then we'd done a few hurdles training sessions, and with things going smoother every time we decided that a goal was to get under 15 seconds.  We also had a super-ambitious goal of getting a finalist ribbon.

Mulan's heat was fourth and last, and we could see that while some girls had excellent technique other were clearly there just to have a go.  Then Mulan ran her race (lane 7 in the yellow Takapuna top):

It was a great run for Mulan, and she got third, meaning that she had a chance of getting through to the finals.

Delightedly, her 14.96sec (into a strong 3.0 m/s head wind) was the sixth fastest time, and she was clearly through to the finals.

We then had to wait around until 5pm for the finals.

Unfortunately, Mulan's final didn't go quite as smoothly as the heat.  Right from the first hurdle the timing wasn't quite right and she wasn't able to get the smooth momentum that she'd got in the heat.  On the last hurdle she was a little off-balance and she clipped it and fell, grazing her knees.  She crossed the finish line 8th in a time of 16.10sec.  Interestingly, the 7th placegetter got 14.82sec; this meant that Mulan was still heading for a sub-15sec time up until the final hurdle.

Overall, a pretty awesome day.  A new PB and a North Island competition finalist is brilliant!  The results are all here.

While others were still competing on Saturday and Sunday, our competition was over and we did some exploring around the local area.

We spent Saturday wandering around New Plymouth.  The local playgrounds and beach had to be tried out.  Of course we did our traditional jump:

That evening, back at our flat, we were shocked and excited to see a flaming UFO heading straight for the mountain:

A moment later a second one followed the first.  Were they (a) meteors or (b) aliens crash-landing on the mountain?

On closer inspection we suspect it was (c) aeroplanes:

Sunday morning we visited Tupare, a house and gardens that was started in the 1930s and is now open to the public.

Our third and final arrangement was that we had booked to stay in the Department of Conservation hut, Pouakai Hut, on Mt Taranaki, on Monday night.

That meant that we had to do some walking, and we opted for the Pouakai Crossing.

Early Monday morning we parked our car at the Mangorei Road carpark, and our host family then drove us to the North Egmont Visitor Centre.

From there it was all on foot, with packs on our backs.  The advice was to take gear for a range of weather conditions, as well as food, water, cooking equipment and sleeping bags.  Miya carried 6-7 kg, Mama carried 10kg, Mulan 11-12kg, and I carried 16-17kg.  In total it took us around eight and a half hours to get to Pouakai Hut.  Mama, Miya and I all had moments on the track of being the slowest member; Mulan was speedy the whole way.

The walk was initially up Mt Taranaki part way, and then across the side for a bit.

We crossed a couple of slips, where signs advised us not to stop.  Miya's shorter legs meant this was the toughest section for her, climbing over the boulders.

It was very peaceful.  Throughout the day we met up with only three other groups of walkers until we got to the hut.

There's a turnoff to Holly Hut, another DOC hut.  We hadn't booked there, but by this time my feet and knees were pretty sore and I wondered aloud whether we should stay there instead of continuing on for a few more hours to Pouakai Hut.  (I think it's time to replace my 24-year-old tramping boots, which weigh in at about 1kg each and have very little support.)

So, I sat at the intersection with the bags while Mama and the girls walked the five minutes to the hut to check it out.  They voted no, let's continue, as they said it was abandoned except for flies.

If we'd opted for a bit more walking we could have continued along past Holly Hut another 30 minutes or so to the Bells Falls, which is supposed to be good viewing.

Instead we continued on our way to Pouakai Hut.  I swapped my boots for sandals, and was able to keep going.

Most notably we crossed the Ahukawakawa Swamp.

Then there was a bit more uphill, with some good views of the mountain, before we arrived at the hut at 7pm.  15 of us stayed in the 16-bed hut overnight.

After setting up our sleeping bags on four adjacent bunks, dinner was just-add-water-style, cooked on our little camping stove.

While the girls and I relaxed and prepared for bed, Mama, still energetic, walked to see the sunset at the number one scenic spot.

Next morning was misty, and I was up before the sun.  Gradually the sky lightened, but there was no sunrise.

After breakfast, we walked to the scenic spot that Mama visited earlier.  It was cloudier and slightly windier.

Then it was time to head back down the mountain and to our waiting car.

This time it was Mama's turn to struggle and be slower; her knees were a bit painful going down the steps.  It took us about three and a half hours from Pouakai Hut to our car.

Wednesday was mostly a rest and recovery day.  In the evening we had a picnic dinner at Pukekura Park, before enjoying the festival of lights.

On the way home to Auckland on Thursday, we stopped off briefly at the Three Sisters rocks.