Waihou Wanderings

G'day!

Went out for a wander along the Waihou river today to have a stab at some trout. The part of the Waihou that I went to is halfway between Tirau and Putaruru, just off SH28 [http://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap?v=2&ll=-38.020341,175.813967&z=15 ]. All of the trout I saw were well under the legal 30cm size though, as the larger trout have moved down river to the mouths. I did have a crack at a few groups of them, but only managed to catch tree branches and river weed. Classic.

It was a sweet spot though. The river is spring-fed, which explains the crystal clear blue water. Waihou means 'new water' in maori, which is fitting. 

Here are a couple of my favourite pictures from the trip!
(I took some of the pictures through my polaroids to cut the glare off the water, so I've had to play with the colours on some of them to get them looking normal again)

How do trout get up these!?

One of the locals- spot the trout.

"Beautiful things don't ask for attention" - James Thurber

Cheers for looking!

Pinnacles Reconnaissance Mission

Just a quick update!

As I commented on the post below, I went on a quick recon walk out to the pinnacles hut today. It's a bit of a highway of a track- a far cry from the usual bush-bashing efforts I'm used to from Canterbury excursions. It ended up being a pretty relaxed effort for David and I- a leisurely 5 hour return trip with stops a-plenty. I was keen to sus the track out to see if it would be appropriate for an early new year time mission for a few of us keen on carrying up boxes of beer and having a good time at the hut (the hut is an 80-bunk mansion!). Initial impressions are good! Just so long as no one dies trying to heave a 24-slab up the stone staircase, we should be good to go.

The pinnacles walk is half an hour northeast of Thames on the Coromandel Peninsula. It starts at 160m elevation and rises to 600m over an infamous 2km stair stretch. The stairs are, in parts, chiseled out of the stone slabs making up the hillside. They were made by the pioneering loggers in the early 1900's for access into the kauri rich area. Some historic kauri dams still stand, which were used to flush the logs down valley after felling. 

Anyway.. photos! (maybe more to be added later from David's dropbox)

[Link to topo map location: http://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap?v=2&ll=-37.04254,175.712172&z=15 ]

The start of the staircase

That tall section is a cooled magma chamber- mountain eroding away from it.

Panorama 1

Panorama 2

Panorama 3

Manuka in full bloom- small stream.

Christmas Through to New Year

Hi all, it's been a while!

Through the last few months life has been pretty much the same- the long study grind up until exams. Of course, the urge to procrastinate often got the better of Pondy and I- the result of which was that we have finally found a sweet river fishing spot! On one particular outing I managed to hook up on, and then lose, a nice ~5lb brown. Would have been my first on fly tackle too... a fight to be continued.

On the same outing I half-taught Coral how to cast fly line- she did really well! We should have a huge fly fishing squadron in no time.

Having been home for a few weeks now I haven't really achieved very much. Francis is taking a summer school uni paper and every one of my other mates has a REAL job. Thoroughly disappointing. I've been doing landscaping work with Francis' dad in the meantime.

The one major break from work was a trip up to Auckland for a concert called OUR:HOUSE. I went up with Richard and David, meeting Lachy, Cat, Jacob and Dianne at Jake and Dianne's place for pre-match. Skrillex, Steve Aoki, What So Not and MK were headlining. Turned out to be another mean gig, building well on last year's effort.

Looking forward to Christmas time- going to be having a relaxed bbq with the Schaares, then a couple of days later heading over to Roto-Vegas for the Peters do. I've booked in a fly fishing sesh with the cuzzie in Vegas which I'm really looking forward to.

I'm also planning a tramp to the pinnacles hut, up in the Coromandel. It goes through what used to be old kauri forest, with the remains of log dams still sitting in some of the valleys from pioneering foresters in the '20s. 

The hills for which the area is named. (newzealand.com)

I'll likely be having a crack at it in the new year, when I'm not so busy. Hopefully will manage to get a couple of cool pictures!



Cheers for reading!
- Russell.