North Island tramping
This turned out to be an exercise in frustration, with terrible weather and track closures initially.
I knew bad weather was coming on Day 2 in the Kaimais.
It was windy when I went in, and it was raining when I got up the next morning. A two-hour loop took me to a second hut, but it was certainly wet.
It was gale-force winds when I emerged from the forest and was greeted by the tail end of a tropical cyclone, which dumped 200 mm over the day, and another 90 mm the next morning.
Fortunately, I had the sense to book two nights in a bed in Tauranga.
The next track I tried, the rain now stopped, was closed by DOC just as I put my pack on to leave the car park, immediately after four DOC workers turned up.
So that left two overnight trips at either end of the range open. I chose both and had the two huts to myself on separate tramps.
Then, I went to Palmerston North to get briefed on the Ruahines by some old friends I hadn’t seen for some time. They serviced trap lines in the area, and had good information about where to go.
In the end, I did three separate trips. The first was 10 days, followed up by one two-night and a three-night.
It turned out that each day there would be either a 500 or 700 m climb or descent, or both. My gammy knee survived, but after four weeks, I was exhausted. I saw 1+2 blue decks.
At least I had a better idea of what to expect the next time.