Onwards and upwards and meeting with Wekas

Thursday 12 March Dry and warmer 19C drove 120km

The alarm clock made some noise just before seven and reminded me that I had to phone Ross to see if he was going to take his boat from Paraparaumu Beach across to Kapiti, seemingly pronounced 'carpety', Island today. After confirming he was willing and we should meet at 0845 at the boat club, we got ready to leave.

First stop was the convenient bakery just around the corner. Armed with a supply of filled sandwiches from there, we headed for 'Jan's' cafe for breakfast. (The Lynn and Jan concidence was doing well, the owner of 'Wrights by the sea' was called Lynn and her manager was called Jan). After a breakfast of bacon and poached eggs, we headed to the boat club to meet Ross. He had explained on the phone that he would be with his boat and a green tractor in the carpark of the boat club.

At the carpark there was a boat on a trailer and a red tractor, but no green tractor. Eventually, rolling down the main road, towing a large boat came Ross in the promised green tractor. Having parked in the car park, we paid our money and then had our bags searched to make sure we had no mice or rats stowed away. Then we climbed on board the boat, still on its trailer in the car park. With all on board, the tractor towed us down the beach to the water and reversed the boat until it floated off its trailer. Fifteen minutes later, after quite a bumpy ride, we arrived at the island and disembarked via a gangplank onto the pebble beach.

A female ranger met us and directed us to a shelter where she read us the rules of the island and pointed out some of the bird life we might encounter. She also said that it was about a 3 hour round trip to the top of the island. There are two choices of route on the nature reserve drop-off, both go up to the summit at 520M. One is the Wilkinson, the easy way, the other is the Trig track which takes a more direct route. "Why not go up the Trig Track and back down the Wilkson so we see everything"? said someone not a million miles away from here. At first the Trig track seemed quite easy and not very steep and thoughts that the other track must therefore be a doddle were being entertained. Needless to say, the Trig got its revenge as it got steeper and muddier with many series of earth and timber staircases. Even more challenging were the bits to be climbed by clambering on tree routes. It was ponted out that it was lots easier for those with long legs. To add insult to injury, every now and then there are markers on trees reading "Trig 1" or "Trig 2" which we decided were markers to say how many metres above sea level we were at. When we got to signs saying "Trig 6", it dawned on us how wrong we were. According to the ranger, half-way up both track were feeder stations for the Stitch Birds. When we got to the feeder station we had been going uphill for over 2 hours and had just passed a sign "Trig 7"; just how high was this island?

Finally, we met the other track to be greeted with a sign saying "Summit 20 minutes"; for some a very discouraging signpost! At the top, there was a small tower to climb to be greeted with stunning views. Wandering around the base of the tower were two inquisitive Wekas, a flightless native bird. They are known to steal tourists lunch so everyone was being very careful.

Back down at the point where the two paths met, our party joined forces again and headed down the Wilkinson track, except that it was labeled Mackenzie track, it remains a mystery why this should be so. This, supposedly easier, path was also winding slippery and steep and it took well over an hour to descent to sea-level again where we had about 25 minutes to wait for our boat trip back to the mainland.

Overall, the island is a challenging hike, or tramp as it is known in NZ and has lots of endangered, not to mention virtually extinct, birdlife to see. All mammals have been erradicated which sounds cruel until you remember that all mammals were introduced by Europeans in the first place. Over 22,000 possums were removed as an example. Rare birds we saw included the Stitch bird, Saddlebacks, Bell birds and the Weka. The island is also home to many noctural Kiwi and Moreporks as well as Takahes of which there only about 200 left in the world.

Back at the mainland, the boat 'drove' directly onto its trailer which was then hauled up the beach back to the carpark where disembarkation took place.

Our car was parked nearby and we climbed in and headed south down the main road with the aim of getting to Masterton. We made a conscious decison to miss out Wellington as we didn't travel to NZ to walk round cities! Not far down the main road, we able to cut across on a minor road to Lower Hutt. For those who watched lord of the rings, Helmsdeep was created and filmed in a quarry close by the road.

Back on the main roads we headed through Carterton and Greymouth to Mastertonwhere we checked into the BK Chardonnay motel. What inspired the name of this small chain of motels can only be guessed at! Dinner was eaten at a revamped old 30s pub in the middle of town.