Once you can balance on one for more than a minute you'll want to progress the exercise as follows.

Fold your arms against your body so they can't be used for balance.

Shut your eyes so that the brain must rely more on the signals from the ankle to maintain balance.

Start the progression again on an unstable surface e.g. foam pad or pillow.

I started this trip on the 22nd of September 2011 with my guide Pemba. The times listed here do not include our lunch stops.

Getting to Tumlingtar

I had recently finished a 7 day rafting trip down the Sun Koshi, so I travelled by "bus" to Tumlingtar. You can also fly directly to Tumlingtar from Kathmandu, it would be a very long trip by bus.

The rafting trip finished in Chatara so I needed to get a land rover to Dharan. We started out with about a dozen people in the vehicle but we kept picking up more and more people ending up with about 28 people on it many sitting on the roof. The suspension was stuffed to so it would only take a small bump on the road to upset it. There were bumps aplenty as we travelled over the rough road and river beds. At one point we were very close to tipping but the driver seemed well drilled and calmly steered in the direction we were tipping to right the vehicle. Often he seemed to be steering more for the purpose of keeping us upright rather than just controlling the direction we were travelling. 

After a little confusion I found Pemba in Dharan I got a mini van from Dharan to Hile. Again the driver wanted to fit as many people in as possible, Pemba and I ended up squashed in the backseat with 3 others. The guy next to me was a sound sleeper and didn't even wake up when his head was bouncing off my shoulder or the window. We ascended with many switchbacks in the road all the way up to Hile. It was a lot cooler in Hile which made for a much more pleasant nights sleep.

Tumlingtar to Gothe Bazaar

We set off up the true left of the Arun river to a swing bridge at Seti Ghat were we stopped for lunch. 

After lunch we went up over a hill into the Irkhu Khola valley walking through rice paddies and across a swingbridge to Gothe Bazaar.

When we arrived at the lodge a teenage boy went straight out with a net to get some fish. He returned a while later with a good haul of fish around 15-20cm long. These were gutted and cut into chunks then fried, beautiful! Tahr curry with mustard greens.

Gothe Bazaar to Chyaksila

7 hours

It was raining fairly hard in the morning making conditions a bit cooler than the previous day. The Irkhu Khola was now very narrow but with a raging torrent of water coming down. We crossed it a few times on sketchy bamboo bridges.

When we stopped for lunch I noticed my leg was bleeding rather a lot ... my first encounter with leeches! Amazing how such a small wound could bleed for so long.

After Salpa Phedi the trail became steep as we ascended a rough rocky staircase. So much effort has gone into making these trails. Even though it's still monsoon season we don't have much mud to contend with.

A boy walking home from school joined us, his house is the lodge we were planning to stay at. It took us about 2 hours steadily walking up hill to get there. It was fairly apparent he would normally do the walk a lot faster as he was constantly getting ahead then stopping to wait for us, even so it's still a long way to walk to get to school.

We arrived in Chyaksila having gained about 1200m over the course of the day. The temperature was much cooler at around 15°C. I tried Umba (guava) for the first time, my new favourite fruit.

Chyaksila to Gudel

It was quite warm starting out. The rain and wind picked up as we ascended, by the time we had ascended to the pass at 3400m I was very cold. We stopped for tea and one of the homes near the pass and warmed ourselves around their fire.

Awesome thunderstorm on the descent to Gudel. Fortunately there was good tree cover so I wasn't too worried about the lightning. I love walking during thunderstorms, they just seem so much more impressive when you're outside in it.

My knees were starting to feel a little sore as we arrived in Gudel having descended around 1800m from the pass. We stayed at Namaste lodge. When I took my shoes off I noticed a lot of blood in my socks, leeches again about a dozen bites this time, on seeing this Pemba is suprised and remarks "Oh some damage". He explains that you can feel them biting but it's more like an itchy feeling rather than pain. It's then that I remember how he kept stopping and bending down as we were walking, I just thought there was something wrong with his shoes but he was pulling leeches off.

There was fresh snow around Mera peak in the evening and I was looking forward to getting into the mountains.

Gudel to Kiraunie

I become exceedingly paranoid about itchy sensations on my feet, it pays off too as I remove the leeches before they have a chance to do too much damage.

Fairly steep descent to Hongu Khola

Lunch in Bung.

There were a bunch of young kittens and their mother huddling around the fire at the lodge. They were actually up on the clay top surrounding the fire which was very hot.

A few of the locals gathered there in the evening to drink Chaang. The ladies were just ploughing through it although with every round of  topup the would start with the man of the house who would reluctantly take a sip to make a little room in his mug.

I had Tsampa with milktea and butter in the morning. Very tasty although I think most of the flavour came from the butter.

Kiraunie to Najing Dingma

Gorge in Inkhu Khola. Steep walls and thundering rapids below. I was pleased the swingbridge appeared to be well made. It was very hot and humid as we made our way up the switchbacks heading for Surkie La. 

We arrive at Najing Dingma as it's starting to rain. Even though it's not even lunch time we decide to stop there for the night anyway.

Had some very tasty smoked buffallo that they had drying over the fire. They also cooked it a lot in a frying pan, otherwise there was no way I would have eaten it.

Najing Dingma to Pangum

5 hours

I had tibetan bread for lunch it was fried, puffy, oily ... brilliant! It seems halfway between naan and chapati. Also tried tibetan tea tea for the first time. Which is made with butter coming out as a rich, slightly salty tea, very nice. Not every one likes the tibetan tea but it's definitely worth trying.

Saw other trekkers for the first time. There was a bunch of them heading up to attempt Mera peak with lot's of porters.

Pangum to Puiyan

4 hours

A few ups and downs throughout the day.

Getting close to Puiyan

Puiyan to Phakding

We hit the main tourist trail near Lukla with many planes flying back and forth throughout the day.  It was just getting into the October-November trekking season and a was quite amazed at the number of trekkers. The lodges were bigger, more numerous and more modern.

Beautiful views of the Dudhkoshi river. Pemba bought some terrible looking apples that turned out to be some of the nicest I've had.

Phakding to Namche Bazaar

Kumjung side trip from Namche

3 hours

This was an acclimitisation day so we could get used to the Altitude before heading up the valley. We went up to Khumjung via Everest View hotel. There were good views of Thamserku and Ama Dablam but Everest remained hidden behind clouds.

Namche Bazaar to Dole

5.5h

We branched off from the trail to Everest base camp. The trail size and number of trekkers was reduced greatly. We stopped for lunch in the sun at Phortse Thanga.

The weather deteriorated throughout the day and by the time we reached Dole (4000m asl) it was only 6°C at two in the afternoon. Had a good evening talking to a couple from Israel and a larger group from Montreal.

Dole to Marchermo

I attended an altitude sickness seminar in Marchermo. There was some interesting information and they also gave us oxygen saturation tests, which are an indicator of how well acclimatised you are. My reading was 91% which is good, probably due to the longer walk in from Tumlingtar spending a lot of nights at around 2500m. 

Marchermo to Gokyo 

Sidetrip to 5th lake from Gokyo

I followed the poorly defined trail up the valley from Gokyo. There was a lot of very bumpy terrain were the glacier has recently retreated from. The isolation was good with only a couple of other trekkers around.  By the time I got to 5th lake I was feel quite light headed, I wondered whether it was to do with not eating enough at altitude. This theory was confirmed on another trip up Cherko Ri in the Langtang valley. Back at the lodge in Gokyo I had some lunch and soon felt better.

Gokyo Ri Sidetrip and back down the valley to Phortse Thanga 

We got up well before dawn at 4am hoping to catch the sunrise from Gokyo Ri. The sky was clear and there were several other groups of trekkers setting off in the dark. Pemba didn't have a torch but with clear skies there was enough light for him to follow the trail. It's an ascent of about 600m to get to Gokyo Ri (5400m). The climb isn't especially steep but the altitude enforced a fairly slow pace. I think this is the first time I've ever been cold walking up a hill like this. It was about -3°C at Gokyo, normally I would expect walking up hill to keep me warm but I think the lack of oxygen means your muscles can't work hard enough to generate much heat.

Pemba and I atop Gokyo Ri with Everest in the Background

  

On the way down from Gokyo Ri looking at Gokyo village and lake.

 

Looking up the valley from Gokyo

We had tea and a bit of a snack back at the lodge in Gokyo before setting off back down the valley. It was a glorious day allowing us to see a lot of what we missed in the clouds on the way up. Pemba seemed very happy to be heading downhill.

Heading down the valley from Gokyo towards Marcherma

  

Phortse Thanga to Namche Bazaar 

Still retracing our steps back down the valley. Beautiful weather again giving us more views that we had missed on the way up the valley.

Namche Bazaar to Lukla 

We headed back down the valley stopping for lunch in Chaunrikharka before. It's really hitting the peak of the trekking season now and there are a lot more people than we saw on the way up a week earlier. The last uphill of the trip into Lukla isn't too difficult. Lukla is quite big and not as clean as Namche Bazaar.

Lukla to Kathmandu

We flew out from Lukla to Kathmandu, definitely the scariest part of the trip since the dodgy land rover at the start. Fortunately I only have to take off from here as it's the landing that looks really scary with a very short runway. As the planes come in it doesn't look like there is enough room to slow down but they come to a stop in plenty of time. The turnaround time is also very short, probably only about 5 minutes from landing to the next take off.

I board the 20 seater plane, as soon as we're all seated the plane is off with none of the seatbelt checks or safety briefings one might expect. The plane accelerates down the runway and we drop slightly off the cliff at the end before banking left down the valley. The plane flies quite close to the mountains as there is enough time to gain the height required to fly over them. The GPS on the dashboard frequently flashes red "severe terrain warning". It's only a short flight of about 35 minutes before we're back in Kathmandu.

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Helamu-Gosainkunde-Langtang - Trekking in Nepal

6-10 days

Hollyford Rd end to Hidden Falls hut

Well constructed track between Hollyford Rd End and Hidden Falls Hut

Hidden Falls - Hollyford Track

Hidden Falls hut to Olivine hut

Alabaster Hut

Brown trout from Lake Alabaster at the mouth of Grebe Creek

Olivine Hut

I waited by the Pyke/Olive junction to see whether some unseen trout would become active for an evening rise. That didn't eventuate but I caught a beatiful sunset instead.

Sunset looking down the Pyke River Valley

Olivine hut to Big Bay hut

Arriving at lake Wilmot I spotted some trout at a small creek mouth feeding on little fish. The trout would follow my greys ghost or parsons glory flies but would never actually take it, following the fly right in close before seeing me and bolting back into deeper water ... very frustrating. At Larnachs creek mouth I spotted a nice brown feeding off the surface. My cast was a good one landing about a metre in front of the trout which sauntered ever so slowly towards the fly before sucking it in. Once hooked it still moved in slow motion, gradually pulling the line out into the backing, refusing to stop.

Near the pyke river mouth I spotted a nice trout crusing along the drop off, after it had gone past I followed it while I got ready to cast. My cast was not the best landing well to the side and almost behind, I wasn't sure that it would be seen but the trout quickly turned and grabbed the fly, immediately taking to the air as I set the hook.

There were frequent bush tracks bypassing the most difficult sections of Wilmots shoreline.

I looked for trout and tried fishing in several places along the Pyke but no signs of fish. Perhaps most of the fish head for the lakes over the summer months. Would be interesting to see if there are more trout in the rivers at other times of year.

I considered camping here but it was only 4pm, the sandflies and lack of trout in the river made the idea of a long evening somewhat unapealling so I decided to continue to Big Bay.

The low water flows made the Pyke crossing very easy. I had actually walked the last few kms up the river bed crossing the river here and there. The size of the river bed and logs strewn throughout give testament to the volume of water coming down the valley at times.

Once across the Pyke the track followed up Paulin creek bed that was completely dry before crossing over into the Awarua catchment. The route follows a 4wd track which gradually became more defined as I got closer to the coast. I scared three deer in different places along the road. I heard the roar of the sea making me think I was quite close to the coast but it was another half an hour before I actually got there.

I was able to cross near the mouth of the Awarua easily in the low flow conditions. There is a swingbridge about 20 minutes upstream if you're not sure about the crossing. I followed a track/road through the scrub and groups of houses before finding the DOC hut. The location of the hut is marked on the beach with a large orange triangle on a tall pole, just head through the scrub past the derelict building and you'll see the hut and it's attendant sandfly clouds. 

Delightfully ramshacked building at Big Bay

 

One of the nicer houses at Big Bay

  

Big Bay hut to Martins Bay hut

Conditions were pleasant as I walked along three mile beach. At the end of the beach the shore line becomes rocky but not difficult to follow. There were intermittent tracks along the edge of the bush that provided much easier walking, I'm sure I didn't find all of these tracks as they aren't all marked.

Oyster catcher between Big Bay and Martins Bay

A moderate wind was doing a great job of keeping the sandflies away which made for some very pleasant breaks along the coast. In Fiordland for the absence of sandflies quickly becomes a luxury.

Seal at Long Reef near Hollyford rivermouth

  

Seal at Long Reef near Hollyford river mouth

Martins Bay Hut is a modern 20 bunker with two seperate bunk rooms and a very spacious kitchen area. There are great views of the bay and the Hollyford river mouth. Kahawai can be caught here. I had a go with the fly rod but with no immediate success the sandflies and rocky shoreline soon put me off.

Hollyford river mouth, near Martins Bay Hut

Martins Bay hut to Demon Trail hut

After four fine days in Fiordland the rain finally came just before I left from Martins Bay hut. I enjoyed the well made track past Martins Bay Lodge and the airstrip and on to lake McKerrow. 

My fishing attempts in lake McKerrow were unsuccesful. I did see one dead Kahawai so the water is obviously somewhat salty, perhaps more so due to the low flows in the Hollyford.

There were a few more houses along the waterfront of lake McKerrow at Jamestown an old settlement that was started in the 1860's reaching a population of about 100 people at one stage with most settlers leaving by 1879. 

I stopped for lunch at Hokuri hut and talked to Alan Peat. He's a great character with a lot of stories especially about his time spent in Fiordland looking for moose. The sandflies were driving me mad out on the deck while I put my shoes on. Alan came out and continued to chat away happily, seemingly immune to the sandflies.

Moving on from Hokuri hut towards Demon trail Hut the track become more difficult as it traversed across many small valleys. The larger  streams all have three wire bridges (walk wires) allowing the track to remain passable most of the time.

Three wire bridge between Hokuri hut and Demon Trail Hut

  

Rough trail between Hokuri Hut and Demon Trail Hut

Demon trail hut has 12 bunks. There were a few people including a family with ten and seven year old children that were walking out on the Hollyford after flying in to Martins Bay. They seemed to be doing well although there were a few complaints from the children. The seven year old boy was handy to have around, he did a great job of squashing sandflies.

Demon Trail hut to Hollyford Rd End

I decided to walk out to the road end about 33km away.  The undulations and walkwires of the day before continued until the turn off to McKerrow Island Hut.

Lake McKerrow near Hollyford inflow

   

Backwater on the Hollyford River near McKerrow Island

Now I was back on the track from earlier in the trip. I tried fishing in the Hollyford a few times with no success. 

DOC info on Pyke Big Bay Route

DOC info on Hollyford Track

One of the Brians points that struck home with me was about how rope support allows people to freely move around obstacles which is very important in a bouldery river bed. I've found that to be a major difficulty with linked arms.

Brian also advocates the use of "two hands on a stick" as a way to provide additional support. This can be used with the rope method or when crossing alone.

Chris Owen of the NZ Mountain Safety Council has responded to Brians article. Chris still supports the linked arm method quoting Ray Goldring 

“It was concluded that ropes can give people a false impression of their abilities, and can tempt people to try unsafe conditions,"

“Using a rope as a crossing aid in rivers can be dangerous. Few people are sufficiently skilled to use them safely,"

It's an interesting debate but it's also important that you try to minimise the temptation to cross a dangerous river. Carrying some sort of shelter and possibly a mountain radio are good ways to reduce the temptation. Portable shelter allows you to wait for the river to come down with greater comfort and safety. A mountain radio allows you to call for help or let people know you're going to be late back. Personal locator beacons will also allow you get help.

Their research is based on looking at elite athletes who have essentially unlimited time for training. The cyclists they studies were doing around 25-30 hours per week. It's not clear what the ideal approach is if you have limited training time. What is the optimum intensity mix then? It's clear that there are benefits to be gained from low intensity work. Perhaps tempo training is a good way to get the adaptations of low intensity training in a shorter time. Tempo pace is sometimes referred to as "comfortably hard" and is between 85% and 94% of your threshold heart rate (determined by 30min TT).

I generally spend about 6 hours a week doing training of some form. I'm looking to increase the volume of training to about 10h per week with more Tempo workouts.

A fairly popular trek from Sunjaridal near Kathmandu over Lauribina pass to the Langtag valley, up to Kyanjim Gompa then down to Syabrubesi. I did this trek late in October of 2011 with my guide Pemba.

Sunjaridal to Chisopani

I follow Pemba up sections of concrete steps. There is a large pipeline used to supply water to Kathmandu. Today is day 3 of the Tihar or Dipawali festival and the dogs in the area are all decorated with flower garlands around their necks. We pass a lively group of monkies alongside the track, the cheekiest of the bunch throws an empty juice packet at me.

We arrive in Chisopani after three hours walking. Many of the lodges are full with people visiting for the festival but we soon find a good lodge for the night. The lodge is typical of those found on common trekking routes. It has a dining area, separate rooms, squat toilet and a reasonable menu.

Chisopani to Kutumsang

We head downhill to Pati Bhanjyang. The track is a little slippery in places. As we go uphill again from the valley floor a black dog joins us on our walk. We stop for tea, black dog waits patiently having a few altercations with the resident dogs and goats. 

Today there are cows with flower garlands as it's now day three of the Tihar festival. We ascend through rice terraces on steep switchbacks,  black dog is still with us. At the top of the hill we stop for lunch, no sign of black dog. I talk to a guy from Croatia who's guiding a tour group.

We climb once more to an easy pass and begin a gradual descent to Kutumsang, it's raining lightly and claps of thunder suggest it might get heavier. The onset of rain increases Pembas pace dramatically as he hasn't brought a rain jacket. Fortunately we don't have far to go and arrive at the lodge just before the rain starts dumping down. The lodge owners are very welcoming, Pemba and I join the family around the cooking fire. They're frying up fresh corn kernels which turn out to be very tasty, I enjoy the simple pleasure, savoring it one kernel at a time. They also have corn chaang, a home made beer. Strangely the chaang is served warm but it's very nice unlike some other times I've tried chaang.

The cloud clears just before dusk and I see the snow capped mountains of the Panch Pokhari Range in the distance. Coming back from the toilet after dark I stop to admire the starry sky and hear bats "chirping" or whatever you want to call the sound they make.

Kutumsang to Therepati

The day dawns clear and the family have moved a table and chairs outside for me to have breakfast in the sun. We ascend a gradual slope through stands of strange trees, they are tall but have no big branches to the side. As we reach the top of a hill the weather suddenly become much colder. Soon we come across snow and ice on the ground. 

We reach Mangengoth in time for lunch. There we meet an extremely friendly little girl who speaks a little english. She has a go at using my camera and proceeds to take about 20 photos, some of which actually turn out ok. In the dining room of the lodge I meet some other trekkers. There is a dutch couple Hanaka and Felix. Also Brent and Tara, an Australian couple.

Brent and Tara turn up at the lodge shortly after Pemba and I. 

As the afternoon progresses the cloud begins to drop down into the valleys and soon we have clear views out over the top. Looking down on the cloud tops gives me a much greater sense of being high up. 

Therepati to Phedi

Very cold outside this morning. Looking across to Laurebina Pass I wonder if the track is as difficult as it looks as it traverses steep ridge lines the whole way.

We stop at the tiny village of Gopte for an early lunch as there is nowhere else to stop on the way to Phedi. A lady at the lodge is making Tibetan tea. They add butter to the tea and mix it in a long wooden cylinder. I love the rich taste of it and have two cups. Brent and Tara turn up and I convince them to try so Tibetan tea. They're not at all impressed so I end up with a third cup, could be a good scam!

We leave Gopte with cloud building all around. Soon we are walking inside the clouds but the track is easy to follow and I'm enjoying the spooky feel created by the mist and black rocks. Again I'm suprised by the quality of the track as we make our way fairly easily through the rugged terrain.

Phedi to Cholongpati

It's clear this morning. My breath comes easily as we ascend gradual towards Laurabina pass. Cloud building in the valley below, I hope it just stays there. Soon the cloud is swirling around us, it doesn't leave much hope of views from the pass but as we near the top we climb free of it. Now on the pass looking out over the top of the clouds we see a scatterring of snow, crystal clear blue lakes and distant mountain ranges. I'm not keen to linger here for long as a strong icy wind is blowing. We head down the other side of the pass. The descent is gradual and very pleasant as we are out of the wind a bit and passing by more alpine lakes.

Cholongpati to Bamboo

We head down a side trail from Cholongpati. The main trail continues towards Sing Gompa but there good track that head in a more direct line to Thulo Syabru. As we descend there are more and more terraces for agriculture.

We stop for the night in Ghoda Tabala which Pemba tells me means horse saddle.

Ghoda Tabala to Kyanjin Gompa 

  

Cherko Ri Side Trip

Awake again, it's just after six and I look out the window to see clear skies and snow peaks all around. I jump out of bed and go to wake Brent. The door of the lodge is still locked from the outside so I climb out of a window in the dining room. After a little advice from other Brent and I set off for Kyanjim Ri. Climbing above the valley floor I'm soon extremely out of breath, Brent is setting a faster pace than I'm used to. He's chatting away and my responses soon dwindle to single syllables as I gasp for air. The hill isn't overly steep but the altitude is definitely making itself felt, we're well above 4000m now. It's very cold especially given that we're walking uphill, usually a good way to stay warm. We agree it's just as well we hadn't started earlier in the morning.

We begin to follow the other trekkers and it soon becomes clear that they're ascending Cherko Ri which looks much more impressive than Kyanjin Ri. So Brent I decide to go for Cherko Ri. 

Kyanjin Gompa - Rimche

Balance Pockets 

This is a fairly unique feature of Aarn packs. The idea is that you pack these front pockets with heavy items like food and water to achieve a better fore/aft weight balance. 

Balance pocket benefits 

• Very little pressure on the collar bone. This is usually a problem for me with conventional packs.
• More upright posture.
• Easy access to gear. Camera, water bottles, snacks etc. I've also found it great for a beanie, I can just take it on or off as I walk to maintain a more comfortable temperature.

Fitting

The feather lite freedom offers many ways to customize the fit. The back length is adjustable as on most packs, I'm six foot five and with the large model I still don't have the back at full length so it's a good pack for tall people. There is a removable aluminium bar which allows you to adjust the back panel to fit the shape of your back, this seems to work very well. The hip belt comes in different sizes and each one is also adjustable for length and angle. I've found it to be a very comfortable hip belt, I can tighten it right up with out excessive pressure on my hip bones.

Freedom of movement

The shoulder straps on this pack are joined in such a way that when one shoulder lifts the strap will lengthen on that side and shorten on the other. This seems to work well when moving around obstacles on the track. 

Conclusion

The featherlite freedom is now my pack of choice. I do wish the pockets would sit a little higher so as not to restrict leg movement on very steep terrain.

Update: 

After having this pack for a couple of months I've found the restricted leg movement much less of a problem than I first though. The more upright posture and decreased pressure on the shoulders are great benefits that get more noticeable on a longer trip when more weight is being carried. 

Day 1: Te Aroha to Waitengaue/Ananui Junction

This took about 6 hours going up over Te Aroha and down the Waipapa track to Waitawheta then to the Ananui falls junction on the Waitengaue track. I was using my new tramplight pack and cloudburst 2 tarptent. This saved 2.7 kg of weight compared to my normal gear. The light weight gear was definitely noticed with a general feeling of freedom and ease despite not being especially fit at the moment.

I found a spot with barely enough space for my tent just downstream from the junctionThe weather packed it in overnight so I got to see how my tarptent was in the rain. As you would hope it was nice and waterproof but there was a build up of condensation on the inside, this didn't seem to cause any problems though. 

Day 2: Waitengaue/Ananui Junction to Te Aroha via Daly's clearing 

This was a longer day of 7.5 hours heading up past the 168m Ananui falls, down to bluff creek past Daly's clearing onto the Mangakino pack track and up to Tui Saddle the descending and heading along back to the Te Aroha domain. Before heading off I had to make a call on what the Waitawheta crossing would be like, I decided it would likely be high but not too bad as I've seen it handle quite a lot of rain at other times without becoming uncrossable. This decision turned out to be correct but not by much, the Waitawheta was quite swollen and nearing the point where I wouldn't have crossed it. 

The Mangakino pack track sidles along a ridge most of the way and often has a steep drop off to the side. The footing is generally good but some extra care is required in places. The head of McCormick creek was very cool with lots of mist and several small waterfalls coming of the drenched hill sides.

So a great 2-4 day loop. I was travelling reasonably fast most of the way, the doc times work out to about 18 hours in total. Great to go on some interesting new tracks so close to home.

Refer to this route guide for a detailed description of the route. My friend Paul and I decided to do this in August 2009. As mentioned in the route guide many of the times doc has listed on the markers and in pamplets are difficult to achieve. Perhaps the tracks used to be in better condition or maybe they were just walked by fitter people. Usually Paul and I take less than the times suggested by DOC but in this area we were often well over the times, particularly when river travel was involved.

The track involves a lot of river bed travel and some steep hills. Navigation skills are also required as some of the tracks and junctions are poorly marked.

The drive into the start of track is a good one, taking Te Wera Rd off the Opotiki-Gisborne highway (SH2) before turning right onto the winding and gravelled Moanui Rd.

Day 1: Moanui Rd to Tawa Hut

3 hours 

Starting around midday after the long drive from Hamilton, we followed the Koranga downstream, the river level was quite high. This wasn't a concern for the first day as there was a swingbridge across the Koaranga. Later in the trip we would be doing a lot of travel in river beds so I hoped there wouldn't be much more rain. After crossing the swingbridge over the Koranga we began following the marked route through the farm land. This is one of the more rugged farms I've seen, they had it stocked with cows which looked suprisingly nimble on the steep slopes. Soon the track began to climb up a rather steep farm track affectionately known as "the burn". This 350m climb would be very hot on a fine summers day but fortunately for us it was winter, so no worries there.

Having reached the top of the burn we followed the track as it entered the bush. We descended gradually into the Kahuiti Valley on a good track, it was slightly overgrown in places but offered very good travel. Once in the valley floor we passed the junctions with the Kahanui and Makakoere streams as we headed downstream to Tawa hut. Arriving at Tawa hut we soon thought of getting a fire going. There was plenty of wood around but the chimney seemed to be blocked and we just couldn't get any air flow going so the fire kept going out. Paul wasn't prepared to give up without a fight though and climbed up onto the roof and after gave the chimney a good shake and scraped all the solidified ash out of the top, soon our fire came to life!

Day Two: Tawa Hut to Te Rangaakapua Hut

10 Hours

Retracing our steps from the day before we headed back up the Kahuiti for about 400m to the marked junction with the Makakoere stream. Now it was time to get cold feet, Paul always tramps in trail running shoes and I often do as well. I had thought about taking boots for this trip but the thought of going up and down the hills in heavy water laden boots encouraged me to go with the trail runners.

As expected the river was very cold. We headed upstream sticking to the banks where possible crossing the river constantly continuing on past the Makakoere Hut.

We saw several pairs of blue ducks along the Makakoere. As always I struggled to get a good photo of them. There was also a lot of deer and pig sign all the way up the valley. In the upper valley we saw a stag on a river flat and further along disturbed a pig which went crashing through the bush.

After about six hours in the stream we reached the start of the track up to Te Rangakaapua. We found the going rather difficult as we headed up the steep and overgrown track, it really is a more difficult climb than it looks on the map. The ascent is about 650m but was quite exhausting, this may also have something to do with the six hours spent walking up the stream. Eventually we arrived at the top of the range at an altitude of 1326m. The area obviously sees a lot of moisture, just look at all the moss on the trees in the photo below.

Half an hour through the goblin forest brought us to the welcome sight of the hut. Here was another fire lighting challenge, there was a bit of wood around but it was all quite damp. Fortunately its not a big hut, so our sizzling smoldering fire was able to do the job. Exploring the area around the hut we got some nice views of the surrounding area when the mist cleared briefly.

Day 3: Te Rangaakapua to Te Pua Hut 

7.5 hours

Starting out the next morning we passed through a swampy plateau up on top of the range. It was very boggy and difficult to find the track in places. Soon we entered the bush and began the long gradual descent down the ridge past the junction with the track to Mangatoatoa hut. There was quite a lot of windfall here, once again making it tricky to follow the track sometimes. After the junction the track was undulating for the next couple of kms before beginning a steeper descent to the Mangatoatoa stream at Uruwaea.

At the junction we headed up around an unstable looking slip. I'm not sure our route turned out any safer as the hill side was very steep, but we got back down to the track. The track stayed on the true right of the Mangatoatoa as we followed it down to the Tauranga river. I was pleased to see the Tauranga river wasn't too high and was easily crossable (still cold though). We found quite a lot tracks through the bush which cut out bends in the river and also offered easier and warmer travel. There were still a few river crossing along the way though. Arriving at Te Pua hut there about six small pigs in the clearing. Judging by the all the rooting in the area they had spent a lot of time there. The clearing looked like it had been dug up by a tractor.

We were very pleased to find that there were two arm chairs in the hut. The chairs proved much more comfortable than the regular bench seats in huts. We enjoyed the luxury as we lazed around in the warmth from the pot belly stove.

Day 4: Te Pua Hut to Tataweka Hut

7.5 hours 

From Te Pua we headed East straight across the Tauranga river. This was followed by a gradual of about 440m and a steep descent into the Tawawharara valley. Making our way up the Tawawhara was tricky in places. A couple of times we had to make detours up around the very steep hill sides to avoid a swim in the river, this was quite difficult and definitely not for everyones taste.

At the forks of the Tawawharara and Maniaroa you can continue up the Tawaharara to the Otane Bivouac but we headed up the Maniaroa valley on a track that stayed out of the river for a little while. After the track dropped back into the river we stopped for lunch at another set of forks before heading up the hill over to the Tataweka valley. This climb was much steeper than the previous one but still not too bad, especially compared to the climb to Te Rangaakapua. After coming down the hill we arrived in the Tataweka river bed. On the map it looked like quite an open river bed, but all the river flats were covered with Buddleia. Buddleia is a noxious weed that seems to be taking over in certain areas of the Ureweras. This made travel much more frustrating and less scenic than it otherwise would have been.

The Tataweka hut has been kept in something resembling its originally state. This is cool, but the fireplace design leaves something to be desired. Unless we had the fire going really hard the hut would just fill with smoke.

Day 5: Tataweka Hut to Moanui Rd 

6 hours 

We continued down the Tataweka through the buddlia which can be seen in the photo below. The travel down the Tataweka was easier in the lower section though with less buddlia and more open rocky river banks. 

Before reaching the Kahuiti there is a track on the true right that bypasses a tricky section of the river. Following the bypass track we soon came out at the Kahuiti stream. After crossing the stream we heading back up to Tawa hut from where we retraced our route from day one back up the Kahuiti valley and down the burn to the Koranga and the our car waiting and Moanui rd.

During normal river flows the crossings are pretty easy but if the river comes up it can quickly become uncrossable. There are alternate ways out from the hut to Te Aroha, Woodlands rd or via the Mangakino pack track so you can either wait it out at the hut or take one of those options.

The track through the valley is one of the flattest around which is pretty amazing when you see how steep some of the surrounding terrain is.

The 26 bunk Waitawheta hut. This is a serviced hut which in this case means it is stocked up with firewood. There is no gas for cooking.

The view from the hut.

There are a few tracks around the hut that have some old relics from the sawmill that used to be there. 

General Features 

They quote a weight of 710g, mine probably weighs a little more than this as I had it made a little longer to match my height.

Removable sleeping mat used for back rest 

One really cool feature in this pack is the use of a foam sleeping mat as a back rest. This means you won't need to carry a sleeping mat anymore unless you want the added comfort of a self inflating mattress. So you might be able to subtract another 300g or so from the weight of this pack if you're comparing it to one without this feature. I will probably still use my therm-a-rest when I'm planning to camp rather than stay in a hut, but for unplanned camping the one built into the pack would do the job fine.

This pack is about 2.1kg lighter than my excessively large 90L fairydown. The bush crasher has a capacity of around 65L (just a rough estimate) so it's not really a direct comparison. What I can say though is that the reduced weight is very noticeable. Just think of the difference it makes carrying a two man tent.

Load Stability 

I found there was a tendency for the backrest of the pack to round out as I packed which made it a bit unstable on my back. This problem can be largely avoided by taking care in the loading of the pack.

Apart from the issue with rounding of the backrest the pack was fairly stable while walking. At one stage I tried a bit of running and the pack bounced around all over the place. So if you're someone that likes to a bit of running with your pack on this might not be the pack for you. The stability of the pack seemed fine while crossing rivers and walking over boulders so it seems that it handles lateral movement ok, it's just the up and down jolting of running that really upsets it.

All in all it's a good buy at $205 NZ for such a light pack.

There was a bit of rain overnight which made the Tawerau color up a bit more, it's murky enough at the best of times so I headed back upstream for about 45 minutes to the big bend in the track overlooking the river, this is near the small sign pointing to Were rd. Hooked one in the little run above the big pool, there always seems to be a fish in there but they it is a bit tricky to fish with overhanging treas and a sharp seam between the fast a slow water which makes it difficult to get a good drift. Hooked another a little further up but decided to head back up to the Were Rd bridge were I've often had good success. My lazy mood probably influenced this decision as it is much easier to make progress along the banks in the where the river flows.

I fished for about 40 minutes upstream from the Were rd bridge and caught three. Two were quite small at around a pound or so but one was a nice fat three pounder. The river levels were very low.

This route in the Te Urewera national park takes in a wide range of terrain and scenery. Rough gravel rd, easy river valleys, bouldery creek bed, ridge track covered in windfall and carefully manicured great walk track. It doesn't form a complete loop so you'll need a way to get back to your car at the end or the tramp. Parts of this track poorly marked so a good map and compass as well some decent navigation skills are essential.

Getting to the Waiau valley 

0-2.5 hours walking. Depends on whether you walk the entire road or take a vehicle.

There is a four wheel drive road through Whites clearing to the Waiau headwaters. This road is through private property. You can walk it no problems but if you want vehicle access you'll need to get in contact with the land owners. They can be contacted through their business Ahurei Adventures. For a fee they will provide secure car parking or a lift up the road in one of their vehicles.

Whites Clearing to Wairoa Junction via Parahaki Stream

2-3 hours 

A fairly common sight in a Urewera clearing. Most of the horses seem to be at least partly domesticated, this one followed me for a few minutes as I walked through the clearing and was quite keen to have a go at eating my hand while I was patting it.

This rather elaborate and fairly permanent looking bivy was on the true right of the Parahki Stream just upstream from the confluence with the Wairoa. There are other bivy's setup in the Waiau valley but this was by far the best one I saw.

Old Parahaki Hut Site to Central Waiau Hut

~2 Hours 

There are a lot of trout in the Waiau river system. On this visit most of the trout were holding in the pools and very wary, or perhaps I was just out of practice (probably a bit of both).  The fish in the photo was taken from a fast riffle. The Parahaki and Wairoa streams were also holding good numbers of trout.

Waiau river valley The Waiau river valley is very open in places making for easy walking and good views.

There seemed to be a lot of large spiders in the valley. I've often seen these spiders at night in other areas but they were out and about during the day here.

Central Waiau Hut is a fairly standard 8 bunk hut. There are good fishing and hunting opportunities around this hut. Central Waiau Hu

Central Waiau Hut to Te Waiotukapiti Hut 

3-4 Hours 

The track here mostly follows the river apart from a detour to avoid a gorgy section near blue slip. The gorge is quite passable in normal river flows although its a little trick in places. Probably only worth travelling down the river if hunting or fishing.

 

Te Waiotukapiti Hut to Lake Waikaremoana via Pukekohu Range

9-13 Hours

This section is marked as taking 10 hours but it would be quite difficult to get there at the time of writing (Apr 2010) due to the huge amounts of windfall on the track. Constant detours are required to get around the fallen trees, this is very time consuming as its not always easy to find the track again particularly if the detour coincides with the track changing direction.

A few hundred metres down the Waiau from the Te Waiotukapiti hut the Te Waiotukapiti stream enters on the true left. The Te Waiotukapiti stream is followed for 2-3 hours until the second major junction is reached. The stream provides fairly slow travel as it is quite bouldery in places. From the junction there is a track up the ridge onto the Pukekohu range. The beginning of the track is fairly well marked with a "track" sign visible from the fork in the river.

The track up the ridge and along the Pukekohu Range is difficult to follow in places because of the windfall. 

From the junction the track to Waikaremoana drops 500m in altitude down to the Manganuiohou River. There is another campsite just before reaching the river.

From the Manganuiohou there is a 300m hill to tackle before dropping down to meet the Waikaremoana track near the Maraunui campsite. If you've walked over from the Waiau in a single day you'll most likely be happy to stop there for the night. As it's part of a great walk you'll need a booking for these campsites as they charge double price if you don't have one. The cooking shelter is nice to have in bad weather but if you want to save the hassle of booking you could stay back at the campsite by the Manganuiohou river.

Maraunui Campsite to Hopuruahine

5-8 hours

This section covers roughly 19km. This sounds like a huge distance but the track is of such good quality that it can be covered reasonably quickly. Certainly much faster travel than the trip over the Pukekohu range from the Waiau. You'll pass several huts and campsites along the way which are great if you're looking to spread the trip out. See the DOC website for more info on the Waikaremoana Track.

Location: East of Hamilton near Matamata.

View Te Taupi Reserve in a larger map

This is a loop track that takes in Maungakawa peak which rises to 495m. The start of the track is at about 120m so there is a good 370m climb involved. How steep it is depends largely on which way you go around the loop. A clockwise circuit offers a gradual undulating climb with a much steeper downhill. So you can choose your direction of travel based on your preferences.

The track is well cut and marked with good footing although as with most tracks around the Waikato it can be quite muddy in places. There is a small tower at the top the provides a good view of the area with the Kaimai ranges featuring prominently. Its one of the lesser known tracks around Hamilton. 

The Queenstown area in particular has a lot of awesome tramping tracks. One of the best is the Rees-Dart track.

If you're really keen you could try tramping the length of New Zealand.It's still a bit of a work in progress but it is possible to walk thelength of New Zealand staying on tracks most of the time. This track iscalled Te Araroa - The Long Pathway. The route of Te Araroa takes in a huge variety of terrain from beach walking to alpine passes.

Many visitors to New Zealand are a bit suprised at the roughness ofsome of the tracks. Most of the really popular walks have wellmaintained tracks but the other tracks are a lot more rugged, whiletaking a little more effort and care it is well worth it as you reallyfeel like you're on a mission in the wilderness rather than strollingdown a nicely constructed path. Because New Zealand has such a lowpopulation and a large number of tramping tracks it is almostimpossible to maintain them all to a high standard.

The hut system in New Zealand is absolutely brilliant. Huts cost $5 to$15 per night or about $90 for a season pass. The great walks have moremodern huts and cost a bit more. The season pass allows you to stay inany of the Department of Conservation huts in New Zealand, the onlyexception is the great walks were you have to pay an additional fee.While most of the hut's a very simple they make a brilliantly cosyalternative to a tent when the weather turns bad. They generally have afire place inside so you can keep yourself nice and warm. The huts alsoprovide a good way to meet other trampers as you sit around the tableand discuss the day.

Fly Sim - This game quite cheap and suprisngly good although the graphics aren't as good as the "Real World Fly Fishing" game, casting is done by moving the mouse back and forth and has a fairly realistic feel to it. You can also practice mending the line and seeing how the varying current flows affect the drift. They have a free demo which you can check out if you're interested.

We'll consider the trip from Te Puia lodge back  to the road. You start off by heading up the valley on the track to the hot springs, but instead of taking the swing bridge across the Makino stream you take the left branch. This track is not of the same standard as the river track but it's still pretty well defined with good footing. The track rises about 500 metres in 2.5km, it's fairly steep in places and will take around 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach the top of the hill depending largely on the fitness of your group. The bush and scrub start to thin out towards the top offering some good views of the surrounding area. At the top there is a fork in the track with the track on the right leading to Makino hut and further into the Kawekas. But it's the left track you want to take, from here the track begins an undulating sort of descent with a couple of plateaus on the way back to the carpark. The whole track will likely take 3.5 - 4 hours.

Do make sure you take a topo map and compass - great for your safety and piece of mind if you haven't been on the track before.

Note this track does not come out back at the gums car park, so if you've left your car there there will be a bit of road walking involved.

Good section of the track on the way to bald spur The first part of the track to bald spur is in quite good condition and currently (August 2008) this track is being upgraded to a very high standard as can be seen in the photo. After 20-45min of zig-zagging up the hill you will reach the bald spur viewing platform.

View from bald spur on lower slopes of Mount Te Aroha The view from bald spur is great and is a popular destination in itself. It's really impressive how high up you get in such a short walk. You can see out over the Waikato and Hauraki plains, with the Firth Of Thames also visible.

One of the worse sections of the Mt Te Aroha summit track Proceeding on from bald spur the slope is fairly gentle and even includes one of the rare flat sections as it passes through a small patch of pine trees. From there the slope begins to get steeper and sometimes rocky as you climb through native bush. As can be seen in the photo the track is not as good as the part leading to bald spur; however it is still well defined with good footing all the way up.

If you live in the area do make sure you do this walk, it's really good for your fitness and the views are great.

About six weeks ago I finally got water proof pants and they are brilliant, now I'm not constantly wondering "will it rain on the way to work". I still don't stay completely dry on longer trips or if the rain is really pouring down, but they pants definitely provide a lot more freedom. I always used end up taking the car in winter because I wasn't sure about the weather but now I'm able to cycle comfotably in most conditions we have here.

So if you find the weather forcing you to use your car more often than you would like, I thoroughly recommend getting some water proof pants. 

I'm also planning on doing the 10km event when the Hamilton Half Marathon is on.  It is being held on the 5th of October this year (2008). Hopefully I will be able to get close to 50 minutes for the run, although there is still a bit of work to do before that will be happening.

As promised by the forecasters the weather was pretty bad with solid rain from midday sunday. Still the walk in was good with the track still in very good order despite the rain, just a few little creeks to cross that would usually be nothing more than a trickle. After collecting some firewood and a spot of book reading I cooked some taco's for dinner which went down very well.

We got a bit of a suprise near the road end on the way back, what had been a small ditch that you could easily step across had become significantly larger overnight. Presumably this was caused by flooding.  Paul shows us what was the track just one day earlier, check it out!

Below I turn my hand side ways in awe of the power of nature. Look what happened to the fence.

So I proceeded to do the exercises faithfully ... for about a week after that my knee felt a little better and I forgot about doing the exercises, my knee got worse again.  This cycle was repeated in varying forms for about 3 months.  Until the month of June when I made a commitment to do the exercises twice every day. I left a reminder next to my bedside clock so that I would always remember to do them when I got up in the morning and again before I went to sleep.

After a few weeks my knee was greatly improved and I was able to start doing a few short runs.  After doing the leg exercise everyday for the last two months I have been able to go for a few 7km gentle runs and it's fine!  Time to get back into some tramping again!

So if you've got and injury and your physio or doctor has recommended exercises to fix it, make sure you do them. Even if you don't see immediate results stick with it.

Photo by kiwi-wing.

Recently at my house in Hamilton New Zealand we've had some unusually cold weather.  It gets down to about -3 degrees celcius overnight.  Depending where you're from this may not sound this cold but bear in mind that a lot of houses have quite poor insulation.  When it's minus three outside the temperature inside my house is about 5 degrees, that's a good temperature for a fridge.  So as you can imagine it's not to warm inside and even with a good pile of blankets it can still be a bit chilly, no matter how good the blankets are you're still breathing in that cold air.  I started to wonder ...

What Can I Do To Make It Warmer

We don't have a fire place and I wanted to come up with a way of heating my room without using gas or power.  I came up with one heat source that was being underutilised ... Me!  If I could find a way to capture more of the heat being lost from my breath, that would be great.  I've often put my head under the sheets to warm up my bed which works great but you can't do that all night long because you'll run out of oxygen and the moisture in your breath will make your bed damp. So I started thinking about another way to hold in that air.  Two things sprung to mind snow caves and tents.  After briefly considering making a snow cave in my room I decided that the tent actually had more potential.

Putting Up A Tent Inside

Dome tents are well suited to putting up inside because they don't need pegs in the ground to hold them up.  Unfortanately my small tent is not a dome design so I had to improvise, I was able to secure the tent by using the legs of my bed and sitting sets of draws on the loops where the pegs usually go, it was all a bit rickety but I've never really had gale force winds in my room so it was good enough.  So with my tent setup it was time to see if it was any warmer.

The Results

When I went to bed at 11pm it was about 11 degrees in my room.  After getting in the tent and thrashing around for a few minutes arranging the blankets, the temperature in the tent had risen to 15 degrees, I was quite excited at this point anticipating a nice warm night.  It turns out that it was probably just the extra movement that generated all the heat, it certainly cooled down in the tent as my body relaxed in preperation for sleep.  Still it seemed warmer during the night and when I woke up in the morning it was 9 degrees in the tent, after taking the thermometer out of the tent and giving it a few minutes to adjust it was reading 5 degrees in my room.

If you have any other ideas on how to get a warmer nights sleep without using extra energy please leave a comment below.

Beach fishing

Grapnel sinkers with the popout wire prongs are great for beach fishing when the is strong currents or a lot of wave action. The spikes dig into the sand and act as an anchor.

Rock Fishing

Spoon sinkers are great for fishing in rock terrain. When you start retrieving them they plane up towards the surface staying clear of all the foul ground. A ball or pyramid sinker doesn't do these and you get snagged a lot. Just the simple change to a spoon sinker can make rock fishing much more enjoyable. 

Showing - of Articles

1. Aim For A Natural Drift

When dry fly and nymph fishing it usually works best to let the flies drift naturally with the current (also called a dead drift).  There are exceptions such as when imitating Cicadas or Sedges, in these situation a bit of movement can help.  Achieving a natural drift can be very difficult in certain situations where you're casting across water with varying current speeds, you'll need to learn to mend the line.  The term mending describes a technique where you flip the upstream or downstream to allow for the varying current speeds.  Mending is quite an art but in some situations it's almost essential if you want to catch trout.

2. Don't Let The Trout See You

Staying out of sight of the trout can be very important.  In clear water it is almost essential that you approach from downstream, this helps because trout usually face into the current.  You'll also want to stay low and dress in natural colours.  When a downstream approach isn't possible it can pay to basically crawl into position.  Make use of any cover around the banks, if you're trying to spot trout before fishing to them you can actually hide behind trees and peer through the branches.

3. Fish At The Right Depth

Generally speaking trout are more willing to move sideways to intercept a fly than they are to move up or down.  This means it can be very important to present your fly at the same depth as the trout.  When nymphing you can use flies of different weight to vary the depth of drift, if fishing to trout hugging the bottom in deep water you'll need to make sure the leader is long enough to let the flies get down there - you'll want to use a leader at least one and half times as long as the water depth.  Fishing with dead drift (see above) also allows the flies to sink faster, an unnaturally slow or fast drift will tend to plane the flies towards the surface.

When wet fly or lure fishing with a sinking line you can use a slower or faster sinking line.  Varying the angle of your cast will also allow you to fish a different depths without having to change to a different line.  The further upstream you angle your cast the more the line will be able to sink before it starts swinging across the current.

4. Change The Size Of Your Fly

Often a lot of focus goes on using different patterns of trout fly but I've found that the size of fly seems to be more important.  On many occasions a change to a smaller or larger fly of the same pattern will bring success.  Typically smaller flies fish well in clearer water, however there are a lot of factors at play so it pays to experiment.

5. Get Polaroid Glasses

Polaroid sunglasses cut down on the glare coming from the waters surface and allow you to see fish much easier.  Spotting fish before casting can be a huge advantage ... it certainly adds to the excitement! Glasses designed especially for fishing seem to be superior than general polarised glasses.  Even if you're unable to spot fish the polaroids can make it easier to spot under water snags and changes in depth.  Wearing glasses is also quite important from a safety perspective, no-one want's to end up with a fish hook in their eye!

6. Keep Your Line Hand Down When Casting

You can ignore this tip if you're proficient with the double-hauling technique or are trying to learn it, but if you're just learning to cast it can make a big difference.  Many people tend to follow the action of the hand holding the rod with their other hand.  If this sounds like you try keeping the hand holding the line down by your side, this will generate much more line speed with little effort and make casting much easier.

7. Practise Casting

Obviously everyone practises casting when they go fishing, but chances are you're probably unable to get out fishing as often as you would like.  A bit of practice in the backyard or out in the park can greatly accelerate the learning process.  You cast a lot more often when practising, so even just 5 or 10 minutes of practise on a regular basis can make a big improvement in your casting skills.  This applies to experienced fisherman as well, you'll be much more likely to experiment and try new techniques when you're not focussed on catching fish. Try it out a few times and see.

8. Concentrate

Concentration can really help you to catch fish.  It's particularly important to be focussed on the task at hand when nymphing or trying to spot trout.  Regardless of the fishing method it's important to always pay attention to what you're doing otherwise you won't know how to repeat it when you get a fish.

9. Learn New Methods

Many people have a favourite method that they use almost exclusively.  Often this makes sense as certain techniques will work better on some rivers.  Sometimes though a change to a different method will bring success.  For example try lure fishing when whitebait or other small fish are plentiful in the river.  If the trout are clearly feeding off the surface you'll want to try dry flies, it's definitely not the time to be dredging the bottom with fast sinking lines or heavy nymphs.  The conditions can change throughout the day due to water flows and change of light as well as natural feeding cycles.  If you're doing well stick with it but when your current method stops working experiment!!

10. Use Two Fly Rigs

In some situations using a two fly rig can massively increase your chances of catching fish.  The classic example of this is nymphing in deep water or fast flowing water where you need a lot of weight to get the fly down to the fish, you'll need a large fly to build enough weight into it but if the fish won't take the large fly you'll often be able to get them on a small fly attached to a dropper.  Fishing in New Zealand's Tongariro river is like this I'll usually use a size 10 heavily weighted nymph to get it down and a #14 or even #16 unweighted behind it.  Wether it's the size or the more natural drift of the lighter fly I'm not sure but in clear water conditions at least 95% of the trout are taken on the small fly.  Dry fly and nymph combo's can also work very well although I do find they tend to scare the fish more when they're particularly spooky.

I hope you find these tips useful - if you have any tips of your own feel free to leave a comment below.

What To Use For Burley

There are many options here such as frozen burley bombs, pellet based burley and home made.  Frozen burley bombs are an easy effective option, you can buy them from most shops that have a good amount of bait.  Pellet based burley is probably not quite as good as frozen products but because it is dry it doesn't go off  - this is great if you're going away somewhere and won't have access to a freezer.  You can make your own berley by saving and freezing fish guts and or mincing fish frames.  Oily fish tends to make a better burley trail.  

How to Disperse The Burley

The main aim is to keep a nice steady trail of burley going out, with this in mind it's preferable to have your berley dispensing automatically.  To do this suspend your burley just on the water line so any waves or swell will slowly wash out the good stuff.  Most burley bombs come with a bit of netting to hold it in and while these are good for boat fishing they're not strong enough to handle rubbing against rocks and will soon rip open and dump all of your burley into the water in one go.  What you want is something tougher like an onion sack and tie a fairly strong cord or rope to the sack.

Related Articles

Basic Guide To Rock Fishing

Piper are abundant around the north island of New Zealand.  They seem to be more common in sheltered areas but can also be found in exposed locations.  Piper make great bait for snapper and kingfish.

The best way I've found to catch piper is to use a float with a small size 14-16 trout hook about 30cm below the float.  A tiny sliver of fish flesh or skin works well for bait, bread is also good.  You can just cast out and wait for bites but they take the bait so gently it can be hard to know when you've got a bite.  A better method is to cast out and after allowing your bait to sink a bit just retrieve it very slowly.  The piper love follow the moving bait and they will most likely hook themselves as they take.

Berley is a great way to attract piper and will greatly increase your chances.

Main Beach

Good spinning for kahawai all along the beach with snapper more common after dark.  The snapper seem to respond well to fresh piper and sprats.

1st Point South

Some good fishing to be had here amongst the kelp although you may find you get snagged a lot. 

2nd Point South 

Flat rocks at 2nd point south from Papa Aroha This is the best spot.  It takes about 20-30 minutes to walk here from the campground.  Access is best 3 hours either side of low tide, if the tide is too high it can be difficult to get around the first point.  There are some fairly flat rocks that provide access to deep water just off shore.  Get a good burley trail going to bring in the sprats and piper, the kahawai shouldn't be too far behind.  One of the best baits to use for snapper is fresh kahawai, either unweighted or with a very small sinker.  The snapper tend to hang back a bit so it usually works out well to cast 30-40m.

Eastern Side

Homanga Bay  

A bit of a walk to get there but the scenery and good fishing from the rock ledge make it well worthwhile. 

Whangamata

Kahawai can be caught from the harbour by lure casting at the mouth of the estuary.

Tairua

Whitianga 

John Dory, parore, snapper and kahwai can be caught off the wharfs on either side of the harbour. 

Stoney Bay

Stoney is located on the far north of the eastern side of the peninsula. You can fish from the stoney beach that gives the bay its name but the rocky shoreline on the southern side of the bay is usually better.  There is a DOC campground here which makes for a cheap and convenient place to stay while on a fishing holiday.

Western Side 

Mussel Farms 

The mussel farms are good spots to fish for snapper.  They areparticularly good for inexperienced fisherman because they are veryeasy to locate.  It's much easier to tie up to the bouys of the musselfarm than it is to try to anchor over an unseen submerged reef.  Anotherplus is that you don't have to bother with an anchor.  The maindownside with fishing amongst the mussel ropes is that it's extremelydifficult to land large snapper and kingfish because they will bust youoff on the ropes.  This is most unfortunate as there are some verylarge fish to be found in the mussel farms. 

Thames Coast 

As you drive leave Thames and drive along the coast up the westernside of the peninsula there are many easily accessed fishing spots. The small rocky outcrops are very popular.  Some of the shingle beacheson the northern part of the coast just after Waikawau are also popularand can often produce a feed of snapper.

Coromandel Town

There is a boat ramp at Te Kouma on the southern side of the harbour. This is an all tide ramp but the parking area can get quite full overthe busy summer period.

Papa Aroha

There is a campground here with walking access to some good fishing spots. 

Fantail Bay

A nice DOC campsite here tucked away in amongst Pohutukawa and other native trees.  There are some great rock ledges that are easily accesible from the road heading north from fantail bay.

Fletchers Bay

Boats can be launched off the beach here.  There are also a variety of beaches and rock outcrops that provide fishing opportunintues along the coast. 

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If you would like to share the story of how you or your got into fishing please add it to the comments section at the bottom of the article or better yet you can send your story and some photo's to me and I'll add a page to my site for you.  Use the contact page to get in touch with me.

My sister and I with some snapper caught from our Aunt and Uncles Boat Here's me and my sister with some snapper we caught on our Aunt and Uncles boat.  We were fishing just outside the main Harbour and Waiheke Island.   Great fun being out on the boat and actually catching some fish to eat.

My First Trout. Caught from Scotts Flat Lake in Nevada The first trout I caught.  This is me and my grandad, the trout is the smudge in front of my foot.  It's a shame you can't see the trout better but it was my first one so it has to be shown here. All of my practice casting in the paddock at home paid off here.  I caught the trout on a red rooster tail spinner, which is a veltic style lure with a revolving blade.  I caught this one at Scotts Flat lake in Nevada, USA.  As soon as we got home to New Zealand Dad and I went about trying to catch a New Zealand trout.

First Trout Caught Fly Fishing Here I am with my first trout caught fly fishing.  It was caught in the Waikato river below the Aratiatia Dam.

Nice John Dory Caught Near Waiheke Island A beautiful john dory caught near Waiheke Island with Aunty Mary and Uncle Chris.  By this stage I was very addicted to fishing and when we'd stayed on their boat.  I'd continue fishing after we had pulled in a Harbour for the night, catching sprats and yellotail mackerel until dad would send me to bed.  Then as soon as it was light in the morning I'd start fishing again.

8 Pounder From Waitahanui Straight An 8 pounder from the Waitahanui straight.  This was caught no more than a long backcast away from the main road.  So you don't always have to be in a remote location to catch big trout.

9 Pounder from Red Hut Pool on Tongariro River A 9 Pounder from the Red Hut Pool on the Tongariro river. It put up a great fight screaming off down the river time and time again.   This is the biggest trout I've caught to date.

So thats how I got into fishing. If you've got children I thoroughly encourage you to take them out fishing.

Remember to comment or contact me to send in your story and photo's.

Location 

Stony bay is as far north as you can go by road on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula, the beach and campground are at the end of Stony Bay Rd.  There is a lot of driving on narrow gravel roads to get there so take care, the last 7km are particularly bad with small ruts carved in the road by water - in winter it could get quite slippery.

The Old Boat Ramp 

There is an old boat ramp on the southern side of the bay, it's a few hundred metres along the rocks from the beach.  There is no road down to the boat ramp anymore but there is a large concrete slab that just out from the rocks, this makes a very convenient fishing platform.  There is a lot of kelp around the rocks which can make things a bit difficult but there are good keepable snapper to be caught so it's worthwhile persisting.  I have found that there are sometimes better fish further out from the rocks so do try some longish casts.  From the boat ramp you can see many appealing looking spots further out towards the bays the southern point.

Main Beach 

As the name suggests Stony Bay has a rocky bottom.  It's made up of small stones and the action of the tide and waves create some really interesting rippled formations along the beach.  Snapper can be caught from the beach particularly around dawn and dusk, there are also school shark present so bring some heavy leader if you're interested in catching those.

Spear Fishing 

Parore are plentiful in close to the rocks amongst the kelp.  These offer good sport for spear fishermen. 

Accomodation 

The department of conservation has a campground at stony bay.  There is room for hundreds of tents but apart from christmas, new years and long weekends you won't find large number of people here.  The price is a very reasonable $7 per person.  Basic facilities are provided here including toilets, running water and cold showers.  If you're looking for something with more of the comforts of home there are more accomodation options to the south in Port Charles and Sandy Bay.

Related Articles

Coromandel Fishing Spots

Fishing at Papa Aroha - Coromandel

Safety

We'll start with the only downside of rock fishing, it can be dangerous if appropriate care isn't taken.  You should always go with someone else, so they can help you if you get into trouble.  Before going down to the waters edge just spend a couple of minutes watching the waves breaking, this will give you a feel for how big the waves are and where it will be safe for you to stand.  Just remember it's not worth risking your life to catch and fish and you'll be fine. 

Tackle

A typical setup for rock fishing is a 12 foot rod with a threadline (spinning) reel.  This will allow you to cast a long way if required.  A long rd is useful for getting your gear off the bottom quickly when reeling in.  If you're fishing off a rock ledge with deep water straight off the rocks then a shorter rd can be used, one of about 8 foot is a popular choice for these situations.  If you're on a budget the rod is the place to cut costs not the reel, a cheap reel is unlikely to last and can very easily ruin your fishing experience.

A line with 10kg breaking strain is a good place to start.  You'll need to go heavier if you're targetting really large snapper or kingfish, 15kg or even 24kg line may be required.  You will probably want to have a section of stronger line near the hook, this is called a leader or trace and is designed to withstand abrasion by rocks, kelp and the teeth of the fish.  15kg is a good starting point but if you're using heavier main line for large fish you will want to use a heavier leader.

Unless you're fishing really close to the rocks you'll need a sinker of some sort to get your line down.  I thoroughly recommend using spoon sinkers when fishing in areas with lots of rock and/or kelp.  Spoon sinkers will plane to the surface as you wind your line in, this makes getting snagged much less likely and will reduce your frustration and increase time spent actually fishing rather than tying on new hooks.

If casting a reasonable distance the long line style black magic KL's are a great choice.  You don't need to strike just keep the line tight and wait for the fish to hook themselves, this means you don't need to tend to the rod and also you're less likely to get your line snagged because you won't be dragging the sinker along the bottom everytime you strike.  If you're fishing in close to the rocks you might have a better hookup rate with the normal style of hook, with a short line out it's easier to feel the fish bite and time your strike.  3/0 is a good size hook if you're targetting snapper just over the size limit, you can catch bigger fish on them as well but if you're going after really large snapper or kingi's then a larger hook will hold the fish better maybe 6/0 or 7/0.

Bait

All the same baits that are used for boat fishing can work off the rocks.  However if you're casting out a long way or there are lots of small fish present a tougher bait like squid or mullet is often a good bet.  A tougher bait will stay on the hook better when casting and won't be as easily pulled off by small fish.

Live baits are usually used when targetting kingfish.  A small kahawai or a yellotail mackerel sent out under a balloon is the usual way in New Zealand.  Smaller live baits such as sprats can work very well on kahawai and snapper as well.

Berley can be very useful if you're fishing close in to the rocks.  Berley is basically just some oily fish frames in a frozen block, this block is put in a cage of some sort and then lowered into the water on a rope, as it thaws the fish oil will be released and attract other fish - sprats will almost always turn up in droves, hopefully some larger fish will turn up as well.  Kahawai often arrive on the scene quickly. 

Setup

There are two main ways to setup your hooks and sinkers for rock fishing. 

This is the running rig.  Note the sinker runs free on the line, the swivel stops it from sitting right next to the hook.  So the baited hook is free to move around quite naturally with the water.  All knots are uni knots.

So now you know how to setup your gear it's time to find a place to go fishing. 

Location

Rocks from hill top at port jackon There are good spots for rock fishing all around New Zealand but Northland, Coromandel and the Eastcape are particularly good for snapper and kingfish.  Further south blue and red code start to make up a lot of the catch.  Stewart Island and Fiordland have brilliant blue cod fishing from the shore. Things to look for when selecting a spot are deep water close to shore and high shell fish populations or kelp along the shore.

Fishing 

Finally it's time for some fishing.  Bait up your hooks and cast your line out and you're fishing, you just need to wait for some bites.  If you don't get bites try casting further out or closer in, just vary what you're doing until you find fish.

Related Articles

How to Use Berley To Catch More Fish

Tips & Techniques

Successful rock fishing requires a knowledge of techniques, tackle and bait.  Nothing beats first hand experience but reading these articles will certainly shorten the learning process and get you catching fish sooner.  Learn about how to setup your tackle, what baits to use and how to target particular species of fish.

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Spots

New Zealand has many good locations for rock fishing.  Prime areas are northland, coromandel and east cape, but good fishing can be had all around the country.  Generally you'll want to find spots with a rock ledge the drops off into deep water, with this in mind areas of coast that have large cliffs that drop steeply to they sea are more likely to have suitable spots.  Shallow spots can fish well at times, especially around dawn and dusk. When fishing from the rocks you'll be casting in a variety of terrain including rocky foul, sand, boulders and kelp beds.

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High Energy 

High energy food is important because it allows you to get enough calories to meet your needs without weighing too much.  This becomes more important when you are walking further or there are large hills involved.  On tramps over 5 days long you really have to make sure your food has a lot of energy for its weight otherwise your pack will soon become ridiculously heavy.  Even on shorter tramps a lighter pack can make things a lot easier and more enjoyable.

Identifying foods with high energy for their weight is usually quite easy if there is nutritional information printed on the packet.  Just look for cal per 100g or kJ per 100g - the higher this number the better.  If this information is not on the packet you should be able to find similar information on the internet using websites such as The Calorie Counter.  Generally you'll find dried foods, beans, nuts and chocolate to be very high in energy.

Long Lasting

Make sure the food you're taking will last up until the time you want to eat it, sounds obvious but in warm conditions food can quite quickly go rotten or become unappealing.  It's also likely that it will take a bit of a beating in your pack so try to avoid fragile foods. 

Easy To Prepare

This all depends on and how tired you're likely to feel at the end of the day on your tramp.  If you're likely to turn up at the hut or campground exhausted then you should make sure your meals are quick and easy to prepare. Meals with low cooking time also conserve fuel if you're cooking with gas. 

You can just take food that doesn't require cooking. This does limit your options but it can be good when you don't have to cook at the end of a long day. Of course if you're not going to be cooking then you don't need to bring gas, cooker, or pot (bring a light plate instead), so there is a bit of weight saved.

Orzo pasta is great for dinner as it cooks quite quickly and doesn't take up much room in a pack.

Include Enough Protein

Dried meat is a great protein source although lot of people don't like dried meat because of the price or the taste/texture.  This is fine, but for some people meat is one of their main protein sources.  If this sounds like you pay extra attention to including other sources of protein.  Nuts, beans, lentils, milk powder and peanut butter all have quite high protein content. Cheese and salami are two good protein sources that keep quite well. 

Snacking

During the day while you're walking it often works out better to have lot's of small snacks regularly through the day rather than stick to set meal times.  This avoid's the energy low's that you get if you wait a long time before meals.  You will also have less problems with digesting the food, if you eat too much at once it tends to sit around in your stomach for a while which can be unpleasant if you have to walk up a big hill right away.

Water 

While technically not food, water is so important I thought I'd mention it here.  Make sure you plan your trips so you'll have enough water you'll probably need 250-750 ml per hour. 

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The Saddle

Cascade saddle is at an altitude of 1524 metres.  It offers brilliant views. The Dart glacier is nearby rumbling frequently as it gradually shifts.  The Matukituki river winds it's way through the valley some 1000 below, you can see water falls cascading off the near vertical drop to the valley floor.  In the distance you get a superb view of Mt Aspiring on a good day.  At 1500 metres you have to watch the weather ... thick cloud, snow and strong winds are possible at any time of year.  It is possible to camp near the saddle but there are no factilities.  Getting to the saddle involves one of two options, both of which are steep.

Dart Hut - Cascade Saddle

The route from Dart Hut to the saddle is by far the easier of the two tracks. Dart hut is located in the Dart river valley and is part of the popular Rees-Dart track.  It's a three or four hour tramp to reach the saddle.  Most of the way you gradually gain height as you follow the river up the valley, but not long after sighting the glacier the track begins to ascend steeply up to the saddle.  It's steep but easily achievable for anyone with moderate fitness levels. This route is commonly done as a side trip while on the Rees Dart track, the return trip is about 7 hours.  If you're looking for more of a challenge the track from Matukituki side is sure to provide.

Aspiring Hut - Cascade Saddle.

Aspiring hut is located in the Matukituki river valley, 2 and half hours up the valley from Raspberry Creek carpark.  From Aspiring hut it takes about 4 hours of steep ascent to reach the high point of the track at the pylon, this is actually higher than the saddle itself at 1835m.  Once at the pylon you will have climbed over 1000m so fortunately the hardest part is over but there is still another 2 hours to go before reaching the saddle.  This route can be very slippery so great care must be taken.

Whatever way you choose to get there the Cascade Saddle will take your breath away ... that's if you have any breath left to take after the ascent :-)  So choose your route and get into it!

Walking 

If your fitness levels are low at the moment walking is the ideal way to get your body into the swing of things.  Starting off on flat ground is fine but eventually you'll want to make it more like and work your way up to longer walks including some hills if you can. 

Stairs/Hill Training 

Try to find some stairs and hills to train on near your house. If there aren't a lot of hills you can do some repeats to get a better workout.

Running 

If walking isn't providing you with the challenge you need running is a great way to increase the difficulty.  I've found that running does wonders for my aerobic fitness and also gets the ankles and knees in good shape for tramping. 

Go Tramping Often 

There may be a small area of bush or a large hill close to home that makes a good training ground when you don't have the time to go further afield.  Pick a route and try to do it a little faster each time you go.

Strength Exercises 

You can do a lot to increase your fitness without even leaving the house or having to buy any special equipment.  Try some of these:

• Calf Raises - strengthen the calves.
  
• Squats - strengthen the glutes, hamstrings and quadriceps.
• Reverse Lunges - strengthen the glutes and quads.
• Bridge - Strengthen the abs.

Balance

Some simple balance exercises can go a long way towards avoiding ankle sprains and strains.

Desk Jobs

The trampers worst enemy, people with desk jobs are the ones who tend to struggle the most with fitness for hiking.  This is because the legs aren't even accustomed to supporting the full weight of the body, let alone moving around on steep, uneven terrain while carrying a backpack.  So it's very important that the exercise you do puts weight on your feet, so while cycling and swimming might be good for your aerobic fitness and increase your strength in some muscles you won't be working the muscles that support you in a full upright walking/standing position.

Losing Weight 

If you're overweight it will make tramping more difficult, especially when going up or down hill.  I would recommend the slow carb diet.

Clearing/History

Tracks

There are several different tracks that lead to Leitches clearing.

Leitches Road End - Clearing

The shortest way is from carpark on Leitches road, it takes about 3 hours to reach the hut. You begin walking along the fence line on border between farmland and the bush.  As you gain a bit of height you get a great view of the steep, bush encased farmland.  Pretty quickly you are surrounded by bush and the feeling of isolation is fantastic considering how easy the access is.  To reach the hut you gain about 200m of altitude to reach the high point of the track and then gradually lose it again as you descend to the clearing in the Awakino river valley.  Apart from the occasional piece you might not even notice that you're gaining and losing height.

Gribbons Rd 

There is a slighter longer track that follows the Awakino river from the end of Gribbons Rd. This way is good if you're looking to do a bit of trout fishing along the way.

Waikawau Rd 

Waikawau Rd is a longer track and unless you live out that way it's quite a drive just to get to the start of the track. I haven't done this track ... if you have please leave a comment at the bottom of the page to let people know what it's like.

Awakino River

The river up around the hut is quite small, but there are a few good swimming holes. There used to be a really good one right by the hut, but the river as changed and is little more than waist deep now. The closest swimming holes are found by following the river upstream from the hut. Trout fishing can be very good in the Awakino river but you are best to walk downstream from the hut where the river gets a bit larger.

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Coromandel Peninsula

There are some great DOC campsites up near the top of the peninsula faintail bay, stoney bay, port jackson and waikawau bay are all great places for a camping trip although they can get quite busy around New Years and Easter.

There are numerous free campsites at road ends around the Kaimanawas. 

Explore the links below to find out about particular tracks or tramping in general. 

Introduction To Tramping In New Zealand

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New Zealand has some of the best trout fishing in the world. There is a huge number of rivers, streams and lakes to choose from. Many of these locations have very low numbers of anglers, often you won't see another person in a whole days fishing.

It only costs $92 NZ for a year long trout fishing license that covers everywhere except the Taupo region. This is amazing value by world standards.

There is a great variety of places to fish for trout in New Zealand. You can find a location to suit any skill level. Trolling in the lakes is the easiest way for a beginner to catch a trout, although it's still very helpful to have an experienced person with you. Sometimes the clear water makes things very challenging in the smaller rivers and streams particularly if fishing to a brown trout. Both brown and rainbow trout are plentiful throughout the country with browns generally being more common in the South Island.

The Taupo Region provides great trout fishing. If you're into fly fishing the period from April to October sees some huge spawning runs go up the streams and rivers flowing into Lake Taupo. The Tongariro, Waitahanui and Tauranga Taupo are some of the best and although quite crowded by New Zealand standards it's always possible to find somewhere to fish in peace. The trout in these spawning runs average about 4 pounds and if caught soon after leave the lake they are in superb condition. Lake Taupo itself can provide good fishing year round. The most productive methods are trolling out in the lake or fly-fishing at the river mouths. The river mouths can fish brilliantly as the fish gather here prior to their spawning runs.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Location: Tramp starts at St Arnaud which is a small village one and half hours from Nelson and Blenheim or about five hours from Christchurch.

General Info: The Travers-Sabine circuit is a great walk with specatular alpine scenery.  It combines river valley walking with reaonably straightforwards alpine passes.  You definitely want good weather when doing the higher parts of the track, as well as being able to see where you're going you'll be able to enjoy the amazing views.

Trip Report - 26th November 2007

Last week my friend Paul and I made the trip up from Christchurch to Nelson Lakes to do the Travers Sabine circuit. The weather forecast wasn't the best and the people at the DOC centre had doubts as to whether we would get over the Travers saddle. We decided to go ahead and check it out and just turn around and come back if it didn't look good.

Day One: St Arnaud to John Taite Hut (4.5 hours)

We cheated a bit by catching a boat across lake Rotoiti to Coldwater hut. This cut out about 3 hours of walking. So after a quick trip across the lake we started the walk up the Travers river towards John Taite Hut. This took about four and half hours with a few breaks thrown in there.If you're into trout fishing there is some good looking water in the lower part of the Travers. Don't make the same mistake that I did by waiting until reaching the hut to go fishing. The river is rather small up there and the current just rages through in most places, no doubt there would be a few fish up there but the water further downstream did look a lot more inviting.

John Taite hut was a very comfortable place to spend the night. There were about 8 other people staying at this hut which was to be the norm for the trip. Most of the huts can sleep about 30 people so they were not full at all. Apparently things get a lot busier in January and February.

Day Two: John Taite to Upper Travers Hut (3 hours)

This section of the tramp is marked as taking 3 hours but seeing as we had all day to do it we took our time stopping at Travers falls and various other places and managed to drag it out to about four hours.

Upper Travers Hut is set it a great location tucked away in the trees.

Looking back down the Travers Valley from the Upper Travers Hut. Upper Travers hut is about five hundred metres higher the John Taite hut but this altitude is gained gradually so it's not a hard day at all. Quite a lot of people made the trip from cold water hut through to upper travers in one day.

After arriving at the hut we decided to check out the snow on the lower slopes of Mount Travers this resulted in the snow man shown here. As you can see the snowman goes to the best hairdresser in the entire valley and was also participating in Movember.

Day Three: Upper Travers - West Sabine Hut via Travers Saddle (6-10 hours)

The main feature of this day was the first difficult part of the tramp up over Travers saddle. Fortunately the weather forecast was incorrect and there wasn't much fresh snow. There was a bit of snow to negotiate on the way up but only enough to make it more fun and interesting without turning it into a difficult slog. From Upper Travers Hut it takes roughly an hour and a half to the top of the saddle gaining around 500 metres in altitude along the way. There is one particularly steep section in the middle of the ascent

From Travers Saddle you can see right down the western Sabine valley to Sabine forks some 1000 metres below. The hut is just about five minutes up the eastern branch of the sabine from the forks.

In the afternoon I tried some trout fishing in the Sabine river just below the Sabine forks. It's a reasonable sized river but easily crossed in many places at least with the water levels that I saw. The water was brilliantly clear and with the mountains all around it made a great setting for trout fishing. There really are some good looking pools and runs up here.

Here's the trout I caught after only one minute of fishing. Unfortunately things didn't continue in this way. I saw four other trout over the next couple of hours but scared all of them. I did manage to catch a nice one of about 3-4 pounds. It was a beautiful pool, I scared one in the tail of the pool and then further up tried casting just to the side of some faster flowing water that I couldn't see into. After the fly had drifted down the current for a few meters I saw a trout swing out from behind a boulder to grab my fly ... I struck and the fight was on. This fish was much more active than the one I caught earlier it initially surged upstream almost into the rapids at the head of the pool before taking off downstream and sitting on the edge of the rapids. If it went down the rapids there was no way I could follow it as the current was very fast and the banks were too steep. After a minute or so which seemed like forever I managed to coax it back upstream and was able to bring it into the quiet water and land it.

Day Four: West Sabine - Sabine Hut (5 hours)

A fairly easy walk down the Sabine river valley to lake Rotoroa. I tried some more trout fishing on the way down but didn't see or hook anything.

Day Five: Sabine - Lake Angelus Hut (6-8 hours)

After a good sleep at Sabine hut we woke to a nice calm morning and a very pleasant looking lake Rotoroa. Things were soon to get quite hard though as we had chosen to take the ridge track up to Lake Angelus. We were going steeply uphill within seconds of leaving the hut. The track climbs to the bushline 900m above in about 4km so some parts were really steep. I found the first half hour particularly hard, I guess it's better to warm into things gently than just getting stuck into a big hill first thing. I felt better as we continued with a few breaks along the way.

After reaching the bushline we were treated to some great views of lake Rotoroa. Getting up to the bush line wasn't the end of the hill but things did flatten out quite a bit as we proceeded up past Mt Cedric and along the ridge.

The scenery got even better as we continued along the ridge which tops out at about 1750m. Here you can see up the Sabine valley. We hadn't originally planned to go up to Lake Angelus but quite a few people in the huts told us it was really good and as it turned out the were right. It was the highlight of the trip.

Another view of the Sabine Valley and the with the Travers Range on the left. This track is high up and quite exposed. It's fairly well marked but could get difficult to follow in bad conditions.

Tarns near lake Angelus with the travers valley in the distance.

Early December and Lake Angelus is still mostly frozen over. If you look at the enlarged picture you can see the hut on the other side of the lake.

Chilling out at lake Angelus 00120-chilling-out-lake-angelus.jpg Chilling out at lake Angelus ... with a warm day and a mostly iced over lake we just had to go for a quick dip. Here's Paul testing the waters and doing a pretty good job of making it look comfortable.

As you can see from my hasty exit it wasn't exactly pleasant to be in the water but it was very refreshing. The hut had a kind of conservatory on the side which made a great place to warm up afterwards.

Day Six: Lake Angelus - Roberts Car Park (5-7 hours)

Finally the insanely good weather had to come to and end. It wasn't even really bad weather just rather misty. The mist combined with snow on the ground made the track along roberts ridge hard to follow at times but we found our way without any problems. Definitely wouldn't want to try it if the visibility was really bad though. There is the spear grass route which is better in bad conditions because it minimizes the amount of time spent up on the ridge.

Alpine Coliflower? There were lots of these plants in the area around Lake Angelus. Does anyone know what these are called? Just add a comment to the article if you do.

One last view from the tops looking down at lake Rotoiti. From here the track soon entered the bush and went down a steep hill fortunately the track is very well built zigzagging it's way down the hill instead of dropping straight down in a knee busting fashion.Once down at the carpark we were able to catch a lift back to our car at St Arnaud with a couple from the Czeck Republic. This was great as it saved us and hour and half of road walking.

Chris has a very romantic view of solo travel and the experience of wilderness, perhaps best expressed by a quote of his "I don't want to know what time it is, what day it is or even where I am". The author gives a interesting point of view on outdoor adventure, he clearly has his own biases but also sprinkles the opinion of others throughout the book. Hence I found myself in an emotional tug of war ... at times wanting to follow in the footsteps of McCandless, although no doubt in a tamer way. Other times I was repulsed by the seemingly needless risk taking and the grief and worry the adventurers can cause their family and friends.

Clothing

• Jacket
• Beanie
• Sun hat
• Thermal Underwear
• Wool or Fleece Jersey
• Gloves
• Shorts
• Gaiters
• Socks
• Jandals

Cooking

• Cooker
• Fuel for Cooker
• Matches and Lighter
• Food
• Emergency Food
• Drink Bottle
• Plate
• Bowl
• Cup
• Knife, Fork, Spoon
• Dishwashwing Liquid
• Can Opener
• Washing Tub
• Cooking pot
• Ban
• BBQ
• Gas for BBQ

Other

• Pack
• Pack Liner
• Boots
• Tent
• Sleeping Bag
• Camera
• Small Torch
• Extra Batteries for Torch
• Insect Repellant
• Towel
• First Aid Kit
• Maps
• Compass
• Sleeping Mat
• Candle
• Rubber tube for fire lighting
• Cellphone
• EPIRB
• Sunscreen
• Sunglasses
• Pocket Knife
• Toilet paper
• Paper & Pen
• Soap
• Toothbrush
• Tootpaste
• Lantern
• Camp Chairs
• Spade (to dig a long drop)

Time Taken: 4-6 Hours Difficulty: Easy Location: Cape Kidnappers near Napier Make sure you find about about the tides because it's not possible to safely walk all sections of the beach when the tide is in. Trip Report - 18th December 2007

To fit in with the tides we had to start our walk before 4am in the morning!

The exercises range from common ones such as crunches and lunges through to the slightly more unusual (and hard) Hindu squats and a few exercises that I haven't really seen anywhere else. It pays not to rush into these workouts as they can leave you feeling very sore if you're not used to this type of thing.

Graeme demonstrates the workouts in full so you can follow along, but it may take a while before you're up to doing the same number of reps as him. It actually works quite well because you can just watch him for the first few reps and then have a go yourself. There are a variety of exercises for your abdominals and lower back which makes it a lot more interesting.

Really one of the best things about the program is the variety that it adds variety to your training. Also you don't have to spend a lot of time to get results many of the workouts can be done in less than 15 minutes. Especially when you're starting out as it doesn't take long to wake up those under used muscles.

After about a month of using the workouts 2-3 times per week I found that at the end of a long ride I wasn't feeling as much like slumping down on the handle bars. Previously I would feel really weak in my upper body even if my legs were still going OK. After using cyclo-core I felt much stronger in the upper body. I also noticed that my pedal stroke felt more fluid and stronger particularly on steep hills where I was forced to use a slower cadence, others also commented on this so it wasn't just all in my head.

There are also three audio cd's included with the DVD that provide information on nutrition and planning your off season training. These were interesting to listen to but the real value of the program lies in the DVD. So if you're looking to imrove your cycling and overall fitness while adding some much needed variety to you training the cyclo-core program a great choice. You can get it and other products from Graeme Street at cyclo-core.com.

Starting from Hamilton, the first 35km of this ride are the same as the Rev 120 ride.  Go here to see a map of the whole ride.  If you do this loop anticlockwise the first climb is on Te Miro road, this is quite an undulating and gradual ascent which rises about 150m. Then after passing through the small town of Te Miro the undulations remain gentle until turning onto Brunskill Rd which has about four steep gullies to pass through. The last gully before coming into Whitehall has a very steep climb, even though you come into it with a fair amount of speed from the previous descent when you hit the slope you'll feel as if you've hit the brakes. Just after Whitehall you turn right onto French Pass Rd and following a moderately fast descent you start on the ascent to French Pass.  This is a really good climb that starts out quite gradual an gets pretty steep towards the end.  Going down the other side of French pass is a fast descent with a fair amount of corners but nothing too sharp, very enjoyable. After this there is one more gully before getting back onto the flats. There is some pretty good scenery around the hilly section with some interesting rock formations.

One often mentioned piece of advice is to make sure you're not bouncing in the saddle as this is an obvious indicator that you're wasting energy by pushing down for too long and thus lifting yourself up off the seat (even just slightly) with each pedal stroke. So I assumed that if I wasn't bouncing in the saddle then I wasn't pushing down for too long, or at least not to any great extent.  However I've been aware recently that my pedalling doesn't feel as free and easy as it used to, I put this down to poor fitness from a lack of training.  The other day it dawned on me that my whole body actually felt more tense and I tried to relax my body.� At this point I actually started to bounce on the saddle quite a bit and it became apparent I was pushing down to much at the bottom of the pedal stroke. 

So I consciously tried to stop this and the result was really quite amazing.  My speed went up about 2-3km per hour for the same effort, a very exciting development.  It was just amazing how little I had to try compared to what I was previously doing. It seems that I had been using the muscles in the rest of my body to resist the force coming from my poor technique.  This probably developed from riding to work without my cycling shoes, when I can't clip in it's very easy for my feet to slide of the pedals so pushing down a lot all the time was keeping them a bit more secure. So it's definitely worth considering this, it can be hard to tell wether you're doing it but with a bit of thought and experimentation with your pedalling you should be able to tell if you have a similar problem.

I rented a mountain bike and Dunedin and my sister dropped me off at the start of the trail in Middle March early in the morning.  There was a bit of frost around in the morning making it very cold starting off (damn no gloves), but it soon enough turned into a brilliantly sunny day. I stopped off for a spot of fishing in the Taieri River just past Kokonga about 40km into the trip - in case you're wondering a 4 piece fly rod straps nicely onto the top tube of a bike.  I was planning on waiting to fish closer to Waipiata but this plan was interrupted by the sight of rising fish in a large pool.  Despite having several fish to try for in that one pool all I managed was one brief hookup.  There was plenty of other good looking water but I had booked accomodation in Naseby which was another 35km travel so I didn't have much time to spend exploring the river. I was staying in Naseby about 10km off the trail because I left it until the last minute to book accommodation.  The rail trail is fairly popular at this time of year and most places were booked out.  It was a nice enough little town with fantastic food at the Naseby Hotel.  Both the quality and quantity of the food were very good.

The section of the trail between Oturehua and Lauder is absolutely spectacular with some really cool old bridges and tunnels.  The fishing in the Manuherikia River was also brilliant.  I spent about 2 hours fishing there and caught 13 trout.� About half of them were very small, but I got some nice two to three pound browns as well.  I was fishing with a size 12 elk hair caddis dry and a size 16 beadhead hare and copper on the dropper.  Both flies were successful.

The trail is lightly covered in gravel and about the width of a typical lane on the road.  Cars are not allowed on the trail so this makes for a very relaxing cycling experience. See http://www.otagocentralrailtrail.co.nz for more detailed information including a list of places to stay. This was a brilliant ride and quite different from anything else in New Zealand, definitely well worth doing!

There are about 500 entrants each year with the average time to complete the ride being 6 and a half to 7 hours depending on the conditions.  The leading men usually finish in just under 5 and half hours. The event is run by Adventure Racing Coromandel and is very well organised.  They hand out water bottles on the hills, which is fantastic.  They have about 200 bottles at 3 different points, this really helps as you need rather a lot of water for a 6 hour plus race.  I did K2 in 2005 and took 6 hours 24 mins. The conditions were pretty much perfect, slightly overcast with no wind. I was planning on doing it in 2006 but I had a knee problem which is hopefully resolved now.  So I'll be looking to beat my previous time this year, hopefully the conditions are favourable again.

There are seven large hills greater than 150m to get over so consider you gear choice carefully. This year the race starts in Thames so the first climb will be the 425m high Kopu hill, this is the biggest climb in the race but because it's spread out over 14km it's not as hard as some of the others.  The start of the kopu hill is a fairly gradual ascent with a few short downhills thrown in as you get closer to the top it gets a lot steeper.  After cresting the hill you come to a very fast descent (lucky the race doesn't go the other way) it's possible to reach speeds of over 90km/h on this descent.  There are a couple of smaller ascents after this before coming to a flat section leading into Tirua.  Not long after Tirua you will hit Pumpkin Hill a twisty climb that rises to about 250m, the road here has a very smooth surface which makes the climb a bit easier and the descent very enjoyable.  There are some small undulations leading into Whitiangia but it's mostly pretty flat.  After Whitianga the race gets a lot harder with the hills much closer together.

I managed to stay with the front bunch during the first cycle leg but spent most of the time drafting.  The second half of the ride features quite a few short hills which made things difficult and reduced the size of the bunch to about 30 people by the end of the first leg.

Next up it was Marie's turn, she got the hardest job of running over the mountain which includes several hard hills. There were some people in serious pain as they finishedthe run, some had leg cramps and couldn't even change into their cycling shoes by their self. Despite seeing all of these people in discomfort I still found myself wanting to do the whole event next year, we'll see what happens. Marie did really well on the run, there weren't many females that came in before her.

Then it was onto the next cycle leg. There were a few steepish uphills in there but overall it was downhill so it was quite a fast ride, very enjoyable.  Unfortunately I missed the last turn off and wasted about a minute, but that was no big deal.

A very eager Jane was then off in the kayak with a huge head start on her brother that she was very keen to beat.  Mission accomplished! The results haven't been put on the internet yet so I'm not sure what our time was.   But I think we did pretty well for a mixed team.

During summer there is a very popular series of races on Tuesday nights.  There will often be over 150 people at the races. There are 7 different grades, this ensures everyone can find a grade to suit their abilities. Te Awamutu is only about 30km from Hamilton so it's not too far to travel.  There is often groups of people that cycling out to Te Awamutu from Hamilton, so if you're keen to ride out there you can join in with them. 

The club races are held on the many great roads around Te Awamutu, the races typically range from undulating to hilly. These roads usually don't have much traffic. For more information visit their website.

The Leslie River Downstream From Karamea Bend

I didn't fish the Karamea down stream from the Leslie Confluence as I was pushed for time and prefer smaller water. The river really does get quite big down there.

Karamea Bend - Crow Hut 

Upstream from Karamea bend there is a lot of slow flowing water, I saw trout here but as usual in slow flowing water they were very hard to catch. About half and hours walk from the hut there is a fast flowing bouldery section that goes through a wide gorge, it looked like ideal nymphing water. This section was much more productive, I had a great time catching many small trout and a couple of nice 2 pounders from pockets in between boulders. Continuing further towards the crow hut there is a great set of pool and rapids. Every single pool seemed to hold at least a couple of brown trout in the 4-6lb. Unfortunately I couldn't get any of them to take my fly ... very frustrating. After arriving at the crow hut I decided to go for a couple of hours in the Crow River, a medium sized tributary of the Karamea. Here I had a similar experience to the main river, finding many trout lying in the tail of the pools but not managing to hook any. One trout of about six pounds was interested enough to follow my fly downstream several times, but despite trying several different flies I still couldn't get it to take. There were a lot of foot prints around so it seemed that there had been a lot of pressure on the river, always a good excuse for poor results. 

 Crow Hut - Thor Hut

The next day I fished here and there between the Crow hut up to Thor hut going past the Venus hut along the way. Lot's of beautiful big pools through here but unfortunately once again I couldn't catch any. Fortunately I tried again in the evening and just on dark I found several trout rising in a shallow run just downstream from the hut. I tried several different dry flies but failed to interest them, tried a few nymphs as well but it wasn't until I put on a size 18 hare and copper that I finally met with success. I caught a trout of about 1 pound quickly followed by a nice 2 pounder. Then I hooked a larger one but it tangled the line around a boulder and got off. 

Thor Hut - Trevor Carter Hut 

After leaving Thor hut the next morning I walked upstream about 20min to a point not far from where appollo creek flows into the Karamea. There was some huge boulders and very broken water in this section. I spotted a trout of about 4 pounds lying just to the side of the main current, using a size 18 hare and copper once again I managed to hook this one. It put up a really good fight requiring me to cross the river several times to keep the line from getting caught on the boulders, eventually I managed to bring it in ... a nice fish but not in the best condition.  I hooked a few more in this area but the only one I landed was about 6 inches long.

Further upstream after walking past the Moonstone lakes I eventually came to a junction in the track you could either go right onto a highlevel track or left across the Karamea and follow the river up to Trevor Carter hut. Obviously I chose to follow the river, the river here is quite a lot smaller as there are several tributaries that join the river between here and Thor hut. Not far upstream from where the track crosses the river I came to a slow flowing shallow section, this didn't look like the best place to find a trout but as is often the case brown trout are were you least expect to find them. The river up here was even clearer that it was downstream so I didn't fancy my chances of hooking it in this shallow water. Usually wind is a curse when fly fishing especially if its blowing downstream, but in this case it was a blessing ... the wind was ruffling the surface of the water which meant I was less likely to spook the trout, however after a few good casts the trout still hadn't moved. It was so motionless that I was starting to wonder whether it was actually even a trout. I decided to try one more cast before moving on, this time the fly (my now trusty size 18 hare and copper) landed directly in front of the trout. I didn't see the trout move at all but when my indicator stopped I struck and the trout exploded out of the water. It looked like a really good fish and as browns always do it headed straight for the snags on the opposite side of the river. After a few worrisome moment I managed to get it away from the snags. At this point the trout resumed its arial display. Everytime I managed to get it into the shallows it would take off out into midstream and leap into the air once more. This was repeated several more times before I was able to land it, a nice fat 6 pounder which I released along with all of the others I caught on this trip.

I fished to about a dozen more nice fish on the way up to Trevor Carter hut but the wind had died down and with the glassy surface on the water I didn't fare so well. Still a very enjoyable day. In the evening I had a look upstream from the hut, saw a few but had no luck. There was a really cool section were the river flowed through the gaps between some massive boulders. 

In Summary 

That was the end of my fishing trip on the Karamea. I had been amazed at the trout population in this river, although I was a little disappointed not to catch a few more good sized ones. There did seem to be a lot of anglers about though, I imagine the river could fish very well early in the season before it's had to much pressure. Perhaps even a little bit of rain to put some colour in the water. Failing those options you could try being more skillful than me, I'm sure that would do the trick also.

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Fly Fishing in New Zealand

Mending is as Important As Casting 

The main access to the Moakurarua river is from the Honikiwi road bridge at the junction of Carlin Rd and Honikiwi Rd. From here the river is easily followed upstream until it become too small for fishing about 12km upstream from the road. There is good water all through here with an enjoyable series of pools, runs and riffles. This river lends itself well do fishing upstream with a nypmh or dry fly. My favourite rig is here is an attractor dry such as a royal wulf with a small hare and copper on the dropper, although some areas are better fished with a pair of nymphs.

There is often a huge population of small rainbows under a pound. These small trout make the river a brilliant place to take beginners fly fishing if you want to make sure they catch something. In fact this would probably be my first choice for a beginner in the Waikato region. Although the trout population is not quite as high as in the spring fed streams of the south waikato they seem to be easier to catch, possibly because the water isn't quite as clear. The larger browns which can often be found in the eye of the pools also provide a good challenge for the more experienced angler, as do the rainbows that lye tucked in under the trees in certain pools. Sometimes good fish will come from shallow riffles too, although you'll have to get your fly past the suicidal wee rainbows first.

The trout in the Moerangi are almost all rainbows. And with the exception of a couple of tiddlers all of the trout I've seen and caught from here have been over 3 pounds. The biggest one I've caught was about 7 pounds so there is probably a reasonable chance of catching a trophy trout from this river.

On my first trip to this river it took a while to start catching fish, I was simply looking and fishing in the wrong places. I had heard it held mostly rainbows so I was expecting them to be in the deeper parts of the river, after fishing for two hours with no success I happened to spot a rainbow in a little pocket behind a fallen tree in water about 20cm deep and hardly any current. There were a lot of trees in the way and wasn't able to catch that one. But I started looking in some more unusual places more like you would if there were brown trout around, once I did this I started to find trout and they were quite keen to take a royal wulff off the surface even though it was pouring with rain. The rivers around here seem to handle quite a lot of rain before getting coloured up.

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Te Hoe River Trout Fishing

Trout Fishing In New Zealand

My only trip to this river was in April and there seemed to be at least one good fish per pool, plus the occasional one lying in shallow water near fallen trees. Possibly this was a bit of a spawning run up from the Mohaka but this river is definitely worth exploring further. I only fished about a km either side of Central Te Hoe hut. I spoke to someone who had walked the river through to Upper Te Hoe Hut, before the ridge top track was put in this was the main way between the central and upper huts. The river flows through a gorge in this section and it is impassable during high flows. I have no information about the accessibility of the river downstream from Central Te Hoe, but it's well worth exploring. Te Hoe river, looking upstream from the swingbridge near Central Te Hoe hut.

This takes about 2 and a half hours from the grey road car park. The ascent is gradual at first, as you get closer to the lookout it becomes a lot steeper. After about 2 hours you'll come to a rocky patch with good views of the eastern part of the mountain. This is pretty cool but another half an hour or so takes you to the lookout itself which gives you a much better view.

Ruapune Lookout

The easiest way to get to Ruapune Lookout is from Corcoran Rd. From there it is only about 1 hour to get there. The walk is not too difficult and although it does get steep towards the end it's still accessible by people with low fitness levels. It's a great place to go with the family or friends for a quick walk on the weekend. There aren't many walks around that are this easy with such great views.

Tirohanga Peak

This is about 45 minutes to an hour on the Tirohanga track from Ruapune Lookout. There is a steep rock outcrop here which can easily be climbed if you're confident on your feet.

Mahaukura Track (To Summit)

This track goes from Grey Rd on past Wharauroa Lookout and up to the summit. It takes about 4-6 hours to reach the top. After the lookout there are quite a few ups and downs along the way, so it requires a reasonable level of fitness.

Tirohanga Track (To Summit)

Starting from Corcoran Rd this is the shortest way to the summit. It takes you past Tirohanga

Mahaukura-Tirohanga Circuit

A great loop with the summit in the middle. The whole loop is about 14km. It takes in Mahaukura, the summit, Tirohanga and Ruapane peaks along the way.

Bell Track (To Summit)

The longest track to the summit, the Bell track also branches off from the Nikau walk and takes 8-10 to get to the top. There is good camping at the clearing marked as the halfway point, with a small creek for a water supply. From here you continue on to the cone which is the second highest peak on the mountain. The cone is only about 20m lower than the main summit and it offers better views out to the west over Raglan and Kawhia harbours.

Tahanui Track (To Summit)

This track starts from the Kaniwhaniwha car park next to the stream. The first part of the track is called the Nikau walk and follows the stream through farmland for about 40 minutes before reaching the forest. It takes 3-5 hours to reach the top and there are a few steep sections to test your fitness. This track can be combined with the Bell track to make a rather long loop track. Most people will probably want to split this over two days but it can be done in a long day of 9-12 hours if you've got the fitness to keep up a good pace for that long.

The Summit

There is a fairly large lookout tower here to get you above the trees for a fantastic view. On a clear day you can see Mount Taranaki.

Pahautea Hut

This is the only hut in the Pirongia forest park. It's about 20-30 minutes to get to the summit from the hut. You'll only pass the hut on the way to the summit if you're on the Bell track. The hut sleeps 6-8 people comfortably. It pays to take a sleeping mat so you can sleep on the floor if the bunks are full. The hut fee is $5 per night. There is no fireplace

The river usually has a shingle bottom and is quite small so can be easily crossed at the tail of each pool. In Autumn a lot of trout move into the river to spawn bringing high numbers of rainbows in the 2-4lb range and browns some of which are very large, sometimes up over 10 pounds. Of course these large browns are very difficult to catch and the best one I've caught from this river was 6 pounds.

Waipa River Access Map

This is a fairly typical trout from the Mangahoe stream. It weighs about two pounds. The biggest I have seen in this stream was about five pounds. Often there is an abundance of little six inch trout in certain sections.

The pool at Pomerangi Rd Bridge fishes very well at times. During the spawning runs I think the fish often wait here for some rain before moving up further. The Pomerangi stream flows in on the right providing about a quarter of the flow. During a recent trip I managed to hook two trout at once in this pool. One came off after a short fight, unsuprisingly the line had broken between the two nymphs.

Upstream from Pomerangi Rd the river gets quite small, but the fishing can be very good after rain when there is a bit of colour in the water. Good spawning run up here late in the season. It tends to be easier to spot the trout in this upper section. Some good fish hold in the narrow tree lined sections, these are very difficult to cast to but well worth the effort.

Access

Access to this stream is from Were Rd. If you look at the map you can see the walking track its the light grey line that extends from the end of Were Rd. There is good fishing all the way from the juction with the Tawerau river down in the bush section up to the Pomerangi Rd bridge and beyond. Click on the markers for a description.

Upstream from Wharepuhunga Road

There is about 6km of good water flowing through farm land with patches of bush, trout are often easily spotted in the slower pools but they tend to be quite difficult to catch. Above this farmland section there is a beautiful section of river that flows through native bush, because a bit of a walk is required to reach it this section doesn't seem to get as much pressure and the fish are a bit easier to catch.

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Mangahoe Stream

Waipa River Trout Fishing

The river can be accessed from Kuripapango Rd, this is in the middle reaches and the river here is large and quite difficult to ford. You follow the river upstream or follow one of the tramping tracks. Cameron hut and Kiwi Mouth Hut provide a great place to stay overnight, there is also a good spot for camping beside the river about half way between Cameron and Kiwi Mouth huts. Upstream from Cameron hut the river is a bit smaller and easier to cross this makes the fishing more enjoyable. Much of the river bed is fairly open but there a quite a few small gorges that can be difficult to access. There is a huge amount of water to fish on this river, you'll be amazed at the sequences of great pools.

The section between State Highway 5 and Whites road is a good place to start. This can be easily accessed from the State Highway 5 bridge from where you can fish upstream for hours. The river fishes well using either dry flies or nymphs. The larger trout can be quite spooky due to the water clarity. Because it is spring fed this is a fantastic river to fish when the weather is bad as it will remain clear even when most of the other streams in the area are badly discoloured.

Access is either by parking at the end of Redpaths Rd and following the Waioeka up to Koranga Forks or driving into the headwaters on Moanui Rd. There is good fishing from Moanui road end all the way down to the Waioeka river. Upstream from Moanui road end there is several hours worth of fishing before access starts to get quite difficult.

Why does the speed of drift matter? It is important to get the fly drifting at the same speed as the current for two reasons. Your flies will sink a lot faster which can be very important when trying to get the fly down to where the trout is especially in a short drift.

You don't have to use as much weight on your flies which makes casting a lot easier and more enjoyable. Trout can be very sensitive to an unnatural drift, they generally one take it if it's being pulled downstream too fast.

When I first started trout fishing at around the age of 12 I got good at casting quite quickly by practising on the lawn.  But it took me a long to start catching trout regularly because I wasn't paying much attention to the drift. I would fish in the Waitahanui river casting just as well as the people around me, but they would be catching heaps of trout while I was lucky to get one in a whole days fishing. The people who were doing well would even give me their flies to try.  The same casting, same flies, same leader length.  Nobody ever mentioned mending the line to avoid drag but I believe that was the missing link.  The trout hug the bottom in this river and I probably wasn't getting the flies down far enough.

What is drag?

The term drag refers to the line pulling on the fly causing it to drift faster or slower. Drag is caused when one section of the line is in water flowing at a different speed. For example if you have cast you fly across the main current into a slow section near the far bank the line in the stronger current will travel down stream faster this will pull on the rest of the line causing it to speed up as well. The worst situation for this is in the eye of a pool when the current swirls around and actually flows upstream in places.

How can a good drift be achieved?

The best way to avoid drag is by position yourself well.  This means putting your self in a place where after the cast the whole line will be travelling at the same speed or as close as is possible.  Sometimes it's not possible to do this, which is where mending comes into play.  Mending is simply repositioning the line to maintain a good drift.  For example if a section of fast current has started to form a downstream bow in the the line you have to flip that section back upstream to keep it drifting nicely.  The real trick is to do this without pulling on the fly too much.  This requires a lot of experimentation and practice.

Colds and flu's are usually caused by a viral infection. Bacterial infections are far less common. You can't catch a cold simply by going out in cold weather. But you are far more likely to spend time inside during winter and this makes you more susceptible to catching another person's virus. Obviously you don't want to start trying to avoid other people but you can try to spend more time outside when the weather is appropriate. This is also good for you psychologically as often people can begin to feel a bit depressed if too much time is spent inside.

Many sources say that a good hand washing routine is one of the most effective ways to reduce your chances of catching a cold. What exactly constitutes a good hand-washing routine? Regular soap and water is fine, you don't need to use special antibacterial soaps but an alcohol based gel hand cleaner can be very convenient as they allow you to clean your hands quickly without having to use water and dry your hands.

According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) and other sources flu vaccines are very effective at preventing infections from the viruses that they target.

Eating overly sugary foods has been shown to temporarily suppress the immune system so this might be yet another good reason to cut back on sugar in your diet. Even if it doesn't stop you from getting sick it may help with your waistline.

Having a generally healthy diet with lots of fruit and vegetables will also help but At the end of the day there is nothing you can do to completely prevent colds and flu's. Even if you follow all of the latest recommendations you still may get sick. However most of the preventative mentioned above aren't all that difficult to do so why not put the odds on your side?

Clothing

• Jacket
• Beanie
• Sun hat
• Thermal Underwear
• Wool or Fleece Jersey
• Gloves
• Shorts
• Gaiters
• Socks
• Jandals

Cooking

• Cooker
• Fuel for Cooker
• Matches and Lighter
• Food
• Emergency Food
• Drink Bottle
• Water filter/Treatment tablets
• Plate
• Bowl
• Cup
• Knife, Fork, Spoon
• Dishwashwing Liquid
• Cooking Pot
• Pan

Other

• Pack
• Pack Liner
• Boots
• Tent
• Sleeping Bag
• Camera
• Small Torch
• Extra Batteries for Torch
• Insect Repellant
• Towel
• First Aid Kit
• Maps
• Compass
• Sleeping Mat
• Candle
• Rubber tube for fire lighting
• Cellphone
• EPIRB
• Sunscreen
• Sunglasses
• Pocket Knife
• toilet paper
• Tooth Paste
• Paper & Pen

Tramping Food

There are numerous short walks in the area including one to Dawson Falls.

Road End - Salisbury Lodge I got up early the next morning to see if I could get a lift with one of the employees at the power station, I only had to wait about five minutes before being picked up by one of the workers who dropped me off at the power station. From here it was still about 10km from cobb reservoir. However there is another track that goes past the Asbestos mines which starts about 2km from the power house so I decided I would use that track rather than walk along the road all the way to the reservoir. The road climbs steeply from the power house but soon enough I was on the track. For quite a while it was an old vehicle track but eventually it thins out nearer to the mines. Just past the mines I stopped off at the Asbestos Cottage which had been the home of a couple for many years when the mines were operating. The cottage was really rustic looking with some old armchairs made of sticks and hessian sacks, one of them was actually quite comfortable. Would have been nice to stay at the cottage but I was heading for Salisbury Lodge for the night. Past the cottage the track drops goes across a couple of small river valleys then up onto the Mt Arthur Tablelands. It was pretty misty up there which cuts down on visibility but there was still a really cool feel to it.Salisbury Lodge certainly suprised me, it was definitely the nicest hut I've seen outside of the great walks. It had gas heating and cooking. There were four americans staying there for the night, they were very friendly and we spent the evening playing cards.

Sailisbury Lodge - Karamea Bend About a 5 hour tramp starting on the Mt Arthur table lands and then dropping down about 500m in altitude into the Leslie river valley, the descent into the valley is fairly gradual so it's not too difficult. There were bell birds everywhere on the way down, they make such a cool array of noises. I had some good fishing in the Leslie River and The Peel.

Karamea Bend - Crow Hut This is a four hour tramp following the Karamea river which is renowned for trout fishing. There are a few little hills where the track has to leave the river to negotiate bluffs but basically it was a nice flat walk. The river is very clear with just a slight tinge of green to it. Crow Hut is situated at the confluence of the Crow River and the Karamea. A German guy travelling in the opposite direction stayed at the hut.

Crow Hut - Thor Hut Another four hour walk interrupted by more trout fishing bypassing Venus hut along the way. Venus hut is very interesting they have expanded the original hut by building another one on top of it. Both huts still have their own fireplace.

Thor Hut - Trevor Carter Hut

Finally caught a couple of larger trout here. I caught the first one not far up from the hut. After walking for about an hour after catching the trout I realised that I had forgotten my rod. I was pretty sure I knew where it was but it wasn't the happiest 2 hours of walking I've had in my life that's for sure. Still it was pleasant enough getting to go past the moonstone lakes twice more. The lakes are just part of the river but it gets so wide that there is hardly any current. There are lot's of stumps from drowned trees give it quite an eerie feel. There are a couple of options further on ... you can choose to follow the river bed with no track or take the high level track. The high level track is the only choice if the river is flooded but otherwise walking the river bed is a lot more direct and faster unless like me you stop to catch a 6lb brown trout! It is suggested that this walk takes about 4 hours but I think that must be if you take the high-level track. It's hard to say with all the fishing during the walk but it seemed a lot shorter than 4 hours.

Trevor Carter Hut - Taipo Hut

From Trevor Carter you can either head inland or west towards the coast. The biggs tops option is very good if you have reasonable fitness and good weather. This is a marked route but it is still fairly easy to follow, you do have to remain alert though as it is easy to wander off the route in places. From Trevor carter it was only about 1 minute to the base of a rather large hill, starting from 700m you go up to 1500 without any flats to speak of. I thought my fitness was pretty good but the first section had me pausing to catch my breath every few minutes. It got a bit easier further up the hill as the forest became more open and the route meanders a bit rather than going straight up so it's not so steep. At the top the bush-line is very sharply defined I went from large beech forest to open tussock and rocks in about 5 steps. The view at the top were brilliant although there was a fair amount of cloud around. There is a big depression surrounded by ridges, I followed the ridges around until the route dropped down. In fine weather it would be worth following the ridge all the way around to get some more views. It wouldn't be hard to pick up the route near were the ridge hits the bushline again, the markers would often be visible to your right along the way.

Taipo Hut - Belltown Hut

Belltown Hutt - Little Wanganui

Typically in New Zealand people seem to take pasta or rice with them for tramping trips.  During my recent trip to the southisland I noticed a lot of the foreign people having couscous.  This really seems to make a lot of sense.  It cooks extremely fast, you basically just add boiling water and leave it for a minute and it's ready to eat.  This mean you get to eat sooner when your ravenous at the end of a hard day.  It also doesn't require much fuel so you can save a bit on weight assuming you're using gas rather than fires.

You can basically use couscous in place of rice in any recipe.

Rees Valley Rd - Shelter Rock Hut

This 17.5km section is marked as a 6-8 hour tramp. Any one with a reasonable level of fitness would have no trouble meeting the suggested time. The track starts at around 500m above sea level and eventually rises to 900m at the hut. The first 10km of the track is very flat through an open river valley with just the occasional rise to skirt around some small bluffs. Even these small rises can be avoided by staying down in the river valley as long as the river isn't flooded. It's fantastic to walk on such flat ground with mountains all around. There are a couple of places to camp under rock overhangs which could be very useful if trapped by flooded side streams. It's always hard to imagine when you see these little ankle deep creeks, but they can become very dangerous after heavy rain. After crossing the swingbridge the track gets a little more difficult with a few more short rises, but still it's pretty easy going.

Shelter Rock Hut - Dart Hut

A 9km section is marked as 4-6 hours. This takes you up over the Rees saddle at 1470m altitude and then back down to about 900m again at Dart Hut. This is obviously more strenuous than the first day but the marked times are once again quite easy to meet. The first 4km or so rise gradually, there were several keas here when I walked through. The last couple of hundred metres up to the saddle a really quite steep. The views are brilliant though so if you need a break on the way up there is plenty to look at. From the top of the saddle you gradually descend the rest of the way to Dart hut. Along the way there are more great views everywhere. At almost any point along the track you get views that would be worth a tramp just to see that one thing.

Cascade Saddle - Side trip from Dart Hut

Taking an extra day to enjoy this side trip is highly recommended. The walk there and back is 16km and takes 6-9 hours. This is plenty of time to complete the walk but you may want to allow more time to explore the area around the saddle. The first 5km have fairly gently undulations as you walk through some rocky terrain, even in the middle of summer you will be surrounded by snow capped peaks. As you get closer to the saddle you'll be able to see the dart glacier. The track gradually becomes steeper eventually becoming quite difficult just before reaching the saddle. The views from the saddle on a good day are just brilliant! From one point near the edge of a steep drop you can see the previously mentioned Dart glacier, Mount Aspiring, some very high waterfalls and the Matukituki river way down below winding it's way through the river valley. I spent about and hour here soaking up the views. I needed to remember them well because I forgot to take my camera.

Dart Hut - Daleys Flat Hut

This 16km piece of track is marked as 6-8 hours walking time. The track is quite different from here on, it spends a lot more time in the forest which makes for a nice contrast. Whenever the track comes out of the forest you will once again be treated to spectacular views of the mountain scenery.

Daleys Flat Hut - Chinamans Road End

This section is 15km long but is mostly flat so only takes 4-6 hours. There are basically only two hills here one at Sandy Bluff and the other Chinamans Bluff, at both points you must go over the bluffs which give great views of the Dart river below.The Dart River can be very grey in colour which comes from the glaciers melting

Transport toand from this track from Queenstown or Glenorchy can be arranged. The vans actually go daily for most of the year but they prefer you to make a booking. The three huts on this track are very well maintained, they even have flush toilets. There are no gas cookers though so you'll have to take your own.

Photography by Morag Aldridge

A five or six weight rod will be well suited to fishing most of the smaller rivers but you may struggle when fishing larger rivers or stream mouths especially if there is a lot of wind. So if you want to enjoy the full variety of fly fishing in New Zealand it would be best to have and 8 weight rod as well.

Wilderness Fishing

Many areas of New Zealand have been set aside by the government as reserves. These area's often have some great trout fishing rivers. These rivers are what wilderness fly fishing is all about ... large trout in extremely clear water and no-one around for miles. Many of the rivers require a helicopter or a day or two's tramping to reach so you won't find many other fishermen around. If you have a reasonable level of fitness I do recomend trying the tramping option it really does add so much to the wildnerness experience. With a bit of planning it is often possible to do an extended tramp and try out several different rivers in one trip. Generally a six weight rod with a floating line and a medium sinking line will be all that is required. Nymphing tends to be the most consistent fish producer in these streams with the clear water and often bouldery habitat. Over the summer month's though the wildnerness rivers of New Zealand offer some of the best dry fly fishing you could imagine.

The Kaimanawa and Kaweka forest parks in the Central North Island have some awesome wilderness fly fishing. The Rangatiki and Ngaruroro are two of the best. The Rangatiki produces many trophy trout each year. The Whirinaki and Urewera forest parks are adjacent to each other and contain many streams with quite a variety of fishing options from the Waiau River and it's tributaries with their very high populations of trout averaging about 3 pounds to the Upper Ruakituri where trout over the magic 10 pound mark are not uncommon. Now to the South Island which has a huge number of opportunities for wilderness fly fishing. The Karamea.

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Beginners Fly Fishing Tips

Fly fishing is the only legal method on the Tongariro. There are two main techniques used on the Tongariro during the spawning run, upstream nymphing and downstream wet-fly or lure fishing. Regardless of the method employed the most important thing when fishing the spawning runs is to get your fly down close to the river bed where the trout are. Most of the trout don't feed very actively on their way up the river so their main priority is to conserve energy so they lie very close to the bottom where the current is slower, especially with so many boulders to shelter behind.

Generally speaking wet-fly fishing seems to work better in the lower section of the river with it's sandy bottom and poorly defined lies while nymphing works better further up where there are more boulders and obvious areas for the fish to hold. Unlike most fly-fishing in New Zealand you will find that you can catch more than one fish from the same place in quick succession. If you hook a trout you should try to drift the fly through the same place straight afterwards. When the water is clear the fish do seem to get disturbed a bit but if there is a bit of colour in the river then you can sometimes catch them one after another in the same place. Wet fly fishing is usually most productive early in the morning or on rainy days while nymphing is often best in the middle of a sunny day. Often there are less anglers about in the middle of the day, I guess many people go home for lunch or just follow the traditional advice that fishing is better near dawn and dusk, whatever the reason is they miss out on some great nymph fishing.

Nymph Fishing

When nymph fishing on the Tongariro the most effective setup is a large heavily weighted fly (often referred to as bomb) with a smaller unweighted fly behind it. Remember that in the rivers around lake Taupo you aren't allowed to add weight to flies larger than size 10. Generally the trout will take the smaller fly so the large fly is really just there to get the small fly down to the fish. With this in mind it is best to keep any dressing on the bomb to a bare minimum so that it will sink as quickly as possible. Some good choices for the smaller fly are hare and copper, pheasant tail and glo-bugs in sizes 12 to 16. Generally the smaller natural flies will work best in clear water conditions with the larger glo-bugs being best if things are getting a bit murky.

Do remember though that adding more and more weight to your flies isn't the only way to make them sink better, achieving a long drag free drift is vital to your success. Mending the line is one of the most important skills when nymphing on the Tongariro. Controlling the line on the water can be very difficult after a long cast particularly if there is a downstream breeze. Large strike indicators made from glo-bug yarn are the norm on the Tongariro, they don't seem to disturb the fish and because you are often fishing with a long line or in turbulent water the large indicator is very useful for detecting strikes. The other use of an indicator is to tell if you are getting a good drift. If the indicator points downstream then this is a sign that it is being pulled downstream to fast and you'll need to mend the line upstream to fix this. If the indicator is sitting straight up and down or pointing slightly upstream this means you are getting a good drift. Lastly if the indicator is lying flat on the surface and pointing upstream this means it is drifting to slowly and a downstream mend is required.

Wet fly Fishing

Summer Fishing

Etiquette

Access

From Waihaha hill at 56km through to the 74km mark the hills just come one after another. After 84km you'll come to Kuratau hill which rises just over 100m with a gradient of 5%. Hatepe hill is the steepest hill on the course and gains 150m over about 2km to give it a gradient of 7.5%, this one hurts especially seeing as it comes late in the race.

160km is a long way to cycle and will take about 4 hours for the elite riders with others taking over 7 hours. So you'll need plenty of water. Many people just take 2 drink bottles and plan to use the water stops that are located around the course. But they don't hand out bottles you actually have to stop and fill up you bottles, so if you're in a good bunch it is very tempting to just continue riding which makes dehydtration very likely. So you can carry extra water in your pockets, use a seat post drink holder or use a camel bak. For a different take on fuelling strategies take a look at the Cyclo-Fuel program from Graeme Street.

 The relay option is very popular and race organisers take care of the rider and bike transport for you which is a huge undertaking for them but makes things much less stressful for the participants and more importantly cuts down the amount of traffic the riders have to contend with.

One of the great things about the size of the event is that most people are aware of it and motorists will avoid getting stuck with 10 thousand cyclists if at all possible, this means there isn't much traffic on the course despite part of it being on the main rd. So if you're keen to take part in New Zealand biggest cycling event you can enter the race on the official website.