Julyish

We have been busy - well Penny has, Mae and I just sort of cruise around at a relatively constant pace - somewhere between bobbling and jolting.

Yesterday we arrived back, a day later than expected, from Dunedin where Penny was doing a paediatric life support course. Mae and I had great time cruising around some of the best sights of the city and surrounding hills. Leith Saddle, Swampy summit and the Pineapple track was a great day out, as was Orokonui eco-sanctuary, Victory beach and even dare I say it, the Dunedin Town Belt, which continues to grow taller and darker than I remember.

It was also awesome to catch up with Kate and Matilda and meet the gorgeous Frida. Mae is no longer a little baby in the baby wrestling competitions!

Dunedin Library and Civic Centre has aged well

Swampy Summit is my Moonbase

Sub-alpine baby 1

Sleeping or Sunbathing?

Other recent highlights include Pennys (overall) win in the legendary Winter orienteering classic, and general cuteness

The good old castle box

Runna Momma

Raa - I'm coming to get you!

What to do with teeth

Mae is all for giving her old man lessons: eating plenty of fruit, sleeping regularly, abstaining from alcohol and brushing your teeth.

Kahurangi Point

This is the story of a little family trip to a really cool spot, Kahurangi Point lighthouse.

Back last century I did a 30 day walk with Zane Snook around much of Kahurangi National Park. With limited reading material, the park map we had was pored over, and future missions memorised. Kahurangi Point lighthouse was one of those and finally last month I got there, with Penny and Mae.

Kahurangi Point is more of a change of angles than a peninsula. It signifies the abrupt end of the wild and harsh Heaphy Coast and the beginning of the eastward trending sandy beaches that culminate in Farewell Spit. To get there you keep heading west from Golden Bay to Westhaven (Whanganui) inlet, you pass through the inlets forests and over its causeways, then the limestone farmland and windshaped coast of Paturau before finally getting to the roadend at Anatori. From Anatori it is a 4-8hour walk down the coast to the Lighthouse Keepers hut.

The Wairoa river is one of the many arms of the inlet bridged.

What keeps so many people away from Kahurangi Point, apart for the remoteness of the road and the myriad of other attractions in the region, are the tales of big rivers and sinking sands along the coastline. It is true that there are three places along the 10km coastline that you really want to be at close to low tide; the Anatori Bluffs, Anaweka Estuary Mouth and Big River. This spatial reality morphs a relaxing stroll along a beach into a stressful striding march. The first secret is that the Anatori Bluffs can be taken out of the equation by following the farmroad from Anatori to Turimawiwi this is perhaps the best way in for first timers.

Penny and Mae on the road past Anaatori

The second secret is that the Anaweka mouth and Big River are only about 45 minutes apart and at low tide (and not in flood) they are quite easy wades. The tides times are more similar to Nelson than Colllingwood. We had no trouble, wandering down the coast with the accompaniment of some friendly 4wd bikers. After we crossed big river we relaxed and let Mae play for a while among the sculpted limestone rocks.

There are not many places in New Zealand where limestone meets the sea and this makes for some great reefs and scenery. The reef at Kahurangi Point is a pearler at low tide. Goood sized mussels above the low tide mark, big Octopuses patrolling the pools and a healthy range of reef fish. Next time I am taking my snorkel (and wetsuit).

The hut is quite unique, in that it was initially built for a lighthouse keepers large family (back in those days when two familys could justify the need for a school house). After the Murchison earthquake in the 1920's in which the original houses near the lighthouse was destroyed, the keepers moved to the current site and farmed much of the surrounding land which is now slowly returning to bush. The history is well recorded in the hut which features a school project of one of the daughters describing life there in around the 1940's. The best feature of the hut itself must be the bath which runs off a wetback, a first for me in the NZ backcountry.

Mae tells me she expects a bath in every hut

From the hut there are a few cool little things to do, the reef of course, and you can also explore little tracks and creeks to find the sand pass, which takes you to the beach to the south and the cool little waterfall a little way up Kahurangi stream. There was a boogie board at the hut for the purposes of sand sliding. At low tide you can come back around the coast to the hut and check out the lighthouse (there is no track, just find the route through the likely grove of Nikau.

The odd bit of pingao still survives on the shiftiest dunes

Less hard core than it looks

Kahurangi Point from the South

Because of the tides we began our walk back up the coast around 5am. Mae was well bundled up and loved being out in the moonlight. We didn't need our torches even with the moon at our backs. We were hoping to sneak through the Anatori bluffs but arriving at the start of them the spring tide was too high, and we were being chased by a southerly front, and we had a small baby (the excuses just keep collecting), so we have a new piece of coastline for next time we are down that way. Highly recommended little bit of country.

Family Life

Yesterday, 5.45pm, the hallway floor. Marvellous Mae vs Dangerous Daddy a showdown at 4 metre crawling intervals. Head down, arse up. Her cadence is too good, and she swerves, slamming me into the wall, my shoulders too big for this narrow space, overweighed, like the Goblin King in the Hobbit, I stumble and fall in slow motion. She sits up straight, chortles and claps. Relentless.

Just now. I look at her on the other side of the room tearing into a pile of magazines. She makes eye contact. I wave. She blows me a raspberry. Oh well, clapping is more important, especially after my guitar solos.

In case you haven't gathered, we adore our little girl, it has been a great 8 months getting to know her. She is cute:

 She is also very energetic:

And she is pretty tolerant:

She loves being naked in a sink:

And she has a great poo face:

She is an excellent tramping companion:

And hut companion:

She adores her Mum:

And she puts up with sandflys even when they disfigure her:

What more could you want in a girl?

In related news Dangerous Daddy is now fulltime at home, so perhaps a few more write-ups coming up. Firstly perhaps our recent expedition to Kahurangi point lighthouse.

Kia kaha!

Comings and Goings

We had a daughter yesterday, Mae Elsie. One name just because we liked it; the other after Penny's grandmother who is an amazing lady. She was born just before lunch time after a long night of labour. Penny was incredible: focused, stoic and calm. What a woman I have somehow ended up with.

Mae is a delight, she has startling eyes, that pop open suddenly, and long delicate fingers that get lost in the long sleeves of her ill-fitting one pieces.

I lay down tonight with my daughter on my chest, a beer in my right hand and phone in my left and felt the closest I ever have to contented. Time slipped away.

For the last 10 months since we returned from Nepal time has been predominant; 60 hour working weeks for Penny; myself trying to keep buses and drivers on schedule. Weekends have been spent trying to catch up (rather than do stuff) with friends or keeping on top of the garden.

Yesterday with about an hour to go in labour. The reality of our situation overcame me and I cried. Not the burping and the feeding and the changing nappies. The reality that when a child comes into the world a little bit of us is passed on, and soon that will be all that is left. When Mae Elsie entered the world a little bit of my grandads that have both passed on were reborn. I look forward to searching for their quirks as time goes by.

In the meantime though I am enjoying my wife and daughters needs being my only timetable.

Kia kaha.                                                                                                                                                 

The Last Throes - Gokyo to Lukla

I recently got my hands on the final photos of our last Nepal trek - the "Three Passes" of the Everest region. I have blogged earlier about the Kongma La and Cho La, but finally a few words and photos on the final pass the Renjo La.

Our tight-fistedness had finally worn us down. Reaching Gokyo I would have been down under 80kg for the first time since my mid-teens and I was wondering why I wasn't so keen to go exploring in the beautiful mountains. Even the wander up the valley from Gokyo to "scoundrels view", the easiest view of Everest had seemed a challenge. In this context lugging our bags over the 5400 Renjo La seemed a bit of a challenge. In the end we suffered away and it wasn't that hard. The eastern side has a well marked track through the choss while the steeper western side has had steps cut in recent years lowering the difficulty several notches on any scale. The weather also held for the crossing of the pass, and the views were simply stunning.

The snippets of view on the way up though, were nothing compared to the vast expanse of mountains which greeted us on the Renjo La itself. Wild, strange forms of ice, rock and snow...

Looking back east to Everst, Lhotse, Makalu and company

Looking west to nowhere in particular.

We were had it, well Sam was actually cranking it through alright - it must have been those extra fat stores he started with paying their due.
Photography, discussion and even contemplation were at a minimum, it was down into the valley towards the village of Thame, where in the mist we found a guesthouse, then onwards down again to Namche Bazaar, then Lukla and out. The most dangerous airport in the world one last psychological hurdle to overcome before we were suddenly plonked into the middle of Kathmnadu. Crazy days that like them all eventually come to an end. What have we gained from our travel in Nepal...I'm unsure...we didn't push our boundaries as such, or gain a new perspective on life we hadn't had before, we were certainly reminded of our fortune in being kiwis, with coin, but what does this really do for you? We certainly got to spend some awesome time with my side of the family, which was amazing, we were reminded that simple lives can be happy (although hard) and we saw once again that humans will occupy every single niche in nature given half a chance.

The team with Everest on the Renjo La

Down into the valley with prayers...

Into the seasonal yak herding grounds in a high basin

Yaks, mountains and huts

The village of Thame below the Tashi Labsta

A place to call home

Namche Bazaar