Sprint the Bay Slideshow

Red Rocks

I think I'm still overexcited about our new camera. I can't run right now, so last night at Red Rocks I had to sift around taking photos while Penny and Elo went running. It was cool just sifting around appreciating things and looking for points of interest and beauty in terrain I normally run through appreciating the more raw sensations of flexing muscles, rain in my face, throbbing wind in my ears, etc.

Well, its always easy to find beauty hanging around with Penny and Elo.

There I was thinking about how a type of seaweed looked like Rimu...and the interpretation centre confirmed it.

Trying to explore the  natural, and not so, lines

Stewart Family Holiday - Annapurna Basecamp

Getting these Nepal blogs done is like pulling teeth - except that I have a few less teeth than Nepal blogs to pull.

The ever so slightly intrepid Stewart family followed on their exploration of the Kali Gandakai with a ten day trek from Tatopani in the west to Dhampus in the east with an excursion to Annapurna basecamp thrown in. Slightly more ambitious than we had planned, but once you're committed there is no going back.

We came from the left - up and down the valley - then down to the right

The lower parts of this trek were through much more heavily agricultural country. The homeland of the Gurung people. This is part of the original "Annapurna Circuit" but in the most part its popularity is waning due to the development of the Kali Gandaki road. This meant there were copious and competitively priced guesthouses for us to stay in at most places. The scenic shit hole of Tadapani being a notable exception. During the trip we lost Gemma, I dropped her off one day down at the nearest road end (bottom middle of above picture). Mainly my memories are of relaxing times with some stunning views and some lovely forests, a beautiful little part of the world.

Heading towards Shikha

Gurung Villagee

Mum and drying corn

We did the whole "Poon hill" thing, getting up early with the crowds of people, and enduring the early morning chill as the sun rose over the Annapurnas and Dhaulagiri. Not too shabby a view, with some interesting clouds.

Annapurnas on left - Macchapuchare on right

The sunrises over wooded ridges

Rhododendrons, Annapurnas and Clouds

From Poon Hill the walk really was mostly downhill. With just a few little ups. We certainly saw some extreme suffering of people heading the other (wrong) way. We cruised through the rhododendron forests, the millet fields and the terraced valleys and on up the Modi Khola towards Annapurna basecamp.

The last good team photo before Gem left us

Dad and Dhaulagiri

Mum giving instructions

Mum in the Rhododendron forest

Looking up the Modi Khola

A reminder of conflicts (hopefully) past.

Trailing porters to Annapurna Basecamp.

Our eventual arrival at Annapurna Basecamp was quite a momentous occasion for the family. we have always had a copy of Herzog's "Annapurna" in the bookshelf but despite this it almost seemed a mythical place, far far away. There was a huge sense of satisfaction at having made it, which was awesome. As Mum pointed out this was sort of like the climax of our trip, it was all (literally) down from here, and it certainly felt like that as we turned our backs on the mountains and headed down. You can almost see it in our faces I think.

Annapurna Basecamp 4130metres

Annapurna Basin posefest.

Turning our back on a mighty mountain

The walk out was peaceful. It actually only took three days, we must have been getting fit. I can't remember much about it, and we don't have many photos. Quite a bit of wandering along, not saying much, looking forward to getting a massive cheap feed in Pokhara. Kids on the track singing for money. Sun and butterflies.

And lots of marigolds everywhere

And a fair bit of rice ready to harvest.

A very memorable and fulfilling piece of travel indeed. A few weeks that I am sure we will be remembering in our family for a long long time.

Kangchenjunga School Project: Wellington Talk

 What: Kangchenjunga School Project talk

Where: Tararua Hall, 4 Moncrieff St, Mt Victoria, Wellington

When: 8th February -Doors Open 7.30pm

We invite you and your friends to attend a talk on a humanitarian project in remote Nepal

Kangchenjunga, the world's third highest mountain, rests in the remote nort-eastern corner of Nepal on the border of Tibet and India's Sikkim province. Kiwi Norman Hardie was part of the first ascent in 1954, while in the 1970's the New Zealand Alpine Club staged an expedition to the nearby north face of Jannu, now recognised as one of the toughest challenges in world alpinism. This expedition was famously recorded in Graeme Dingle's book "Wall of Shadows". Less well known though, is that for over 20 years, a small group of ANZAC's have been quietly assisting in the healthcare and education of the local Sherpa people...this talk will tell the story of this project and the effect of the 6.9 magnitude earthquake centred on the area in September last year.

 Australian Cherie Bremer-Kemp made two attempts on the peaks of Kangchenjunga in the 1980's, one of which resulted in the tragic loss of her husband and nearly her own life. She was rescued and cared for by the local Sherpa people, who she pledged to return and assist. She has honoured this pledge, and with the help of her new husband, kiwi Rob Rowlands, has spent the last twenty years building, maintaining and staffing schools and medical clinics in the area. On the projects most recent expedition, Dr Penny Kane, who was asked by Rob and Cherie to provide medical training on womens and childrens health to the local healthcare workers, and her husband Jamie Stewart, were caught up in a 6.9 magnitude earthquake that destroyed one of the schools.

 Cherie, Rob, Penny, and Jamie will all be in Weliington on Wednesday, 8 February, to tell their Kangchenjunga stories and raise money for the rebuild of Folay school. Raffles will be held for valuable autographed books on the area and donations will be accepted. The evening is kindly hosted by the Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club.

Some currently school-less children of Folay

Charming Creek

As mentioned previously the finale of our Mokihinui weekend was a bike/run over the Charming Creek walkway. For me this was a long run: Seddonville - Granity, but there was plenty of interest to keep the mind off the pain. The track follows a crazy bush railway built to allow the extraction of coal deposits. The history behind this venture is here.

Unlike the Central Otago Railtrail the track has not been cleared of sleepers, so is rather a bumpy ride. Running seemed comparatively pleasurable. The Ngakawau gorge pops out of the track about halfway along and just reeks of "mission". Unfortunately it is also a victim of acid mine drainage,about which there is a good intro here. I will save this mission for a few years...when fish feel fit to live in the river I will be keen to tube it.

We had a great time though...its wierd how lots of the most environmentally abused places in NZ; Naseby, Karangahape Gorge, McKenzie Basin, are also oddly beautiful. And Dinner with good beer was found in the Drifters cafe in Granity. Photos courtesy of Jonathan Kennett.

Mark in the boiler

Penny emerging from a tunnel

Another Jonathon and Penny on swingbiking

Mokihinui & New Camera

I thought I would expose my attempts to get our new camera working, mainly from the Mokihinui weekend....good honest fun....

Mr Mark Hooker

Murray and Dougal - flying

Gran

Lyell - Bridge

Lyell - Graveyard

Hairy face

Survival

Not Levi Hawken

Saturation

Mokihinui - Damn the dam!

Getting bikes ready

Lake Janet

Lyell Track work

Lyell - Modern Prospectors

Mokihinui Weekend

 We had a fantastic weekend down south recently courtesy of the imagination of Jonathan Kennett. Jonathan is working part time at the moment for the Ministry of Economic Development on the New Zealand Cycle Trails project. This must be a big push for a self made man who has hardly ever worked for anyone, but he can see the opportunity for big gains for cycling in NZ. One of the approved projects Jonathan is keeping an eye on is the Old Ghost Road. An attempt to recreate and re-envisage the historic pack route route from Lyell on the Buller to Seddonville on the West Coast.

Jonathan's concept was to get mtbers from around the country to converge on the Mokihinui gorge, the northern part of the Old Ghost Road, for a weekend, to open up as much of the old pack track to mountain bike (grade 3) standard as we could. We would then have a few adventures as well. In the event there were over 40 of us that made the trip, with sizable contingents from Christchurch, Nelson and Wellington. With a few chainsaw gangs and the rest of us on loppers, grubbers and the like progress was fast...the 5km to Rough and Tumble creek knocked out in a solid day...and some real mint riding track exposed.

Well known MTBer Dave Mitchell and the lady that is always in his photos

Chainsaw getting stuck into some logfall

Emily "power cookie" Miazga watching people work

Paul Kennet riding a mint bit of track

A track sized whole in the vegetation

The evening was about getting together over a beer or two, enjoying the BBQ put on by the Old Ghost Road trust and trialling the yike bike, which was brought along by one of the Chch guys who is part of the development team. I had a good chat to Joe Arts, who with his caving mates is quietly going about some seriously hardcore exploration deep inside Mt Owen. Hard bastards. The next day we skivved off and went for an inflatable mission, via the track cleared the day before. The lower gorge of the Mokihinui is rather pleasant grade 2+. The 3 boat inflatable regatta went smoothly, although the Penny/Jamie combination did get pulverised at one stage, and Murray/Dougal took a rather lame swim the beginning of which is illustrated in the photos below.

Off down the river

I told Penny it was a good line.

Woohoo!

 

Waahaa!

 The Sunday was capped off by a nice run/bike over the Charming Creek walkway to Granity and dinner at the Drifters cafe.We hadn't visited Charming Creek before and were impressed by the history, but a little shocked by the water quality of the cascading Ngakawau. This is a seriously cool river that has suffered from the mining on the Stockton plateau.  There is also a hydro scheme planned here, which perhaps (there are concerns about the ocean discharge) has better environmental outcomes than the Mokihinui proposal.

Thanks to Jonathan for the photos. We have a new DSLR camera the products of which will be revealed soon. I am currently in Christchurch spending some time with family, in lieu of moving into our own house on the 15th of February. Exciting times!