Orongorongo Valley, Rimutaka Forest Park
Team: Sue (Leader), Ravi, Lillian, Amelia, Mark, Mike, Angela, Toby, Stacey, Bronwyn
Weekends like this are why I love tramping!
Friday night some of my workmates and I headed out for dinner at the Flying Buritto Brothers to celebrate surviving the dramas of the end of the financial year (and the seeing off of the auditors!). Even the CEO joined our small group for the evening, which was actually quite fun! Mark and I then headed home to pack for our tramp that was leaving on Saturday morning, and I have to say that my pack seemed MUCH smaller simply for not having to spend a night at the road end - not that I could think of much that I would normally take but didnt, although, I did forget hut shoes entirely, which is really kinda stupid when you consider that I KNEW we had to cross a river multiple times to get to the hut!
The track in to Paua Hut is a fairly simple amble. Well, it would normally be if I hadnt had too much marguerita the night before! It starts with a bit of a climb up the hil, then wambles up and down for what took us about 2.5 hours before reaching the river. We had Toby, a 6 year old, with us, which meant more frequent stops for all, and a slower pace than normal as well!
Before too long we reached the end of the track, where it drops rather steeply down to the river, and a really funky bridge...
From here it was time to start a half-hour or so amble along, across and through the river to the hut.
For the first couple of crossings, we practiced "good technique" even though the river was well down (given the heavy rain of the previous few days, this was a relief!), just so we could say we had. From then on though, it was every person for themselves, and we had quite a lot of fun in the river!
All of a sudden, we were at the hut and it was lunch time!! Mark, Stacey and I had arranged between us to carry some treat food for the afternoon, so we spent our time nibbling on crackers and cheese, and corn chips with salsa dip. This was a big plus, as the dinner was rather plain and dull to be honest - Mac n cheese with bacon, followed by choc instant pud with marshmallows... Edible, but given the easiness of the trip, I would have expected something a little more... extravagant... perhaps. The other groups Thai Green Curry Tuna actually looked rather appealing compared to ours!!
After an afternoon sitting in whatever sun we could find, reading books, still we all headed to bed for a reasonably early night - because we could!! I slept in as late as I could get away with in the morning, and when I got up, found that most of the hut were up and about and outside, reading or generally relaxing before breakfast!
The walk home was more of the same, only the other way around, and we ended up back at the road end at the same time as the medium group, who had taken a much more challenging route to get there!
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