This post intersects the ongoing diary of our South Island tour with coverage of a Sunday afternoon walk in the Rimutaka Forest Park. Despite the weather forecasts of last week this weekend was surprisingly pleasant and made it possible for me to enjoy outdoor concerts in Wellington, part of the Wellington Jazz Festival on Saturday, as well as an afternoon walking in Rimutaka on Sunday.
As Mikko (a student of Media Lab here on study exchange) and myself didn't make it out to the park until after 15.00 it was decided we would make the 90 minutes walk to the Orongorongo river. Regular followers may remember that this has been the subject of an earlier post in which yours truly took a wrong turn on the ridge track and found himself 6 kms downstream from where he should have been, with somewhat tricky and sweaty consequences.
The sun was high in the sky and the only aim was to enjoy the scenery, capture some nice images and have a picnic lunch at the river before taking the same route back. And that is what we did, without mishaps and detours. In fact the river was so inviting that I was compelled to throw myself into it once we arrived, the cool relentless current washing me off downstream, at least for a few metres.
The return walk was more leasurely, mainly due to the improved quality of light in the early evening and the photo opportunities that arose. The river track takes you through various forest types, each with their own particular character. It is not surprising that this track is sometimes noted as being the most popular short walk in the Wellington region. Despite that we only met about 25 or so other trekkers during the entire afternoon including three rifle carrying lads and a dog at the river. No jokes about moonshine stills were made. Well, fortunately they didn't look like the Georgia hillbillies from John Boorman's Deliverance ;-)
Towards the final section of track a lone walker approached us from behind enquiring whether we had working phones with us. But, as we expected, there was no phone network to be found there. Peter explained he, an Englishman, had been staying in the valley campsite the night before but, today, on his trek to the peak of one of the nearby hills had become lost due to the lack of sufficient signage up there. (This all had a very familiar ring to it ;-) He had ended up on the river, 5 kms from where he should have been, was forced to make his way along and over the river for 5 kms in order to reach the track again. Because of this had missed the chance to catch the bus back into Wellington.
We were very happy to help him out, of course. The irony of the situation was not confined to the fact that we had found a(nother) lost Englishman in Rimutaka but that he was also sporting a Weta Digital teeshirt, advertising his employer. Weta is one of the key companies here in the New Zealand creative industries, the core of my research at Victoria university. So, I had found my first local contact in Weta at last and in very amusing circumstances. The arse rocket was waiting in the car park and the cold beer I'd bought on the way out to the park was still very cool in the boot - a tasty reward after the afternoon's exercise.
As Mikko (a student of Media Lab here on study exchange) and myself didn't make it out to the park until after 15.00 it was decided we would make the 90 minutes walk to the Orongorongo river. Regular followers may remember that this has been the subject of an earlier post in which yours truly took a wrong turn on the ridge track and found himself 6 kms downstream from where he should have been, with somewhat tricky and sweaty consequences.
The sun was high in the sky and the only aim was to enjoy the scenery, capture some nice images and have a picnic lunch at the river before taking the same route back. And that is what we did, without mishaps and detours. In fact the river was so inviting that I was compelled to throw myself into it once we arrived, the cool relentless current washing me off downstream, at least for a few metres.
The return walk was more leasurely, mainly due to the improved quality of light in the early evening and the photo opportunities that arose. The river track takes you through various forest types, each with their own particular character. It is not surprising that this track is sometimes noted as being the most popular short walk in the Wellington region. Despite that we only met about 25 or so other trekkers during the entire afternoon including three rifle carrying lads and a dog at the river. No jokes about moonshine stills were made. Well, fortunately they didn't look like the Georgia hillbillies from John Boorman's Deliverance ;-)
Towards the final section of track a lone walker approached us from behind enquiring whether we had working phones with us. But, as we expected, there was no phone network to be found there. Peter explained he, an Englishman, had been staying in the valley campsite the night before but, today, on his trek to the peak of one of the nearby hills had become lost due to the lack of sufficient signage up there. (This all had a very familiar ring to it ;-) He had ended up on the river, 5 kms from where he should have been, was forced to make his way along and over the river for 5 kms in order to reach the track again. Because of this had missed the chance to catch the bus back into Wellington.
We were very happy to help him out, of course. The irony of the situation was not confined to the fact that we had found a(nother) lost Englishman in Rimutaka but that he was also sporting a Weta Digital teeshirt, advertising his employer. Weta is one of the key companies here in the New Zealand creative industries, the core of my research at Victoria university. So, I had found my first local contact in Weta at last and in very amusing circumstances. The arse rocket was waiting in the car park and the cold beer I'd bought on the way out to the park was still very cool in the boot - a tasty reward after the afternoon's exercise.
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