Our Te Araroa trail book

Our Te Araroa trail

Nevis Road trip in DODJEY

Next steps...

It's almost two years again and the blog has been parked up for a while. The motivation for the last entries came from the completion of a couple of books and as an update, there was a fourth. This one was about the trucking in USA and took considerably more time and effort to produce. However, once again it was really satisfying to have it completed and shelved with the others. To read on a rainy day perhaps.

Time passes quickly when you stop taking notice and for the last two years we've been occupied with heading away either cycling or hiking somewhere within weekend distance of Tauranga. We upgraded our camper van last year and 'Fries', our Mitsubishi Fuso camper has made it so much easier to head away, sometimes on a Friday evening and sometimes early Saturday.  The cycling, although still very enjoyable, took a bit of a dive after a couple of injuries and as a result we started to spend more time in walking boots.  Needless to say, the appeal of the bush trails, particularly around the Kaimai Ranges has sparked an interest in seeing more of NZ by foot.  Earlier this year we walked the Heaphy track taking 5 days and making good use of the wonderful DOC huts along the way. Despite being a bit foot sore by the end of the trail we were still keen to pursue an idea that had been hatching for the last year and that is to tackle the Te Araroa trail, a continuous 3000 km walking trail and the ultimate 5 month NZ great walk.

You must be mad, some say. Maybe they are right but our current plan, based on plenty of consideration and planning, is to complete the Te Araroa trail this summer coming. I have been lucky enough to get 6 months leave without pay (they wouldn't pay me to go) and we will start 'the long walk' in early October from Cape Reinga with the goal of finishing in Bluff in March 2017.
My thoughts are to keep a Facebook page and I'm not sure about using this blog also to record the trip but will listen to any feedback.

We have the added advantage of friends Kath and Peter keeping within close proximity to us in their camper van while we are walking so we expect that they will be able to meet up with us periodically, listen to our grizzles and send son our way again. Having them handy will help where there are harbour and river crossings as they will hopefully give us a ride and we also think that we will cycle some of the road sections.

With less than 100 days to go the excitement grows and so watch this space or Facebook to hear how we get along.

Aussie trucking

We are on a bit of a roll with these books and so making hay while we have the time. Once I get back to work full time, which should be within the next few weeks, I'm sure the progress will slow down.
This one is about the time we spent in Australia driving road trains.

http://store.blurb.com/ebooks/p9c32da1adcd839fc113f

Weedpatch

This one is a photo book of the Alcoba Street, Kamo property we owned starting with what it looked like when we went to look at it with the agent, to moving in and pictures of the changes we made and the fun we had there. I hope you enjoy!

http://store.blurb.com/ebooks/487743-weedpatch

Wet days and bad back = a book

Well a number of wet days and a back that still prefers to be rested has resulted in us spending some time and putting together a small book of memoirs from our 1996 South Pacific cruise onboard Scot Free. Click the link below to check it out. We did it to see what it comes up like as there are potentially more stories to follow. The link does go to an ebook store (but it's free) and we have been able to download the book to ibooks to read.

http://store.blurb.com/ebooks/486632-scot-free

Coromandel weekend

We spent last weekend revisiting some favourite spots on the Coromandel Peninsular and also discovering places that we had not been to before. We left Tauranga on Friday and spent our first night at the Wentworth Valley DOC camp, a place we have been to before. Its lovely and quiet, tucked up at the end of the valley amongst the bush and we were there on our own.  On Saturday we headed north through Hikuai, Pauanui and Tairua then Hahei and Hot Water Beach before stopping for the night in a motor camp in Whitianga. Sunday we checked out Matapouri and Whangapoua then headed over the hill to Coromandel where we stopped for lunch and a quiet time in the sun at Te Kouma harbour. The spot where we both previously kept our boats moored and had many wonderful memories of weekends there with Carey and Fausett families. We stopped the night in Coromandel after buying delicious smoked mussels and scollops from Bronwyn at Coromandel Smokehouse. We called in to see Rolly and Jeanette on our way through Te Puru on Monday but missed Rolly as he was out fishing.
Literally a fantastic trip, beautiful scenery, wonderful weather and Mervan (our camper) went really well.  The photos above are in order - leaving the DOC camp in the Wentworth Valley, fishermen at Tairua, Hahei beach x2, Whitianga.