We decided that a good way to celebrate Valentine's Day is to climb a mountain! The lady at the Department of Conservation told me about Mount Arthur in the Kahurangi National Park. Kahurangi means "treasured possession; special greenstone" in Maori and it is the second largest national park in NZ. There are many options for hikes. Among them is the well known Heaphy Track. People reserve beds in huts that are set up throughout the park, carry all they would need on their backs, and set out for a 3-5 day excursion.
We were happy to just do a day trip to the summit of Mt Arthur. Of course things don't always happen as planned. We got a little bit of a later start than we had anticipated and the directions to the park weren't labeled the greatest. On the way there our left rear tire decided to blow out. Luckily, Katie and I got our spare patched up before we left Napier. So, we threw on the spare and drove up the unsealed, super steep road to the car park. There we learned that it was an 8 hr hike instead of the 6 hrs we were expecting. We just started hiking and figured we would just go as far as the hut and then decide whether to keep going. By the time we reached that hut the clouds had moved in like crazy and we couldn't see the beautiful mountains around us (the hut was at 1310 meters above sea level). So, we decided to not attempt the summit hike. We walked back to the car and were in the clouds almost the whole time. It was a 3 hr walk total and it felt really good. I have really developed more of an appreciation of being surrounded by nature.
This was the scene before our hike started:
The woods kept changing as our walk went on. This was the really mossy part:
The clouds just rolled in...
and our path looked like this:
The trees in the distance looked like this:
Good show, Kahaurangi!
1 comment:
It looks like a dream!!! Love it. Love you!
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