Mt Manuoha track - Te Urewera National Park

DAY 1

We got a shuttle from the visitor centre which took us out to the start of the trek


We had a steep climb on an overgrown track through a broad leaf podocarp forest which turned into beech the higher we got


A cool liverwort Karen found


The only view we got across the Ureweras before the cloud closed in over us


I have never been through a forest with so much hook grass. My legs and socks were covered in thousands of the tiny seeds.


A close up of one of the seeds with its little hook


Can you spot me in the goblin forest?


We reach the highest point in the national park - Mt Manuoha. We had to imagine the views as the clouds covered us


We thought this DOC sign saying 2 minutes to the hut was funny as the hut was 10seconds walk away.


We had a great night in Manuoha Hut tucked up in our warm sleeping bags next to our smoky fire while the rain and wind hissed and roared outside.


Karen roasting some marshmellows on our fire. As we were sitting down to sleep we felt a big earthquake. It was only when we got back to Whakatane we saw it was a 5.0 which hit on the east cape.


DAY 2

Getting into our wet weather gear for a windy rainy day.


This crane fly was sheltering itself from the wind on karens pack


A rare landsnail we found on the track 35mintues from the hut. This area has some extensive bio work going on.


We followed the track along ridges most of the day through thick beech forest which then passed along some big lagoons


After 6 1/2 hours we reach Sandybay hut on the edge of Lake Waikareiti.


We jumped straight into the lake for a refreshing swim.


DAY 3

A tiny blue toadstool on the side of the track.


The track wound around the edge of the lake were we stopped for lunch at the Waikareiti day shelter.


These are the dingy's DOC rents out for people to row across the Lake.


Pointing to Sandy Bay Hut on this picture of Lake Waikareiti


We finished up at the Aniwaniwa visitor centre.


28 March 2011

We made the most of our couple of days off by heading into Te Urewera National Park for a 3 day tramp up to the highest peak in the park - Mt Manuoha then past some lagoons, around Lake Waikareiti to finish back at the visitor centre. The weather forecast was for heavy rain throughout the entire country but we went anyway. It was windy, cloudy and rainy but that only made us appreciate a good feed and warm fire at the huts all the more.