Coromandel Pinnacles

After leaving Thames as quickly as possible I headed up to the Coromandel Park Forest. A DOC run area which has various walks located in the area. After travelling up the gravel track to the visitors centre, which Vanessa loves by the way. The lovely lady told me about the Wainora Kauris Track which would be a great short walk and then complete the Pinnacles tomorrow. Sounds like a plan, $9 paid for my camp fees and off I went up another 7k of gravel track.

I parked up and then headed through the not so smooth track towards my first stream crossing. When your shoes aren't waterproof, crossing the streams is a lot more difficult than you think. Especially when the rock to step on are just far enough apart so you can't step over easily. 6 successful stream crossings later, the start of the walk up. Not sure how much of a walk the lady at DOC thought I wanted to undertake but after 20 mins of walking up hill I reached my goal. At the end were trees, fantastic! I'd been walking through them for the previous 45 minutes.

Time to bed down for the night and prepare for the 8 hour tramp in the morning.

After a good nights sleep, it was time to head up to the Pinnacles. After seeing a few people with all their walking gear on, i thought maybe not. I set off at 8.30am, half an hour later than planned (good sleep). I passed the well prepared hikers quite soon into my journey and then it onwards and upwards. Passing over the Indiana Jones type bridge was quite strange..

The climb at times was tough going, mainly due to the fact I'd consumed a large amount of beer whilst at Mt Ruapehu and was pretty much out of shape. After a while I arrived at Hydro Camp, approx halfway. It was estimated to take 2 hours there and 2 hours to the Pinnacles. After Hydro Camp it was seriously up hill with many steps thrown in for good measure. Arriving at the hut was the build up to the big last hike. After passing some people on the way down, I managed to have the Pinnacles to myself. What a fantastic place to sit and try not to look down!!

On the way down I passed an array of people who were doing the walk and it was great to know I'd been up there without others around. The journey back involved a de-tour via the Billy Goat Track, which added a little change of scenery and also included the steepest train track I'd ever seen.

Great tramp to have completed and has made me want to do more. Especially slightly more difficult ones whilst here in NZ. Next was off to the hot pools for a soak and a lovely serving of fish and chips.

Next, is where I am now....... Auckland. And after 24 hours of life here I really do understand why Roomie packed his bags and headed back to Newcastle Aus. I'm currently looking and hoping to get some Wwoof work, which is working in exchange for accomodation and food. This is something I am keen to persue with Jen as it will help secure funds for other things.