Yeah, I didn’t know what it meant either.
So there I am, on the east coast north of Kaikoura when my trip buddy Mr NoPrep suggests we go down a certain road. As the relaxed driver, I do.
We end up around this place while he intently stares at his GPS.
“Drive into the driveway”, he says.
What?
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A “quick dash” (ahem) up Kaka Hill this morning while the sun was out and the wind was trying to figure out what to do for the rest of the day.
Although this is forestry land, the area has a public access easement for the weekends, and is especially popular with mountain bikers and trail bikers.
About 2.6 km on your left up the Maitai Valley you’ll find a forest access road next to Sharland Creek. Enter it and about 400m later, on your left, you’ll pass a ford. Park and walk up the Kaka forestry road to get to Kaka Hill.
Once there, you’ll know why: near 360° views!
Trip photos @ Panoramio
Once there, you can walk 1.5 km along the ridge to the other lookout – known to us as Supplejack Lookout.
Sitting at my desk drinking carbonated sugary drinks has taken its toll – it was a hard 400 m up today. Time to drink more water, and do more exercise!
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For overseas readers wondering why we may call a hill Kaka… it’s a bird! The Kākā is a native (endemic) New Zealand parrot.
You have any idea how hard it is to see weekend after weekend fall victim to terrible weather? It really becomes difficult not to get repetitive about this, so instead we’ll have a look at some more items to add to the P®n list.
The P®n list has been getting smaller and smaller as Mrs Nutinahut has been very generous over the last few months and items that used to be on the list of coveted tramping gear items have, one by one, made their way to the real gear list. (Yay!)
But that does mean it is time to start adding some more cool gadgets.
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Another plan B weekend. The rain and thunder came into Marlborough against forecast so I headed south until I outran the rain around Kaikoura. After that it was a perfect day.
Trip photos @ Panoramio
2 FTFs, 17 Found, 2 DNF, 0 placed.
Doesn’t seem a lot for a midnight to 10 pm run, does it? Lots of walking and lots of driving
Just a few photos I took in my travels over the last week or two. A few views from the region.
… and the rest:
Trip photos @ Panoramio
First, coveting things costs money. To get the SOTO to New Zealand set me back a little less than USD$100 including shipping. Converted to NZD, that would be just under $140 at the current exchange rate.
It’s hard to find online businesses that will sell you one and send it overseas. The cheapest I found at the time was www.moontrail.com at USD$69 + shipping. God Bless FedEx and Moontrail.
This is certainly the sort of product a local top-draw importer like Ampro should be bringing in, but I suspect it would not cost a lot less by then.
Is it worth it?
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Oh wow.
Here is the list in increasing order of excitement:
Oh yes. Like a kid I’m jumping up and down and being excited about the Soto stove. 73 grams / 2.6 oz of pure backpacking joy. Apart from getting this coveted object, which has since clocked up Editors Choice 2010 at Backpacker Magazine as well as Outdoor Magazin, I am now able to retire my steel stove that weighs in at a hefty 360 g / 12.7 oz. In other words, this will be 80% lighter. And lighter, is good, my friends.
