Kia Ora from New Zealand #3, April 5, 2013

Greetings! As we write this on April 4, it is blissfully, beautifully raining here in Hamilton. Apparently, not only are the people here kind and welcoming, so is the weather. Rain, tho desperately needed, held off for two weeks, during which we frolicked on the west coast on a second trip to Raglan, then had our two great North Island adventures: hiking the Tongariro Crossing, and then canoeing the Whanganui River (more on those two adventures in next posting).

In Raglan, this time we stayed at the “bach” (pronounced batch) of Dan Taylor, the Law School’s computer guru. Dan invited us for a weekend after we had spent a pleasant several hours chatting with him about hikes in the North Island.  Almost everyone we encounter seems to have a bach--a little summer place on the water somewhere, often shared among cousins and family.  So we hung out for the weekend with Dan and his friend Stella, with lots of good food and good conversations.

And we did hike--Mike’s and my first big hike together here. We went to the summit of Mount Karioi, which overlooks Raglan, the harbor, and actually a lot of the North Island. Mt. Karioi is 756 m (2,480 ft) high, rising practically straight from the sea.
Spectacular!
Like all the mountains around here, it’s a volcano--this one is considered extinct.

Photo above:  Mike at the summit. The day was bright and clear; we saw old volcanoes as far as the eye can see:  Mts. Taranaki, Pureora, Maungamangero, Te Aroha, Pirongia and Maungatautari.

Photo from the DOC website: Raglan, the harbor, and Mt. Karioi

View from the summit, west to the Tasman Sea. 
 (The Tasman Sea! Yikes.)

Mike hiking in the jungly forest

And the view of the beautiful hills as we came down.

















Dan loaned us his family’s old homemade kayak and we paddled about on Raglan Bay as well. Here’s a borrowed image of the Ragland pancake rocks--at high tide, we  paddled in and around these astonishing stacks.

Raglan Bay at high tide, from the Taylor family’s bach

One of the pohutukawa trees (Metrosideros excelsa) that line the bay in front of the bach.

Apparently they are covered with big, fuzzy red blossoms in late December and are called the “New Zealand Christmas Tree”.

Glorious, big gnarled old trees.

The bay at sunset

                                                                                          Aaah!











Very best from Loring and Mike, 
now busy doing cooking and cleaning, and washing mountains of laundry from our mountain and river trips.