17 October 2008

A Walking Trip to Ruahine Forest Park

Translated by Shirley Ghozalli. Edited by Moira Blake

On the weekend of 27th and 28th September, Tadatsugu Yokota (a 2006 student) and Reo Takaoka (a 2008 student) went on a tramping trip in the Ruahine Forest Park for 2 days and one night. They were accompanied by IPC lecturer, Kathy Corner, her son, and IPC staff member, Moira Blake. Ruahine Forest Park is located in the Ruahine mountain range southwest of Napier. It takes about 2 hours from Palmerston North by car to reach the starting point of the track they took, some miles along the Kimbolton Road from Feilding.

A small waterfall found on our way

The mountain hut where we stayed for a night

Tadatsugu Yokota

After a short briefing, we started to walk from the foot of the Ruahine mountain range. It was a steep mountain path overgrown with trees. When I looked downward, I could see only the bush all around. As we were nearing the summit, the path went into a wide meadow.

The destination was a mountain hut owned by the Department of Conservation. On the first day, it was cloudy. We walked for about 2 hours and then I could see only white. I didn't know if it was mist or cloud. Fortunately, we reached the hut in a short time and then spent the time there in a leisurely fashion. We had fun playing card games and gesture games (charades) till nightfall. Although there was a heater at the hut, it was still freezing cold.

For dinner, we made a pasta dish using the ingredients we brought from home. In relaion to this, there was a small incident. I brought meat and vegetables in my rucksack. However, some time when I was walking, the vinyl plastic in which I put the meat was damaged. The blood from the meat stained all the things in my sack, including my sleeping bag. Everyone told me that they smelled something stinky when we were still on the road. This experience of walking and carrying my stinky rucksack became memorable to me.

On the second day, it was cloudy in the morning but fine in the evening. Walking towards the mountain summit, we were heading for the snow. Along the way, we saw icicles hanging from the vegetation. It was very beautiful. Perhaps because of the weather since the day before, the path was wet and our shoes made noises. But when we reached the summit, we were full of pride in our achievement.

Walking to summit in beautiful weather

At the summit. From right: Kathy Corner, Reo Takaoka, Moira Blake, Tadatsugu Yokota and Kathy's son

Reo Takaoka

I felt very happy, like in a dream, when I went tramping with my friends. It was the first time for me to go to and stay in a mountain hut. Before that, I tried to guess what it would look like but after I walked there and saw it for myself, I was very impressed.

Although there was no PC and no TV in the hut, we had a great time playing card games and gesture games by candlelight. We laughed together and enjoyed our togetherness.

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