Ngaruawahia - Hakarimata Range

So on Sunday when Shaina and I woke up, Gary asked us if we wanted to go for a walk. Their daughter Melissa studies plants and trees at her University, so she wanted to go on this walk to check out the trees in the area. They said it would be a couple hours out, so we headed down to Ngaruawahia, which was a little over an hour drive for us, and it was about 20 km away from Hamilton which is where Melissa lives/went to school.

Once we got there, we were told we were hiking to the top of the summit...1,349 steps to get to the top. We started off on our trek, and it wasn't too bad. Gary gave Melissa a little device so that they could do some geocaching. I had never heard of this before, so when people stopped at a bridge and randomly started looking under things, I was really confused. For those of you who don't know, geocaching is a worldwide recreational activity in which people hide little objects to be found. When you find it, there is a piece of paper inside of it in which you sign your name and date it. The device Melissa had pointed her in the direction of where the object was and provided her with clues on how to find it. It's a really neat idea, so if you still don't really get it, you should look it up! There is an official website and everything where it says it is a real-world treasure hunt! (www.geocaching.com) We were unsuccessful at finding the first object, so we moved on, and then we found the second one! It was a little box with a fake spider on it stuck into the hollow of a tree trunk (everyone we were with knows that nothing can really hurt you in NZ, so they are sticking their arms into the creepiest holes and crevices...no way! Even though I could tell the spider on the box was fake, there was no way I was reaching my hand in there to grab it). Inside this box was just a piece of paper, but then once we got to the third object and found it (which was under a short store case landing) there were different trinkets inside like a marble and mini sewing kit. The idea is to leave treasures for people, so if you take something, you need to put something in. We put in a US penny (which is basically worthless..) Anyways, Melissa was saying she liked doing the geocaching because it gave you an excuse to stop and look around on long hikes! Eventually, there was a fourth one on the path, but we needed to begin climbing up the never-ending staircase.

These are just a sample of some of the stairs. You would just look up and see stairs and more stairs. Like mentioned above, there are a total of 1,349. It was crazy. There were a surprising amount of people actually running up and down them (and one lady even had a baby on her back!)

They provide a bench half way up and then again at three-quarters of the way up. It was quite funny because it is normal for people to take breaks while walking up, so you kept passing the same people over and over again while each person stopped again. I think it probably took us about an hour and a half to get to the top, but we made it!

The top right city in this picture is Hamilton.

374 meters above sea level, or about 12,000 ft! Definitely the highest I've ever climbed before!

When we got to the top, we noticed some people filming something. Apparently they were filming this trail for part of a TV show. I'm not exactly sure what the show is, but they were describing it as something where he travels across many trails in NZ that are apparently connected. This particular show is mostly a Maori show, so not many people watch it, although I think the basic cable that Gary and Petro have has the channel.

This guy is Pio Terei. He is a famous Maori comedian, actor, and musician in NZ. You can look him up and see what stuff he does, but it's mostly just some nature stuff and some comedy shows. He's not like a movie star or anything. 

It was interesting watching them film because we got to watch how it was all done with retakes and just explaining what each person was to do in the scene. 

We got to be in the background shot while he finished walking up the hill! We had to just pretend to be talking to each other and then look at the camera and smile...so basically, I'll be signing autographs when I get home. Actually, like I said above, it's a Maori show, so not that many people will actually see it. That was my two seconds of fame.

We ate our lunch at the top, and then it was time to head back down. Rather than taking the steps, we took a more adventurous route through the bush. It was kind of challenging because we had to hop over tree roots and go down muddy paths and what not, but it was really fun and doing it that way!

Here is a sample of what the path looked like for part of it. There were a lot of steps to go down still towards the end of the path.

We stopped at a little waterfall to wait for Gary and Petro to catch up. It was a neat little area to relax, and there were some people there for the day just to swim.

We made it! That hill behind me is the one we went up. 

The way back probably took us another hour and a half, so it was a long adventure. I wish there were places like this in MN. It was really fun doing something like this, so I look forward to exploring the bush more at other places!