Sunday morning was beautiful. After a great day out on these hills on Waitangi Day, I was keen to do another longish walk. The route I had in mind was to walk up the spur that I came down on Waitangi Day and carry on to walk the rest of Skyline Walkway, then up to Makara Peak and back. …
First I walked 35 minutes to the saddle behind Chartwell Substation, where I saw the horses last time. From there I walked the spur that took me up directly to the prominent corner of Skyline Hill.
The sky looked much better today, but the hills were much less quiet. Apparently a motocross club was running a club meet up on this very popular area! I was apprehensive at first. But when I met the volunteer club officials and had a little chat, I felt relaxed realising they are another bunch of outdoor lovers helping their friends have a good time. The riders, too, were very considerate, slowing down when overtaking me and waving for thanks. :up:
Looking from the top, my target for today's walk, Makara Peak looked very very far. Am I going to bite off something I won't be able to chew?
Before chewing anything, I needed to sit down on my favourite rock with a cup of tea (Earl Grey. Hot! Naturally :p).
Afternoon walk dragged on. But I was able to arrive at Makara Saddle in quite good time. I could turn back here. But why would I do that when I could enjoy extensive views from Makara Peak in just 40 more minutes? Even the climb looked like this :eyes:
It was a bit strange to find another competition/club meet was on the summit. Even more strange was why those mountain bikers need a van and big trailer parked up there, when they could just have ridden up? :rolleyes:
After a short afternoon tea and changing the lens, I was on the return leg of my walk.
I came across the motocross club officials that I had met earlier. They told me the riders had a good time, except for one guy who injured his shoulder. I was asked how I was and replied I was stuffed. 😆 The older guy asked if I could get home before dark and had I a torch on me. I said, no, I don't, that's shocking, and we laughed 😆 That good natured banter had me still smiling after we parted, all the way to home while dragging my tired legs. 🙂
(For record, I left home at 10.05 and came home at 17.10. It may seem long but taking into account stopping times, actual walking time was probably about 5&3/4 hours)
:coffee:
Fair effort. Good you got back home in the end 🙂
Thanks, Eric. :DI would like to get fit again, so am hoping to do more walks while the conditions are favourable. I have to say, though, I seem getting a lot longer to recover these days. It's been three days and I'm still feeling like having a mid-afternoon nap (, which I did not today but did yesterday and the day before. :p)
That was an amazing long walk 🙂 And absolutely beautiful countryside for that because all of those hills.
Cheers, Sami. Yes. The landscape makes it easy to go the distance. :happy:
I have never seen that part of Wellington, the hill with the big blue arrow on top :eyes:
Originally posted by darkesthour:
A new work of virtual sculpture 😀
Its unreasonably high considering the temperature :eyes:
😆 :lol:It's shame I don't have a picture of that wind mast pointing up into the sky. :phttp://www.sculpture.org.nz/engine/SID/10007/AID/1097.htm
They're pretty, aren't they? :DHaven't seen them myself, either. I shall put an evening sculpture walk to my future walking fixture. ;)Better go and get some stuff done. Thanks for stopping by, DH. TTFN
Ooohh, nice curly blue things 😀
Thanks for pointing that out (arrow joke – pointing :D)
Wellington is so avant garde..
So that's why it's red. :rolleyes:
They are everywhere 😆
There are blue ones, too. 😀http://www.sculpture.org.nz/engine/SID/10007/AID/1156.htm
A giant glassless thermometer 😀
TTFN :bye: 🙂
Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:
Thank you for sharing your walking event. You aren't fit at the moment? I wish you all the best!
Originally posted by 7Wellis:
My pleasure. :happy:The weather was good in my two recent walks and I could take lots of photos. Lots of photos mean lots of stops and rests 😀 I would like to get fitter so that I can get back into tramping again. At the moment, I'm not fit enough to wear tramping boots and carry the necessary equipment to climb all day on a tramping track.
Originally posted by 7Wellis:
I'll be careful 😉
I am a little bit worried about you. Take care of yourself!
I have thought to you when I've heard about the commemoration in Wellington. Had you been there too, to remember the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Christchurch?
I stayed home and watched the service on TV. Felt better afterwards.I also watched a couple of documentaries about the quake. The one on Sunday night was very difficult to watch. It was about the Japanese language school group on their first day on their summer study trip. The building they were in, which also had the local television and medical clinic, was completely destroyed, killing 115 people.
I feel so sad, when I think about that. I've also thought about the victims and to the full horror of the earthquake. My thoughts are with you!
Thank you, Ange.
Enjoyed reading about your hike. Any idea how many kilometers it was? From the photos it look like a huge distance. (Enjoyed hearing that you had "Earl Grey, Hot!" — you must have a great thermos to keep it hot so long :p)The weather looked perfect. The motorcross events would have made me a bit nervous, too. Glad to hear that the people were so nice.
Originally posted by debplatt:
By a rough estimate, I covered about 12-3km (about 7.5 miles) that day, including about 500m of climbing altogether. May be a bit more as I didn't take into account the zigs, zags & little ups & downs. The tea was indeed quite hot. I preheat the thermos with boiling water from the same jug I heat water for the teapot. ;)The weather was great. I got sunburned a bit. The motocross guys were very nice. But I wasn't impressed with the mountain bike group occupying the public space.
Thanks for the distance estimate. The question was prompted by my attempt to vicariously join you on your travels. I was enjoying the photos of what I was "viewing" on my journey, but I was starting to be troubled by the thought that maybe I couldn't actually do this hike, so I wasn't really "seeing" any of these sights. 😛 But I am comforted by your estimate of the mileage. Now that the distance seems doable (though the change in altitude might be a bit challenging), I have once again entered vicarious mode. 😆
BTW I tried taking a thermos of hot tea with me during one of my winter hikes, but by lunch time it wasn't really hot at all. 🙁 I gave up on taking a thermos then and switched to a plain, old water bottle. But now I am wondering if (1) my thermos was poor quality, (2) my tea wasn't hot enough to begin with, or (3) if the ambient temperature is cold enough, maybe this just isn't going to work.
Vicarious trips are great, aren't they? I myself like doing vicarious trips to Himalayas, Andes and European Alps (although those can be vicariously painful sometimes) :p The vertical gains of 500m over a course of day is really quite gentle. I'm sure you'd breeze through the course had you accompany me non-vicariously. ;)Originally posted by debplatt:
I have two of those in different sizes. If I preheat it properly the 500mL one (seen in the pic) would keep tea relatively hot for about 3 hours, and warm for about 5 hours. On this trip, I left home at 10. So the tea was still hot at lunch time. In winter I'd use my big 1L Thermos(TM), which would keep tea hot for 5 hours and warm for 8 hours. We don't get that cold temperature during winter. But you could try keeping your thermos against your back wrapped in some insulating material (such as your sweater), I should imagine that would help retain the heat.
:up:
Hope you are still having a chance to get out and about before the rains set in. :coffee:
Thanks, Abhinav. :happy:
Not much lately. The weather was just impossible. Wellington apparently had one of the coolest & wettest February. And there was the weather bomb and its followers in early March.Finally the sky has cleared. I had some things to do in town so had a bit of Botanic Garden walk. But I was expecting to buy some stuff, so didn't take my camera. the good weather seems to stay for a while so I'll try to get out in the bush next few days with my camera. I'm sure the fungi have started sending some mushrooms out. ;)BTW, have you seen this beauty? 😀
M&M it Looks & Sounds like You had a Wonderful Time Cross Country Taking Your Time & Enjoying Walking & Climbing those Descents.:happy: & You took a Thermos of Earl Grey Tea 4 Lunchtime thats just the Perfect Beverage as it's full of Anti-oxidents 2 get You through an Excercised Strenuous jam Packed Day. The G8 thing about Tea is on A Hot Day You can Enjoy an Iced Tea or Hot on a Cold Winters Day :happy: Enjoy the Rest of Your Weekend M&M.
Thanks Kelisha. It was a long long day but was totally worth it. I've been slacking off in the walk department lately. Must keep my leg action going. :DOriginally posted by Kelisha:
Thanks, Kelisha. 🙂