Lake Waikaremoana hike, day 5

Ann, Victoria and I were glad we’d gone for our view-seeking late afternoon jaunt yesterday because when we woke up this morning it was to find the summit shrouded in mist and the lake barely visible below us. The mist burned off as the day progressed, but it made for interesting effects as we looked out across the lake and also as it drifted around the nearer peaks and trees. We left Panekiri Hut as soon as we were organised, knowing that we had to get to the end of the track in time to catch the water taxi back to the main camping area that we were using as our base.

The downhill was not as bad as I’d been led to believe. Yes, it was a bit of a strain on the old knees, but the nice thing about downhills is that they are gentle on the lungs, perspiration levels, and facial colouring. The first part of the route made its way along the ridge top (more undulations, but in a downhill direction overall and relatively gentle in its descent), with the occasional difficult-to-negotiate section of track caused by erosion. Having reached the end of the main ridge (Victoria is at that point in the first photo below), we hit the steeper part of the journey. By keeping our motion under control, this was quite manageable, although we were reminded that it really was a long way removed from horizontal by the fact that the people we encountered heading upwards were panting and occasionally lacking enthusiasm for the direction of travel (basically you descend/ascend 350m in 2km).  Some 4.5 hours after we had left the hut, Victoria and I came out at the bottom.

As we waited for the others to arrive, I went in search of a couple of caches (successfully) and then I joined Sally, Victoria, and Ann for a detour to the picturesque little lake shown in the second photo below. We got back just in time to meet the incoming water taxi, which took us back across the lake to our base camp. It was nice to return to civilisation and its accoutrements (notably, showers!), and we celebrated the conclusion of our expedition with an enjoyable pot luck dinner together as a group, with each of us contributing something to the meal. Apparently I wasn’t too tired after all of this, because just before it got totally dark I went out and did a 2km return trip in order to … umm … oh, come on, you surely know what to guess by now!*

More photos of the day’s events can be found here.

* Okay, just in case you don’t: I went and found a geocache. It turned out to be a very useful find, because it allowed me to discover a nice alternative route for the start of tomorrow’s expedition.