I am leaving/back thread

[Themer]

Yeah. Yellow is too bright and it looks very odd. Orange would be a pretty good choice.

 

[Chewie]

I'm leaving in under two hours I'll be sure to take some pictures and post them here.

 

[Meet]

Back after watching 5th day of test match between NZ and IND and visiting my relatives house's.

 

[Left_Hander]

Hello PlanetCricket,

You may have noticed my absence from this forum from roughly the beginning of this year. This has partly been because of my slight loss of interest in cricket (which has been helped by less Australian cricket). Other things on the internet, such as websites from bands that I like took up my time. Also I have just finished my HSC (which are my final exams for high school) and because of that I will have much more free time.

With the Ashes coming up I'm sure you will see a lot more of me around here. It's great to be back! I am looking foward to catching up with this forum. I hope you didn't miss me too much!

Regards,
Left_Hander

 

[Chewie]

Got back late last night from my Tongariro Crossing

Drove down on the Monday, took 4 and a half hours. Stayed at a campground not too far away from the beginning of the track. The next morning, woke up at 4.30 to catch a shuttle at 5.45 to the beginning of the track. One of the earliest I've ever woken up (I've been awake at that time plenty of times but normally from having stayed up in town...).

It's a pretty beautiful hike. Lots of hills though so it was pretty tiring. I really hate the stairs. We decided to walk up Mt Ngauruhoe (known by non-NZers as Mount Doom). It's 2291m tall, and pretty steep so we were climbing up in parts. Heaps of snow everywhere too. Took about an hour and a half to get up. At the top there's lots of snow as well so we had a bit of fun sliding around on it. We also decided to slide/run down the mountain on the small loose rocks everywhere. It's quite an interesting way to get down a mountain.

By that point we were running behind, and at our speed we were going beforehand wouldn't make it to the shuttle on time. Since I was the slowest one, One of my friends stayed with me and we went a bit slower, while the other two went ahead so they would make the shuttle in time. They would then drive back to pick us up after. There was still something like 13km left at that point. Lots more climbing, but some amazing views from the top. I've included two photos below, if you have me on Facebook (some of you do), then you can see a few more.

The last 10km of the track is pretty easy though, mostly down hill. Not as good views as the earlier part of the track, but some nice ones of the lakes. The track ends in about 3km of forrest which is quite nice. The main problem I found is that going down-hill is pretty tough on your knees, especially the steps. I'm aching quite a lot today

Overall, 11 hours on the crossing, probably about 25km walked, including across a desert and up a pretty tall and steep mountain. Was pretty cool.

 

[AngryPixel]

Wow.... Beautiful is a lesser word for it Chewie
And why Non-NZers call it Mount Doom?

 

[CG123]

Good to see you had a good time.

I've got up at around five quite a few times, but I don't think I'd ever be able to at 4.30.

CG123 added 1 Minutes and 10 Seconds later...

Wow.... Beautiful is a lesser word for it Chewie
And why Non-NZers call it Mount Doom?

Lord of the Rings

 

[Chewie]

Wow.... Beautiful is a lesser word for it Chewie
And why Non-NZers call it Mount Doom?

Go look at my second photo on Facebook and see if it looks like the one from Lord of the Rings

 

[AngryPixel]

Hehe.. Yeah it does. But LOR was filmed in NZ right? So should be a surprise then.

 

[riz7khan12]

Still surprised there is snow on the mountains at this time of year, especially with global warming and all.

Drove down on the Monday, took 4 and a half hours.

shouldn't take that long, did you go through Hamilton on SH1?

 

[Chewie]

Well I'm not totally sure on how long it took, and we stopped at Te Kuiti for lunch for half an hour or so. So probably less than 4 hours. On the way down we took the number 1 to Ngaruwahia, then went 3 and 4 through Otorohonga, Taumaranui, Te Kuiti, etc. On the way back we went state highway 1 though.

It's below zero at night times at the campground (it's like 800m above sea level), and below zero for much of the day at the top I'd guess.

 

[riz7khan12]

Well I'm not totally sure on how long it took, and we stopped at Te Kuiti for lunch for half an hour or so. So probably less than 4 hours. On the way down we took the number 1 to Ngaruwahia, then went 3 and 4 through Otorohonga, Taumaranui, Te Kuiti, etc.

the lunch break would explain it.

 

[Chewie]

Yea

Also there were quite a bit of road works and there aren't too many overtaking lanes when you're not on SH1. Most of the rest of the time we were going at 110 though.

 

[Chewie]

Just got back from a 4 day trip to Pauanui. Lots of drinking was involved.

While we were there we went to hot water beach and dug a little pool for ourselves. We didn't get there at the right time though (tides) which was a bit inconvenient.

Had a good time overall though. Lots of fun getting drunk, etc.

 

[Varun]

With my internet problem worse than I expected, I won't be able to come online for a day or three more!

Adieu!

(Logging in from a cyber cafe)