This is South Taranaki

On the 2nd January to start the year off with some exercise we decided to take a look around the district, we had heard about Pukeiti as a great part of the area as well as somewhere unique to visit, it has quite a number of different walks and hikes, it also has a cafe, and quite an abundance of information about the area. Pukeiti is open every single day of the year and  is open all day.

As usual for us we set of nice and early, hoping to beat any crowds that were going to head out within the first few days of the new year. Once again I had my trusty video camera ready to go, however when we woke at 7.30am we discovered that in Hawera (where we live) it was overcast with a light drizzle, we decided we would head over anyway as it is approximately an hour away, about 70 kilometres in a North West direction on the other side of Mount Taranaki, as can be seen by the shot below. We have found that because we are not far from the mountain the weather can change very fast from one extreme to the other.

Even when we arrived an hour laster it was very wet, the drizzle while still there was more of a blanket covering the area and soaking anything uncovered very quickly. Undeterred, we packed up our bags with my camera gear and water (lots of it). We were wearing our standard shorts, good hiking boots/shoes, water proof rain jackets as well as two layers of clothing. In our vehicle we had left more water, two towels, a spare set of footwear and some loose fitting clothes for the return. We had learnt from a hike on Mount Taranaki earlier in December that any walk over an hour really requires a change of clothes as you will be very hot, sweaty and any long ride home will soon start to feel uncomfortable. You can see from the below pictures how the weather was shaping up.

There is plenty of free parking at Pukeiti which is great, we were too early for the cafe which was fine as we decided to have something to eat afterwards. We set out on our hike and immediately noticed that this was a large complex with lots to see and activities to do. There was a small aquarium and a lot of undercover area to explore, I have embedded a small slideshow to illustrate this before I explain how the morning went. As you can see it is a large area, if you visit you should plan to spend at leat an hour looking around even before you go for a walk, especially on a sunny day, which this of course was not.

My wife and I always walk together with me and my camera recording footage, normally only for half the walk as we have been hiking to a destination, then covering the same track back, so no point in recording the same thing twice, this was more or less the plan on this day but things did not go according to the plans we had both made.

We set out with my wife ahead of me scouting the way, however we ended up being separated and I came to a fork in the road which I had assumed we would be turning left to do a rainforest walk. Apparently I was incorrect, but before I realised this we were both on seperate paths. One thing to note is that these walks are surrounded by dense forest, any sound is immediately soaked up so yelling for someone is pointless, you will not hear each other. Here are a couple of pics of where I went wrong.

Little did I know that I was going to spend two hours in the bush on a hike that was moderate in difficulty as well as getting pretty wet for most of it. While I was having a bit of an adventure my wife did start to get a little worried with my absence. We actually had intermittent phone service so we did end up contacting each other from time to time. In two hours I bumped into one other person which happened to be at a fork in the road, so he gave me some advice on which route to take, Unfortunately I did end up coming out on a road but I was picked up so that was great. Below is video footage of the hike, it is long so feel free to fast forward but it was a fun morning which I recommend to all! I also include some stats from my walk, I was not going fast and was filming for most of it so as you can see it was fairly easy. It was muddy so you do need good footwear as well as some water, which I had an abundance of.

It is always a great idea to always go walking or hiking with someone else just in case something happens. If possible taking snacks is a very good thing to do as if you fo get low on energy some nuts, small chocolate or a sandwich will replenish you very quickly.

See you next time.