Location: Waima Forest, Northland
Author: Teresa Davenport
Date: 13th - 14th April 2024
Day 1
I woke up at 6 am and couldn’t believe it was already that time. I was so tired by this point. After going drinking the night before, I had at best 4 hours of sleep under my belt as I stumbled out of bed and realised my fate.
After I had gotten myself together with showers and breakfast, we were off to uni to meet the others. At the classic University clocktower meeting point, we waited for a couple of latecomers. I accidentally called a guy's mom, thinking it was his number, which actually turned out to be a power move and a threat. You’re late, your mom will be called.
After we all arrived, I was terribly hungover, so I was spinning really nonsensical yarns. By the time we had made it down the hill by Symonds Street, we realised one of my seatbelts had been lost behind the seat. I tried for 5 mins straight to get that out, and it wasn’t happening. That was the hardest 5 mins I can remember from my week trying to fiddle to get it out. Then Sean tried, we had gotten to a point of giving up, and we called the other car to come and pick the member up when huzzah Sean managed to fix the situation.
After that drama, we moved on to Kaiwaka where we met for our morning cheese at the famous cheese shop. When we arrived, we realised it was still closed for 10 more minutes so we decided to go to this cool art naturey café and some members enjoyed coffee. Well, I say enjoyed but allegedly they burnt it, so I take that back.
When the cheese shop finally opened, it was far better than I was expecting. We sampled cheeses and browsed through the boutique food. After that, we moved on to the start of the track, just stopping for GAS on the way. After me borderline falling asleep (Sean was driving), we made it to the start of the track.
The beginning started with exceptional amounts of faff, and we set off to the waterfall stop. About 15 mins, we enjoyed lunch and the beautiful display. I spun conspiracy theories that the waterfall was the caveman’s TV as it was captivating.
We then moved on through the gorgeous kauri forest. It was mind-blowing how awesome the trees were. We then went through the Kauri cleaning station and the track conditions had worsened significantly and become much steeper and poorly maintained.
By the time we all got to the top to the trig, we were all a bit hungry by this point. Leif, Sean, and I summited trig which was fun. Then we moved on, determined to get to the hut to have a nice warm feed.
When we got there, we were delightfully surprised by the nice clean hut and the big flat ground where we could pitch our tents. We all got our sleeping spaces ready first, then I cooked up my TVP spaghetti bol which lots of us enjoyed. Then I decided to make mulled wine with the cursed clean skin. This clean skin was pretty bad, but not life-ending bad. We sat around spun yarns and enjoyed each other's company before going to bed. Before going to bed I enjoyed a nice trip to the long drop. Long drop 10/10 experience at Frampton hut. Boujee asf. As I attempted to go to sleep, I could smell a dead rodent-like smell. I disclaimed fark something smells rank. Then Seán says, yes I was surprised you put your head at that end considering the rankness coming from that door. I had to move my mat away and sleep at the other end. Yuck.
Day 2
I woke up feeling fresh as a daisy after at least 8 hours of sleep, which was a nice change from the day before. I enjoyed some rooibos and porridge as we all packed up raring to go. I was sitting inside enjoying my tea on the verandah when it started pouring down with rain. It was an unfortunate time as many of the tents were still up, some left up to “Dry out.” #ratshit.
After writing our intention we set off back the way we came. Back over the hill down to the cars.
Highlights were yarns, seeing what we thought was a worm giving birth (after just watching a youtube video I can confirm it was) and once again the Kauri! Back to the worm honestly it was kind of rank and lowkey looked like it was dying. I thought it was an infection at first.
Lowlights were the weather, the slippery ground and my wet dirty bum.
When we got back to the carpark we decided to go a couple detours since we were on this side of New Zealand. We first went and enjoyed Tane Mahuta, the famous Kauri tree. It was awesome, huge and breathtaking. I changed into my togs at Tane Mahuta ready to pop some manu in Kai Iwi Lakes.
When we arrived at Kai Iwi Lakes it was a beautiful crystal clear water lake. We went for a swim and ngl it was cold asf. We certainly didn’t last long in.
We then headed back on the drive home. A wrong turn in Dargaville meant we ended up in Whangarei rather than Kaiwaka. #FARK. That added another hour to our trip. At least we got to enjoy some mean fish and chips in Whangarei.
On the way home I made a bad mistake driving, we were on a passing lane I thought we were on a motorway for some reason. So I moved into the right lane, just before a car was going to pass me. Fark they were so angry they chucked McDonalds cups at us, and pulled the finger at us. My fault really.
Then when we got to Wellford they pulled in, set off and started following me again which freaked me out. So I pulled into a gas station hoping to avoid confrontation.
After that drama we all were delivered home safely. I got a bit of a bad driving wrap I think after that but we all made it home safe, so fuck it.
Chur everyone for coming along. It was mean.
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