Humphries Bay

Three weekends ago I went on my first backpacking trip in New Zealand. I am 10 minutes away from an amazing system of mountain bike trails, so I haven’t been hiking (or ‘tramping’ as it is known down here) much, but I had a free weekend and found a promising looking campsite on the map. Humphries Bay campsite, on the shores of Lake Tarawera, is not far as the crow flies from where I am, but can only be circuitously approached from my direction due to a matrix of smaller lakes and private pastures. I decided on a promising route, about 20km by road, about 10km by mountain bike on the dual-use Western Okataina Walkway, then about 10km hiking down the coast of Lake Ōkataina on the Eastern Okataina Walkway.

Biking with a full backpack can get awkward, but I managed to balance it so that it wasn’t much of a hassle. More of a hassle was the fact that the “dual-use path” was largely only so in words. It was an old logging road, which over time has gotten quite rutted. Recent rains made every depression into a mud pit that sucked your momentum at the bottom of hills, and overgrown gorse prevented any quick descents. It passed through many lovely sections of forest, but as a whole I was not impressed and definitely won’t be returning by bike. On the positive side, although delays “riding” the track set me back over an hour, it gave me an opportunity to try out my new 1000 lumen bike-light in the gathering dusk. At the halfway point, where it turned to an actual tramping track, I locked my bike in the woods.

The Eastern Okataina Walkway was as nice a tramping track as the Western was poor. It skirts the edge of the lake, sometimes running along the shore and sometimes taking a shortcut over ridges, but never getting really steep. Due to its gentle grade and quality construction it remains fairly smooth and dry without any added rockwork, although I did find one section with unsuccessful tree fern trunk causeways. It made for a peaceful night hike in, with the almost-full moon reflecting off the rippling surface of the lake through the trees and the gentle sound of waves lapping the shore carrying on the night breezes. I came around one corner to see what looked like thousands of small eyes dappling the underside of a bank; it was actually the New Zealand glowworm, the larvae of the Arachnocampa luminosa fungus gnat. Around another corner I startled a passel of possums (common brushtail possum). Most of them darted off into the woods or climbed a tree, but one particularly daft individual set off down the trail in front of me. Every time I would get closer it would run ahead again, but even when there were not steep slopes on either side it took it about a kilometer to figure out that it could go sideways and I wouldn’t ‘chase’ it. I hope I didn’t disrupt its possum social life too much by leading it so far away.

The campsite was a sight for sore eyes after the trip, and I quickly set up my hammock and rainfly. I woke up in the morning to raindrops splattering on the fly and the sun shining through. Clouds hung over Mount Tarawera on the far shore, but otherwise the lake was tranquil and clear and cold. I only saw two other people pass through the campsite that morning, I guess the chance of rain kept away all the other campers and trampers. The hike back was like a new trail, being able to see everything. The trail dipped down to the lakeshore a few times, and across a sandy beach once. With the semi-tropical foliage and the trail cut into cliffside (and the waterside campsite with composting privies) it reminded me a lot of the hike into Waimanu. I biked the sealed road back, and made it to the Rotorua airport before the skies opened up and dumped like they had been threatening to do all weekend, but not enough to dampen my spirits.

This past weekend I headed off on another tramping trip on the Whirinaki Track in the Whirinaki Te Pua-a-Tane Conservation Park with the Rotorua Tramping Club. I look forward to telling you all about it soon.

Mount Tarawera across the lake, wreathed in clouds.

Bikepacking