Diary

Tuesday, 24.02.2004
Could not stand another day in Auckland, but my foot is still not well enough to be hiking again. I will do the Rangitoto Island trip at the end of my time here. Hit the road towards Thames and the Kaueranga Kauri Trail. At the trailhead I paid my 7$ into the "honesty" box and put up my tent. Hope that the foot will be all right tomorrow. If not, I will have to wait another day at the trailhead. Still way better then sitting in ACB.

0:30
Woke up because there were some very strange and unusual noises. There is a "cage" on the campsite meant as a trashcan for cans. Someone or something seemed to be playing with the cans inside. Although you know that there must be a reasonable explanation to it, your fantasies start to create images of god knows what. Using the torch to lighten things up did only have a temporary effect. So after overcoming my fear (big man... I know), I grabbed my knife, went out of the tent, into my car and drove down to the cage to investigate things and put an end to those scary noises. There was a large, brown and fat animal (a possum... meet the locals) trapped in the cage and seemed to be a lot more frightened than I was. Releasing the poor bugger gave me and him finally peace. What did I learn? Next time I will wash out my cans (baked beans... Yummi) before I throw them away.

Wednesday, 25.02.2004
Not an easy decision, but I chose to stay here for one more day because my foot is still not ready for hours and hours of walking.
I fear that it won't be much better tomorrow. But tomorrow I will begin the Kaueranga Kauri Trail, no matter what!
Once again I get to know what is very hard for me to achieve: Peace of mind! It is barely possible for me to let my thoughts rest, not thinking of anything. There is always something that wanders through my thoughts. Always a tune of a song I like (or sometimes even worse... of a song I don't like). Concentrating on not thinking of anything doesn’t work either as a matter of fact.
But these moments of peace do exist. I had one of them at Cape Reinga, when I was walking through the dunes... And when I was sitting at Twighlight Beach, listening to the sea.
Maybe it’s the longing for those moments that makes me seek solitude at remote places in nature again and again...
That bloody possum woke me up again. First it was mocking about with the aluminium cans again and then it was around my tent. Should have made a dinner out of your instead of setting you free ;-)

Thursday, 26.02.2004
Oh what a day! A bit of everything in it. Started at 10:45 with the Kaueranga Kauri Trail. Foot is all right. Still hurting, but at least it does not seem to get worse.
Going up to Pinnacles Hut (especially the "Stairs") was bloody tough for me. Nearly died there... and it is so damn hot again.
Took me 2 1/4 h instead of the stated 3h. Can not have been that slow. The hut is state of the art. So is the campsite, right next to the big Kauri Dam. Met Harry and Christina here. A German couple visiting New Zealand for 5 weeks. We went up to the Pinnacles together, which is not really the easiest track I could imagine. There was a considerable amount of easy climbing to do... but great fun. The view from up there was amazing and worth every drop of sweat (which is in my case quite a lot). Back at the campsite I had a nice little chat with the hut warden. He brought some of his home-brewed beer down to us and we had a cup each. Tasted like heaven!
Exploring the area close-by, I found the remainings of an old kauri tree. More than 4 meters of diameter... impressive!
Depending on how I will feel tomorrow, I will take an alternative route back. It is either an 8h trip or, if I split it in two days, 5 h to Moss Creek campsite and 2 h to the car park the next day.
I do not have enough food for tomorrow, because one pasta snack contained bacon, which I only found out today. Wonderful. Let’s see...
The alternative way is rated 'demanding' as to the condition of the track which is rather difficult and very steep at some places.
Got a bit of a headache. Must have been the heat and the intense sun.

Wednesday, 27.02.04
Started early. Weather looked all right so far. Clouded but warm enough and most important: not raining! So I chose to walk the demanding way over Moss Creek and find out 'what I am made of'. I told myself in a joke, that I can always be crawling up the hill if it gets too steep. And bloody crawling I was. This was by far the most difficult way I have tried to hike so far. Mostly because it was so bloody muddy and slippery like hell.
I stopped counting the times I slipped and my trousers were caked in mud up to my hips.

After two hours of struggle it happened then. I slipped and tried to catch myself with my right hand, not knowing that there was a stick standing up and covered under moss where my hand hit the ground. Before I even realized what was going on, I had blood pouring out of a nice finger-thick hole in the middle of my right hand. Luckily it didn't come out the other side, must have hit one of the bones.
Sick, isn't it? Before I even tried to stop the bleeding the first thing I did was taking a photo... and after that wondering, if I could possibly see the bones through the hole.
I put on a pressure bandage and stopped the bleeding. Considering the fact that Ii had another six hours of tough terrain in front of me and 'only' 2 behind with an additional 2 to take the easy way I decided to go back which was more or less hell but the only reasonable thing to do.
So after four more hours of hiking through the bush (just had a fruit bar for breakfast and no intention to stop for eating after the accident) I finally managed to reach the car park where I jumped into the car and drove another 15 minutes to the close by visitor centre where right after entering the door my body put a stop to this madness and I had a breakdown.
After getting my system running again, the girls there put me in their car and drove me to the hospital. Took the doctor almost half an hour to stitch up my hand and get the rest of wood and moss out of there. He said that the nerves did not receive any damage but the muscles did. The wound did not look too bad from the outside... but I was amazed how much "stuff" the doc took out of it.

So here I am, sitting in a backpackers in Thames being on antibiotics and painkillers and not even being able to hold a pen. Don't know how this will go on... guess I should have chosen another hobby like collecting stamps or something like it...