Friday
Eight people travelled by Van to Rotorua Baptist Church where we stayed, in readiness
for an overnight tramp/trek in the Okataina and Tarawera Lakes area.
Saturday
At about
8.00am we left Rotorua, and drove to the start of the track where our party walked from the Eastern Lake
Okataina Walkway to the Tarawera Falls Outlet and camped overnight at the DOC Camping Ground. The scenery
was absolutely breathtaking, and we saw many swans on the lake along the way. There was also “Mr Tui”
along the way to greet us, with his noticeable chirping! The total walking/trekking time was about seven
hours, as the party was split into two groups; a fast and a slow group, to make for a very enjoyable
day’s walking! The weather was very sunny with blue skies and hardly any cloud, but the night time proved
to be quite chilly, with temperatures falling below minus four degrees. We had a sumptuous dinner meal
of Curried Sausages, Rice and Mixed Vegetables, followed by lovely hot Custard and Fruit, (Joy had very
kindly organised our food), which everyone helped with preparing in one way or another. Our party of
eight all then snuggled together in the one double fly to sleep for the night to keep warm and safe!
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After dinner, as we were all snuggled into our sleeping bags inside the fly, Carole shared with
the group a devotions entitled “Moving On” – moving forward, which was about putting the past behind
you, accepting any past mistakes or misfortunes and moving on, and trusting that God places these things
in our paths to make us strong and wise. To build-up our characters, but also to have faith in him our
almighty Father, who knows the big picture. Above all though, to press on towards the goal we want to
achieve with God’s guidance, power and grace! Hopefully, nobody was asleep by this time, as it got dark
very quickly!
Sunday
After porridge for breakfast, and discarding of early
morning layers of warm clothing, our party continued onto the majestic and spectacular Tarawera Falls,
which was only about one hour and 40 minutes of total walking time, from the DOC campsite. We saw quite
a few wallabies along the track, and people were able to get close enough to take photos. There was
of course a lot of photos taking of the wonderful Tarawera Falls as well. It was a trip not to be missed!
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The other group, a party of five who also participated, Gary and Margaret, Jill, Peter, and
Felicity did day walks in the Rotorua area, and came to meet us with the Van (provided our transport
at the end of our overnight journey). They stayed overnight in a local holiday park in Rotorua, and
organised their own food for the weekend. The day walkers greeted us with a batch of date scones at
the Tarawera Falls lookout point, where we had a good catchup with each other, and the scones were very
much appreciated and enjoyed, where we then regrouped and walked out together to the carpark and the
awaiting vehicles, ie Gary's wagon and the Van.
Our overnight group stopped in Rotorua to buy
our lunch for the return journey back to Auckland, and we had a very pleasant journey home along SH27
(the Matamata straight). Our arrival time back in Auckland was about 5.45pm, where we unloaded our gear
and said our goodbyes, and Carole returned the Van refuelled back to the Rent a Dent company in Union
Street.
It was a very rewarding and successful weekend for Carole as a Leader, with a great sense
of achievement, and it was invaluable having Barbara as mentor and co-leader. The party of overnighters
all contributed well to all the tasks required ie cooking, setting up the camp, erecting flies, and then
packing up gear ready for our trek out of the bush. There was excellent teamwork, fellowship and participation
by everyone
in the group!
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