O-Camp
This weekend (14th - 16th of March) I went on O-Camp out to the Coromandel peninsula on the Auckland University Tramping Club (AUTC). This was the first and largest camp of the year for AUTC, kinda being an introductory event, and we went camping in the Kauaeranga Valley. And for anyone wondering: tramping is the Kiwi word for hiking.
The trip started out for me by walking 10 minutes up to the meeting point at the ClockTower up on campus with slightly too much stuff, joining another 10 or so exchange students also laden down with packing. Well up at the meeting point we distributed ourselves among the people with cars, and then after a few attempts of packing in all the stuff we were off. The drive out to Coromandel was about two hours, and on the way we stopped for dinner at Macca’s (McDonald’s), and also saw the beautiful sunset above.
When we finally arrived at just past 9 pm it was already very dark, and after borrowing a sleeping bag from the club, the next “frantic” search for where to sleep commenced. I ended up kipping with Miles who also drove from Auckland, and we two shared his seven-person tent which was very spacious. Then some quick info about tomorrow’s tramps, some chatting and a bit of guitar music and then of to bed. I actually slept quite alright considering that I was camping, in a new place with tons of new people, and sleeping on a very thin sleeping mat. I was however very thankful that I got a sleeping bag graded for -10 as it was surprisingly cold.
Next morning I got up at 7:30, not too stiff, and it was time for breakfast. This was a club organised affair and I had Greek yoghurt (this is basically the only yoghurt they have both here and in Australia, which on the one hand 10% fat is great, and it is way cheaper than at home, but still gets pricey compared to “normal”) and müsli with canned fruit salad. Out of a plastic mug because I thought I had forgotten my new plastic plate at home (I found it just after breakfast 😤). Then quickly putting together my backpack for the days tramp, a 16-kilometre hike up to the Pinnacles 500 meters above the camp site.
The hike started quite easily walking along the dirt road until we reached the parking lot at the base of the main hiking route. Then it really started as the next maybe half an hour was straight stairs and steep inclines as we climbed maybe 200 height meters to get closer to the ridge line. It was a tough walk through quite dense rainforest, though the path was wide and very well maintained. Along the way we passed two or three jumpy bridges, very swingy rope bridges that are quite common here, and which gave me déjà vu to 15 years back.
When we finally reached the top of this first climb we had a short break, before setting of again. But this time we were walking in parallel with the ridge so for now we did not have to do so much climbing. Already up here the climate was much drier, more akin to the Mediterranean with smaller glossier plant. During the whole walk so far I had been walking, climbing and chatted with Eleanor, a kiwi who also studies Computer Science.
Next stop was by an old dam (or at least the sign said so, I saw no dam 😅) for another short snack, and to try and tighten up the group as we were about 50 people on this hike and had become quite strung out. Then another steep climb, but this time through a much drier and dustier environment, though you could clearly see that water would run down the path after rains. As we reached the top of a bit of a plateau we could see the Pinnacles stretching in the distance, and after a very quick bathroom break at the Pinnacles hut we began the final climb.
And what a climb it was, first probably a 100 to 150 height meters of stairs to get to the foot of the rock formation, and then another 50 meters of light climbing with ladder steps set into the mountain where it got to steep. But oh was it worth it! The views from the top of the Pinnacles were spectacular, and you could see most of the Coromandel peninsula, out towards the Pacific Ocean in the west and the Hauraki plains far to the west. I (maybe slightly riskier than strictly necessary) climbed the tallest of the rocks meaning I was higher up than anyone else for miles around. Then down a little bit to safer footing where I had my weirdly luxurious spartan lunch consisting of boiled eggs, a can of tuna in mayonnaise and a chopped yellow capsicum (kiwi word for paprika/bell pepper), all on some quite dry and very hard to cut bread.
After maybe an hour at the top we began our walk down, with getting side tracked and first climbing up on the next door rock. But that was also a really beautiful place, with the granite rocks spearing towards the sky with 10 meters straight falls on either side. Then down proper, and god I really don’t like going down; yes it is technically less exhausting, but you feel it in your knees and after a while at least my legs goes all weak in a way that does not happen when going upwards. And as we were all really quite tired this was a much more quiet affair making out way down and making sure to be careful as this was definitely the most dangerous part of the day, including my maybe not entirely advisable climbing.
But we did get to stop for a quick dip in a rock pool in one of the streams. Most of us had left our togs (kiwi for swimwear) back at the camp site, so I got to find out how “quick drying” my new outdoor pants where (spoiler not good enough in the evening dew). And some people even went water sliding on the water smoothed moss covered rock.
When we finally got back to the camp site the time was maybe 5 pm, and first on my agenda was getting into some dry clothes and trying to get my wet ones dry. Then the long wait for dinner began, though I spent it quite well reading and chatting to folk. But I’d say the wait was worth it, hamburgers was a really welcome boost after the long day. And then in the growing darkness we played a few games such as “sardines hide and seek”, “get the cookie from your forehead into your mouth without using your hands” and “cut a chocolate cake into pieces with one time wooden utensils and eat them as fast as possible in full hiking gear while the rest are desperately trying to roll doubles on two dice so they can have a go”, all involving lollies as prices meaning most of us had way too much. And then I headed to bed quite early as I was really tired.
This night was much warmer as we more than doubled the occupancy of our tent (think the people who joined us were sharing with someone leaving very early on Sunday morning), and I actually struggled a bit with the temperature. But over all I slept much better even though I awoke quite stiff after two nights basically on the ground.
Sunday was spent packing up the camp site, playing a load more games including “two persons (piggyback) water relay”, “tug of war” and “Capture the flag, bush style”, after which my legs looked like a cat had used them as a scratching pole. But it was all great fun. Finally, we got in the road back, but first for just 15 minutes as we then stopped at a large water hole in the river where we went for a swim, and also did some jumping of the opposite cliff.
Then back on the road for maybe another 30 minutes until we got to Thames for a very late lunch/road side snack of fries and milkshakes from the local Fish ‘n chips shop. Followed by another two hours of driving which finally brought us back to Auckland at around 6 pm, and then it was straight home for my part.
