Kapakapanui Forest

I had originally planned to drive up to Tararua Forest Park for a walk in the Kapakapanui Forest last weekend, as it's renowned for it's moss clad and eerie woods, but I ran out of time, so I went on last Sunday (13 December) instead.

I'm starting to get seriously fit with all physical activity that is going on, so I've been looking for a bit more of a challenge.

9 of these.. each way...

The trek is 6-7 hours and goes along the ridge of an old caldera, so even I realised that that may be to push it a bit.

There is a hut about 1/3 of the way that I decided to aim for to start with.

The first surprise was 9 (!) river crossings where I had to wade over. It wasn't that amazing to wade over in bare feet, but at least that stretch didn't take more than 30 minutes (and I went without taking my shoes off on the way back).

950 meters up

The next phase was more or less a 45 minutes climb. It turned out that I had to get 950 meters up. That was pretty extreme and I arrived very warm and sweaty. The temperature had dropped quite a lot on that alitide, so it was actually quite cold.

Goblin forest

I walked on in an amazing landscape, but I decided to turn back after about an hour, as I felt my legs getting extremely fatigued and the descent would be very demanding and potentially dangerous. Better safe than sorry!

I'm glad I did turn back, as the descent was extremely tiring and quite precarious.

It was a fantastic experience with amazing views and finally a proper physical challenge.

I will definitely go back!