Tramps of the North

Back home we call it hiking; Heaven knows what the Russians and Mongolians say (vodka-ing perhaps?); The Chinese like to take a wok; In Nepal it´s known as trekking; Aussies refer to it as bushwalking; But here in New Zealand it´s known as tramping. Quite appropriate really as we´d (well I´d) been cultivating and heartily embracing the "tramp" look for a good couple of months, and was possibly at my peak of trampiness when we undertook the undoubted highlight of our brief flirtation with North Island - a 4 day tramp round the Tongariro Northern Circuit.

The route weaves its way through stunning, unworldly volcanic lanscapes of craters, old lava flows, jagged rocks, emerald lakes, black sanded deserts, hot and smelly sulphuric springs and glacial valleys. It was something akin to taking a stroll on the moon but minus the zero-gravity effect- which would have come in useful at times. After a long day tramping we would bunk down in one of the luxurious (complete with walls, roof and wooden bunks) and deserted Department of Conservation huts, before heading out possum hunting to supplement our drab pasta dinners.

We suffered the grave misfortune on day two of mistiming our departure to coincide perfectly with the busloads of head-nipping daytrippers who are shipped in every morning (as long as it´s not raining or too cold for their sensitive little tootsies) to walk the one-day Tongariro Crossing. To escape the mindnumbing kilometre-long procession of posh birds from London(no offence to any posh birds from London) we climbed an active volcano - Mount Ngauruhoe - and sat perched atop its smoke spewing summit on some hot rocks, eating pepperoni, chocolate, jelly, concentrated lemonjuice and dog biscuits.

Should also briefly mention how we spent the rest of our time on North Island:

We basically just scoured remote peninsulas in search of ideal locations to dress up as diddy men and drink much beer and wine whilst floating through geothermally active, gloworm-filled caves in a big rubber rings with a fat, friendly sheep named Polly for company.

Cribbage Update: Jools is a temperamental wee thing and gets really upset if she doesn´t win more often than she loses. I´m not suggesting that I´m not trying 100% or anything, just pointing out that there may be confounding factors. Jools 26 Kev 21. Anyway, we all know that the only title that really matters and the event we´ve been building up to all year is the best of 1 backgammon championships held every 29th of May 2007 in the remote village of Kohukohu:

Backgammon Update and Final Result: Kev 1 Jools 0