Mt Pirongia

On Monday after the AGP, John picked us up and we went to visit a friend of his - Marshall.  Marshall makes amazing teddy bears, so we went to see some of his work.  And yes, I came away with a little teddy bear, and a teddy bear to be!

We decided to go for a walk to Mt. Pirongia.  Lee remembered doing a walk with Richard there several years ago, so off we went!  We decided to take the Tirohanga track, to the lookout.  So, off we went!  As you might expect, the track was steep and straight up hill, and included a series of steps.  We walked for about 45 minutes, and then the steps ended, and you had to work your way up through the bush.  At that point I surrendered (quit, really!) and we headed back down.  It was a great walk through the trees and punga ferns.

As a reward for nearly making it to the lookout, we stopped at a cafe for a cold drink and something sweet to eat!

Thanks, John and Marshall for an amazing day!  And, especially for my handmade New Zealand bears!!

Here's where we started!

Stairs up through the bush

More of the track - uphill, as you can see!

The lovely punga ferns

John and Marshall, at the end of the walk

The guys, on one of the sets of stairs - gives you a sense of the angle that we were walking

So, a Mt. Pirongia walk is on our "next time" list - but we'll do the relatively flat one, that follows the river next time!