December 18, 2013
Orienteering is a sport that involves finding your way from point to point using a map, a compass and your own wits. It often involves using a variety of physically skills such as hiking, climbing, kayaking, and falling without hurting yourself. Orienteering is big here in New Zealand, just the sort of thing outdoorsy, self-sufficient Kiwis love to do.
We on Legacy often do involuntary orienteering as we try to find our way around and figure out where the start of the path is from the parking lot (our biggest orienteering challenge, that one). Today we decided to do some voluntary orienteering and see if we could find our way from Sunny Bay to the trails that lead to Mansion House Bay, about half a mile away from us as the crow flies.
We would have to begin with the most dangerous part of the journey: tying up to and making our way down the dilapidated and treacherous pier complete with yellow crime scene tape and signs that said Danger, This facility is closed! Such signs do not deter real Orienteerers. We tied up our dinghy, climbed the ladder of death to the top and got over the orange -webbed plastic fence, conveniently bent from other interlopers. We made our way carefully down the supported areas of the pier, getting around a missing area by climbing over another fence and walking across a beam. At the other end was more orange webbing, and we were ashore.
After determining that the bach (Kiwi word for cabin – pronounced “batch”) onshore was empty, we went through the yard to a trail leading up the hill. The trail petered out, but we continued to climb as we could see another cabin on a hill above us. We got there, found no road, and ended up on another trail that led back down the hill. Finally we came to a dirt road, and from there we found the Redwood Track leading to Mansion House Bay.
It’s quite an experience to walk through beautiful pine and fern forest and hear the sound of kookaburra birds! One of the magical things about this island (and about New Zealand in general) are the surprising combinations of things that don’t usually go together, like pine trees and jungle bird sounds.
We made it to the Mission House cafe and rewarded ourselves with coffee and brownies, giving us the energy to orienteer our way back. We ended up back by one of the hillside cabins. Luckily the occupants weren’t home; so we took a shortcut and orienteered our way across their deck and down their stairs, bringing us back near the trail to our bay. (Skulking across private property seems to be another valuable skill in orienteering.)
Above is a gallery from our walk to Mission House Bay, including a couple of the descendents of the late albino peacock at Mission House Bay. As always click to enlarge and scroll.–Cyndi
