Mt Pirongia. Take 2.

Very soon after we arrived in NZ, I ventured up Mt Pirongia. It was a pleasant walk, with a nice hut at the top, so I've been planning on heading back for an overnight trip at some point. Last weekend had been an option, but heavy rain warnings put me off (OK, so call me soft!). This weekend they were just predicting showers, so I figured I may as well go - with Joanna. Ben had had his weekend tramping trip with Dad, now it was Joanna's turn. Ben was telling Joanna that going tramping with Dad was lots of fun, so she was pretty excited!
It was raining on the drive up there, but not very much by the time we got started - just a little bit of drizzle. The walk up was a lot tougher than I remembered it being - probably something to do with having 25kg on my back. I felt about as agile as an elephant on stilts. The track is rather slippery, steep and muddy in places. But we got up to the hut eventually - without getting too wet. By that time, we'd had some lunch, so Joanna had an afternoon snooze. During which it rained. Once she'd woken up, the clouds were gone and the sky was blue for a while - very pleasant timing!
Dinner was very yummy risotto, much appreciated by both of us. And as a special treat, we shared a block of blue cheese afterwards - it turns out the whole family are fans of stinky cheese! Bed time went pretty uneventfully, until about 11:30pm, when Joanna woke up and decided that she would rather cry than sleep. Just as well we were the only occupants of the hut. Between sleeping and crying, we got some rest until about 7am - when we got up to find that were enveloped in cloud. Which makes everything very quiet and peaceful. And the forest up the top very beautiful.
3 bowls of porridge helped Joanna's mood, but didn't leave enough breakfast for me. So I had some leftover peanut butter sandwich as well. The trip down was a whole lot easier than the way up, even if it was even slipperier and harder to stay upright.
All up, I only managed to fall over completely twice - once on the way up and once on the way down. That's if you don't count slipping off the track and chest deep into the bush. None of which came close to injuring either of us, so it was all OK!
We met Mel and Ben at the bottom and had a picnic lunch - Joanna claims to have enjoyed it, and I claim to be rather tired now (and I did enjoy it!).
(More photos at flickr...)