Naomi's first tramp

One of my goals for the summer was to take each of the kids on an overnight tramping trip. Cyclone Wilma scotched my plans for getting Ben up to the Pinnacles a couple of weeks ago, but this weekend looked good weather-wise, so Naomi got her turn.

Being little, I decided I could do a reasonably tough walk (seen as she wasn't walking any of it!), so Mt Pirongia was the destination. I took Friday afternoon off work and Mel dropped us off up the mountain. The walk up was hard work as always, and particularly sweaty - it was really humid.

I only took about 3.5hrs to get to the hut, which was slightly shorter than I expected it to take. That gave us enough time to sit around the hut and relax before getting dinner cooking - Naomi enjoyed crawling in and out of the hut and just exploring the place generally. Dinner was some ravioli with an alfredo sauce - much appreciated by both of us. Shortly after dinner a shower came in, so we couldn't go for a walk outside. Instead, we got to enjoy some Kapiti Trig & McKenzie blue cheese - Naomi liked that! Then, it was time for bed. I stuck her in her

sleeping bag and she lay down and went to sleep pretty easily - having the hut to ourselves made it even easier. I sat around and read for a little while before lying down and going to sleep myself. The rain woke me up a couple of times during the night - it must have rained most of the night. Naomi woke up around 6:30 or so, and just lay there quietly for a little while - she really is a good sleeper. We got some breakfast into us and got packed up. She fell asleep again a couple of times on the way down - the whole trip seems to have worn her out! Anyway, the rain overnight had made the track a little muddier - more like I remember it being!

There's a set of photos on flickr here. Just for interest, have a look at the photos from my trip with Joanna 2 years ago to the exact same place: check out all the similarities!