The Kauri Forest
One day Phil and Grace wanted to know how did they get all those Kauri trees out of the forest without building any roads. This is how – when the floods came the trees sailed down the rivers and were controlled by hand made dams. The forest had 9 dams altogether and the second largest dam was left for us to discover.
The hike up was 2 hours and it was a lot of stairs all built out of rock about 100 years ago. The dam was pretty amazing to think it was built so long ago. Now a historic site you are not supposed to go on the dam.
The hut at the top of the trail was pretty amazing with sleeping quarters a huge kitchen and a huge covered bbq area.
A side trip took us up hundred’s more stairs up to the Pinnacles; these very large rock structures were pretty cool and the stairs were built into the rock but all seemed pretty safe to walk on. From the top the views were awesome we could see the South Pacific Ocean and mountains forever.
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago at 9:02 pm. 1 comment
Northland N.Z. has 2 speed limits 30kph and 100kph and they sit about 10 feet apart…
Welcome to the next part of our journey in New Zealand – Arriving in Auckland a week ago it poured rain for 2 days. As we drove north to the Bay of Islands the sun was shining and it was nice and hot. In need of seeing the Islands here we needed to do a boat tour and there are a lot options. Sarah at the info center suggested “The Rock” when we approached her of where to rent kayaks from she asked how long we were going to stay in Paihia. As long as it takes to enjoy it… Sarah and her husband Johnny own “The Rock” a retired vehicle ferry converted into a beautiful houseboat. Camping in town at Hararu falls thinking of what to do we thought we would head to Ninety mile Beach tomorrow. With so many options of day trips and overnight trips.
Headed north to check out Ninety Mile beach which is actually only 63kms long but you can safely drive on this beach it is totally solid and the bus tour takes you on the beach the whole way to Cape Reinga. The speed limit on the beach is 100kph? WTF!!! It was great for an afternoon run and then we played in the waves; which were awesome; but you had to look out for traffic on the beach.
Driving back to Paihia we decided to go out on “The Rock” to see the Bay of Islands and it left that day at 5pm. “The Rock” is a 22 hour boat tour that takes you out to quiet bays, you get to go kayaking, swimming, fishing, target shooting, night kayaking to see the phousfloresence, hiking and if it’s warm enough you may even see dophins. The tour was awesome and the food was great; it’s the best way to see the Islands and enjoy the water. The night kayak and swim was the best. The crew on The Rock made it such a great adventure. The tour left at 5pm and returned the next day at 3pm we had 18 people on our tour and the boat has room for 40.
While on “The Rock” we found out that Phil has great aim when shooting at a floating duck out the back of the boat must be from all of those fishing days back in Prince Rupert. He was in the finals with Edwin from Holland who appartenly goes to a shooting range every week he couldn’t miss either so they called it a draw after 5 consecutive shots first time this has ever happened on the boat.
I think Phil must have impressed Mink (1st mate on board) so much that he asked Phil to give the pre-dinner talk about who we were and what we were doing in New Zealand.
Phil and I would like to give a big shout out to all of the crew and owners of “The Rock” they created a beautiful envirnoment for us to be able to fully enjoy all that The Bay of Islands had to offer. If anyone is coming out to NZ and looking for a boat cruise to do I would highly recommend checking out www.rocktheboat.co.nz it will be a trip you will never forget.
Northland was a great adventure the roads are crazy windy one of the road signs says ‘100kph is not a target please drive the road conditions’ – in our rental car it was impossible to drive anywhere close to 100km on these roads. Very Fun Road Burms!!
Next Cormondel Pennisula here we come for some hikes and more beaches
Stay tuned…
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago at 8:27 pm. 2 comments
Once Grace and I figured out that it was going to be too much work to hire a car and drive across the Nullarbor. We decided 10 days of driving around south western Australia would be a great adventure.
We hired a car and set off on the wrong side of the road, first stop Wave Rock. A 15 meter high granite cliff that is shaped like a wave. It was interesting all of the rock formations around there were neat Grace and I felt we were back in Moab only we did not have our bikes with us. Oh well another day missing our bikes, we will have to make due with a couple of pairs of running shoes instead.
While we were here we checked out everything else Wave Rock and Hyden (the closest town) had to offer. This included Mulka’s Cave; a cave with aboriginal hand prints on the rock. We also did the tourist thing in Hyden and took some pictures of their metal art structures.
Esperance and Lucky Bay – ‘where kangaroos suntan on the beach’
Phil found Lucky Bay in a tourist mag and it said it had the whitest and best beaches in Australia so we had to go there. What’s another 50km east to the National Park after driving 500km. Lucky Bay was amazing and it was the first time we saw kangaroos in the campsite and how slow they can move.
About 7am the next day we headed to the beach; after a 30 min walk along the beach we find a nice quite bay. The waves were awesome and the water was nice we jumped waves for about 2 hours.
That afternoon it started to rain and it rained a lot. We met a lot of nice people from all over Australia here and even had dinner with some of them.
Walpole – Tree Top Walk
The tree top walk is a metal structure that takes you up around 60M high in the trees pretty cool walk to do once. Then on to the ancient forest which is a walk through tingle forest which had all been burnt so the base of the trees were all burnt out which created a space that we could stand under.
Margaret River – Wine and Cheese Country
After the last few days hanging out in the rain we decided to stay at Edge of the Forest motel in Margaret River. The guy here was super friendly and told us all the best places to go. We stayed in the motel for 2 nights and then camped for one night as we had such a great time here.
We checked out some wineries, Mammoth Cave and of course the beaches. We also found a great trail to run called Pine top trail, which reminded us of home with all the pine trees.
Mammoth cave is an impressive, gothic-like cave that could easily be described as the perfect home for a caveman. It was 500m long and 30m deep. Walking through the cave was quite amazing.
Favourite wine in Margaret River was Madfish and Redgate (reds). Favourite cheese was sweet chilli cheddar.
Busselton – Snorkelling
The little town of Busselton was super nice and had some great beaches so we rented some snorkel gear and went out to Meelup beach. This was great Phil saw a salmon and we saw lots of other fish and sea life here.
On to Bunbury not far away we found a mountain bike trail system so we went for a 12km trail run on the mountain bike trails. The trails were awesome although with all the tight corners and round pebbles I’m sure we would have crashed on our bikes here.
Back to Perth after 10 days and 2500kms it was quite the tour. We never did find the Interstate back to Perth but we did swim in a pool called the mighty Indian Ocean.
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago at 11:35 pm. 3 comments
Day 1 – Dunsborough to Yallingup – 14km
This day started with an early start to the bus stop to catch the bus to Dunsborough for 8:30am and we arrived at 2pm. We found a deli with some great sandwiches – avocado, turkey and cranberry mmmmmmm. The info center was open which was amazing you would think Sunday it wouldn’t be a problem but what we soon noticed something about western Australia – nothing is open late. Open hours are 8-5 and closed on Sundays really where are we?
We are still 14km from where the trailhead it starts at Cape Natraliste so the nice lady at the info center called a cab for us. The last and pretty much the only thing the cab driver said was ‘ oh your hiking watch for snakes’ yeah thanks tips. Ate our sandwiches at the trailhead, took some pics of the lighthouse, signed in on track logbook. Today was going to be a short day but we had to move fast as we had to be to our campground by 6pm, as it gets dark early. The first part of the trail was paved and already we were seeing bobtails. Lizard creatures.
Today the trail was very coastal and the beaches were awesome but we didn’t see any other hikers just lots of surfers. 3 hours later we reached Yallingup the town we would stay in for the night. It took us 3 hours and we covered 14km so pretty easy today but a late start.
Our campsite was very exposed to the wind off the ocean so we froze that night. We thought we were smart and would pack nice and light so we brought this sleep sheet that was supposed to increase warmth in a sleeping bag an extra 8 degrees but alone not so warm.
Day 2 – Yallingup to Gracetown – 32 km
We planned an early start, which is really easy here as the sun is up at 5am and it’s already warm out. I think it was warmer outside of the tent. The campgrounds here are amazing they have camp kitchens with everything – toasters, microwave, kettles, stoves, BBQ’s fridges and sinks. They don’t have small animals and the birds don’t beg for food or raid your food if you put it down and walk away; odd concept.
The first part of the day was great with coastal views and easy walking. A bobtail almost attacked Phil, as he was about to give me the camera. I said ‘oh come this way’ so stepped backwards ‘no this way’ so he looked down the bobtail was between his legs with his mouth wide open and it was hissing. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture; to busy laughing. I don’t think I’ve heard Phil scream like a girl before.
Today was hard it was a long hot day the trail varied from doublewide track where we saw 2 snakes. The first one ran towards me but I didn’t see it until it headed into the brush so I only saw the back half. I jumped to the other side of the trail and grabbed Phil and yelled. The second snake also on a double wide trail Phil ran down the trail on the right and I was running on the left; I decided to stop running at
the crest of a hill and Phil ran to the bottom. I looked down trail and I saw a big black thing so I yelled to Phil. ‘Ah Phil what is that on the trail? A snake…what you just ran right past it and it didn’t even move. I cautiously walked down the trail not to disturb the snake and Phil got closer for some pictures it was either sleeping or dead. We had no idea if it was poisonous or not at the time.
Now paranoid of snakes our eyes were peeled to the trail to make sure not to miss the next snake, as we didn’t want to step on a snake. The next 10km of the trail was really over grown and in the middle of nowhere. Phil led this section as I was too freaked out and everything looked like a snake now. Every piece of wood, stick, rock, or leaf.
I looked up at the hills for a break andsomething caught my eye in the distance; why was there a table on top of the hill and then it sat up holy sh*t is that a kangaroo it looks like a creature from Jurassic Park; my god it was HUGE! Phil looked thru the camera zoom lens to see there were lots of kangaroos up on the hill.
Around 5pm we are now wondering where is Gracetown we should be there already, corner after corner after corner and then there it was hidden in a bay just off the ocean. Approaching the car park we could see the town about 600m to the right but no campground. We asked this guy sitting in his truck watching the surf drinking a road pop where the campground was he pointed up the road and said 3km that way. We must have looked just exhausted he offered to give us a ride as the store in town was already closed; yet again closed at 5pm. Jumped in his truck and headed to the campground he was a super nice guy with his arms covered with tattoos and 3 surf boards in the back he looked like a regular surfer down here. Chatting along the way he was much surprised that we had come all the way from Yallingup today. His name was Smarty and he offered to give us a ride into town to buy for food if the campground didn’t have enough for us so he waited while we checked it out. There was food to consume so we said good-bye to our buddy Smarty; drinking his road pops.
Very bonked we drank a Coke so we could think again -set up camp made food and went to bed; another great cooking area at this campground.
Day 3 – Gracetown to Prevally – 21km
Deciding on a shorter day today so we could stay in a campground with showers instead of in the middle of nowhere with the snakes but that meant a 40km day the next day.
Camping was a lot warmer in Gracetown so we didn’t freeze but still pretty cold. Our new thermasrest the Neo Air were really warm the part of the body on the mat was warm and the rest was cold.
The guy running the campground gave us a ride into town at 8:30am. There wasn’t much in this general store to buy but we needed to replenish some snacks for the day. Sitting outside the store eating breakfast our buddy Smarty pulled up to buy another 6-pack.
A later start today but we only had 20km so not a big deal. The surf was amazing this morning and the surfers were loving it. First Goanna sighting today big lizard creature – I had a universal symbol for crazy creature on the trail it was stop suddenly with arms straight up like a stick up. We didn’t see any hikers today just one guy from Vancouver as we approached the Margaret River mouth and soon to be in Prevally. This guy was camped up the beach but he ran out of money so he was hiding out until he had money transferred to him.
Reaching Prevally was a relief as it was only 3pm so this would leave us lots of time to recover and get ready for tomorrow. Tonight we decided to rent a cabin instead of shivering in our tent – what a great idea. The food at the general store was really expensive here but we needed to replenish our food stocks as we had run low. Night came at 7pm.
We could finally relax tonight inside nice and warm as soon as we closed our eyes everything came alive. Every stick was a snake or moving creature of sorts.
Day 4 – Prevally to Hamelin Bay – 42km
Up early and already packed left at 6:30am up the trail to find out there was a detour so we had to walk all the way back to the campground and around to the other side of town and onto the beach. There were fires on the trail so we couldn’t go that way too bad we didn’t know this earlier.
The beach was awesome surfers were out the sand was hard so it made for great walking and we didn’t have to look for snakes on the beach which was nice.
Approaching a big cave in the side of the hill there was a group of 14 hikers taking a break. We chatted with them for a few minutes, took some pictures. They were doing day hikes and someone would meet them everyday to take them to a campground. The trail now was heading away from the Ocean and up into the hills. There was always rustling in the bushes but you didn’t know if it was a little lizard or a snake until you saw it. Something caught my eye as I look to the side of the trail it’s a snake making it’s way through the brush beside us another big one. ‘Phil come this way quickly’ as we jumped forward it made it’s away in the opposite direction.
Reaching the next campground that seemed closed had running water in the washrooms so we filled up with water. It was a really hot day and we still had 20km to go. On our way out of the next campground we met up with a big group of kids and adults. It was the same group we saw in Prevally just after the Margaret River mouth. They had just hiked in from the road it was about 11am they were shocked to see we were there already.
Following our map it was all 4wd roads with real names, which seemed weird but it travelled thru the Karri National Park. (Karri is a tree) It was stinking hot and the trail seemed to go forever we knew we would soon hit the beach and when that happened we would only have 6km left. It was double track and up and down hills so we started running we knew we would run out of water soon so we had to make some fast time, Just before we reached the beach we both ran out of water so we had one 600ml bottle of Powerade to share for the next 6km. The beach was most amazing the surf was gentle we just wanted to go for a swim to cool off but instead we kept trekking, The destination was in sight around this bay to the end of the beach we could see if forever and it seemed like forever. 2 hours later we reached a car park and asked this couple that were French that spoke broken English where the campground was he explained up the hill down the road across the path to the end but it closes at 4pm and it’s 3:50pm. What are you kidding me what campground closes at 4pm?
So just like the amazing race style we start running down the road across the trail; thru the campground and reached the office at 3:55pm. There were a few weird looks from the other campers but we made it just in time loaded up on some more food and the nice lady at the campground decided she could open her till for us so we could buy it.
Another great campsite and lots of friendly people; we were known as the walkers. Visited with a family from Switzerland that night, Phil made friends with some fisherman who told him the snakes we saw were dugite snakes poisonous of course someone earlier had said they were pythons.
Day 5 – Hamelin Bay to Cape Leeuwin – 26km
Up at 5am and survived the craziest thunder lightning storm ever; the flashing in the tent woke me up at 2am it went on for hours without any rain. At about 4am it finally started to rain and the lightning continued and so did the thunder. Around 5am the ground rumbled it was horribly loud and that’s when Phil said that’s enough lets get out of here and head to the laundry room. Sorting our stuff in the laundry room; the rain let up so we ended up leaving at 7:30am. It was a super hot night; we didn’t freeze we were almost too hot.
Finally the last day and not much food left; being so rushed yesterday in the store we didn’t buy very much well there wasn’t really that much to buy anyways. Chicken Curry Pasta with Pepperoni Sausage was breakfast. This was a mistake.
The air was muggy from the storm; which makes the flies really bad apparently. Being from Canada we have never experienced this before, flies crawling on you all the time this drove us nuts. In your ears, eyes, on your sunglasses, crawling on your neck…they rested on the packs.
The last day had one of the more amazing coast lines with lots of rock caves from the waves, there were crabs running from us and the birds were fishing. A long beach walk ahead we knew it was going to be hard as the sand was soft so we found ourselves following in someone else’s tracks the whole 10km. The lighthouse was in sight very early on in the day but it was still a long way off.
Finally reaching the end of the trail signed out in the logbook and then walked to the lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin – where the waters meet – Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean.
Someone else was standing there with a pack and he was from Germany and we had been following his footprints as he just finished the walk as well. The closest town to the end of the trail was Augusta and all the cabs were busy and we didn’t want to walk anymore so we hung out in the parking lot until we found the right person to ask for a ride. The first guy out of the lighthouse we started talking to and before you knew it we had a ride into town he also gave us a tour of Augusta.
Stayed in the Youth Hostel that night lucky for us they had only one room left; Phil made a great dinner and finally ate some fresh fruit and vegetables again.
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago at 11:43 pm. 5 comments
Our flights and travel although very long went extremely well. From start to finish it was 33 hours of traveling. We arrived at our hotel room at 2:00pm local time. Since we did not want to be knocked out by Jet lag for too many days we went straight out to check out Perth. It was stinking hot here, 29 degrees, compared to calgary’s -5 to 10 we had been used to. We worked super hard at not going to sleep and we finally gave in at 8:00pm.
We woke up wide awake at 5:00am so we went for a run along the Swan River, absolutely beautiful and hot 19 degrees at 5:00am. We saw some parrots in the palm trees and a pelican filling his beak in the river. We spent the rest of the day working on learning the public transit and figuring out how to get to all of the hikes we want to do.
We went to one of Perth’s many beaches to check it out and kill some time before we could hook up with our friends Kat and Jenni who we are staying with.
Friday morning we headed over to Rotto. We did not want to hire a bike as they looked pretty junky and the brakes are opposite hands to ours. We decided running would be our best course of attack for this day. We were amazed by the beauty of the long white sandy beaches and the tropical blue waters. We spent the first little while just walking along the beach enjoying the heat and the surf.
We then decided it was time to start seeing this island Phil and Grace style, on foot and fast. We started running the beaches where ever we had the chance and went to the paths and road only at a last resort. We saw quite a few Skinks and little lizards running away from us as we approached but no snakes. It is a difficult thing for us to remember not to run through the low lying bush but as soon as you hear something in the bushes it is a very good reminder to stay on the well defined trail. We decided we wanted to check out the old gun towers on the top of the island to we turned inland about half way along the island. We were happy we did since when we were leaving there and running back we almost ran over a Quokka.
We got back to the main harbour and went and played in the water for an hour or so before our ferry left to take us back to Perth. Rotto was absolutely beautiful if anybody is coming to perth I would highly recommend going over to this place. Awesome place for a run, bike, or just chillin on the beach.
Our next stop is the 135 km Cape to Cape Trail south of Perth in the Margaret River region. We are hoping to get it done in 3-4 days but we will see how tough and beautiful it is maybe we will stay longer.
Posted 4 months ago at 4:20 pm. 1 comment
Well the time has come. Grace and I are heading off on another epic adventure. Our epic adventures seem to always begin in the same way. Pack our house become homeless and unemployed and leave for 3 months of Summer.
This adventure will take us to some of the most rugged and desolate parts of South Australia and then all across New Zealand’s North and South Islands. We will be keeping everybody informed on our journey via this blog site and many social media sites.
Our plans include a 350kms of trails in South West Australia, driving across the Australian Outback, Swimming with dolphins, Caving expeditions to see glowworms, and 400+ km’s of New Zealands finest trails.
Follow along at any of these sites as our Journey begins November 2nd.
www.liveoutthere.com
www.twitter.com/philhiom www.twitter.com/gracehiom
www.facebook.com/philhiom www.facebook.com/gracehiom
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago at 9:05 am. 2 comments
Hey Everybody,
Out There Adventure Centre in calgary is offering a special private sale. All you have to do is present this coupon to the sales associate at time of purchase and you will get a discount on all of your new winter gear!!!!!
Click on the image to open a printer friendly version.
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago at 1:09 pm. Add a comment
A perfect day for a run in the mountains, Grace and I got up early and got out for an early start on Ribbon Creek Trail before all of the walkers got going. We ran the 8.4km trail into the falls campground, where we stopped for a quick bite to eat and some pictures of the falls. The weather was starting to turn for the worse so we decided to turn around and run out instead of continuing onto the Lake. On our way back out we stopped at all of the beautiful areas on the trail where you could get good shots of the river and the falls. In all we couldn’t have asked for a better day for running and taking pictures in the mountains. Check out the photo album to see all of the pics from the run. Click here to see all of the picture or click on either of these image.
Posted 6 months ago at 6:01 pm. Add a comment
This SLR chest pack is an awesome idea for anybody active who likes to capture there experiences. The pack works great for hiking and light running. I found that the pack was too loose for running and biking, I don’t think it will be too difficult to retrofit the pack so that I can run and bike with it. The pack has enough room to store everything you need for a day of activity and shooting. Having the pack on your chest allows you to easily capture all of the action without having to miss a beat, perfect for anybody who is moving quick but still want to get shoots of the cool stuff on the trails. The harness system is comfortable and easily worn underneath any other backpack without causing any discomfort or shaffing. Hopefully with the next version of this pack Clik Elite will either make different harness sizes or make it so the harness that they currently has can be adjusted to a smaller size.
Click here for more information about this Clik Elite Pack
Posted 6 months ago at 2:51 pm. Add a comment
The Koa 35 is an excellent day pack and a good lightweight backing pack for the ultralight camper. The structure in the backpanel, shoulder straps, and padded hipbelts allows this pack to be comfortable for long days even with a heavy load. The Koa has nice clean lines yet still plenty of stow pockets and areas to keep all of your gear stashed. The easily accessable and large hipbelt pockets are perfect for keeping a point and click camera or snacks to keep you going during your long days on the trail.
Click here to read more about the Koa 35
Posted 6 months ago at 2:29 pm. Add a comment
One day Phil and Grace wanted to know how did they get all those Kauri trees out of the forest without building any roads. This is how – when the floods came the trees sailed down the rivers and were controlled by hand made dams. The forest had 9 dams altogether and the second largest dam was left for us to discover.
The hike up was 2 hours and it was a lot of stairs all built out of rock about 100 years ago. The dam was pretty amazing to think it was built so long ago. Now a historic site you are not supposed to go on the dam.
A side trip took us up hundred’s more stairs up to the Pinnacles; these very large rock structures were pretty cool and the stairs were built into the rock but all seemed pretty safe to walk on. From the top the views were awesome we could see the South Pacific Ocean and mountains forever.
