Mavora Lakes

January 22nd
Kiwi Burn Hut to Mavora Lakes Campground
Distance: 17km + 1km off trail to hut
Elevation: flat
Steps: 29,500

Today was a shorter day, and promised to be nicer - mostly walking through beech forest, rather than along a dusty road, with the promise of local camping attraction Mavora Lakes at the end of the day.

The day also started off cool and misty, although even then the day was promising to be another hot one. Some beautiful mist over the valley in front of Kiwi Burn Hut greeted us as we set off; this also promised to absolutely soak our shoes, socks, legs, and even our shorts as we made our way through nearly waist-high grass for the first hour or so.
The beech forest was indeed very nice, we heard (and very briefly saw) long-tailed cuckoo calling to each other. The South Island Robins were both more vocal and more visible, with this one coming to check us out as soon as we stopped for a break. And hung around watching us closely for quite some time, too! 
If you zoom in closely to this photo, you may be able to see the juvenile titipounamou (riflemen) climbing up the tree. There were four juveniles and at least two adults hanging around these trees, just having a grand old time!
We finally made it to the lakes themselves, and were greeted with this beautiful expanse:
There's lots of camping around here, it is a very popular spot for what seems like the lower South Island. We chose what seemed to be a reasonably quiet spot...
Only to have this impression dashed about an hour after we set up camp. Turns out the two larger encampments on either side of us, which were empty of people when we arrived, are parts of a larger extended family. With lots of children, who are constantly moving back and forth between the two sites. Oh, and a pig. And apparently a big black dog. That is not always friendly. 

This may be one of the louder nights we spend camping, but hopefully we'll fall asleep pretty quickly as usual!

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you, we love reading your comments!

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Thought for 14 February 2025

Image
Ha ve a Happy Tho ught:     There is an old saying that you learn something new every day. (My college roommate added the corollary that once she learned something, that meant she could go back to bed – no matter how early in the day it was!)     Unfortunately, sometimes the new thing you learn is, in fact, not true. So fact-checking is always a good thing to do (yes, I very much try to fact-check these emails, but have and will miss things!). One way to reset yourself is to , every once in a while , chec k out Wikipedia’s List of common misconceptions page . Here are some of the things that caught my eye during my own recent visit there. I either learned these recently, or can vividly remember when I learned them. Words in italics are mine , everything else comes direct from Wikipedia:   1. Allspice is not a mix of spices. It is a single spice, so called because it seems to combine the flavours and scents of many spices, especially cinnamon , nu...
Read more

Happy Thought for 25 July 2025

Image
Have a Happy Thought:  Reading truly is a way to explore other minds and other worlds. Science-fiction especially is a great way to explore possible futures. From Star Trek communicators inspiring the popularity (if not the development ) of flip phones... ...To the terrifyingly accurate description of American politics in the mid 2020’s in Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower and sequels...     ...And then there is Roald Dahl foretelling ChatGPT. Yep, you read that right. The author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG accurately described today’s “AI” language generators, in his 1953 short story “ The Great Automatic Grammatizator” . It’s a short read, and well worth it, here are the things that really impressed me. Dahl forecast: the over-use of strange or exceptionally long words real life : words like comprehend, boast, swift, meticulous, and delve Dahl: “For example, there’s a trick that nearly every writer uses, o...
Read more

Happy Thought for 27 June 2025

Image
Have a Happy Thought:  If you’ve ever woken up from a weird dream, and had to say to yourself, “okay brain in the real world, foxes are not monks”... you are not alone. Apparently this was a very common problem throughout the middle ages in Europe, and beyond. Here’s a statuette from Denmark, made around the 1530’s: Image: Ivory figure, 6 cm tall,of penitent Reynhard fux, with a rosary between the paws. Dated to the time of the Reformation in Denmark (1530's) http://samlinger.natmus.dk/DMR/168006 And here is one from Japan: Image: a kitsune statuette. Source https://www.instagram.com/p/DKH2lvVMYnt/ In fact, this idea of foxes as monks was so common that there was a popular cartoon character called Reynard the Fox, dating from as far back as the 12 th century! Image: Reynard the Fox in British Library MS  Royal 10 E IV, late 13th/early 14th century https://i0.wp.com/streetsofsalem.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/fox-reynard-royal-10.jpg   Reynard appare...
Read more