Images and Ideas: Tramping in New Zealand

My old Kiwi friend Richard and I go back to the late 1970s, when we were both working in the Wellington Child and Family Clinic. I was training in psychiatry, and he was training to be a child psychologist. Many of the other staff there were radical feminists, and Richard and I huddled together for mutual support. Over the years we have had many adventures together; tramping, skiing and sailing. Here is a brief video of one trip we did together.

Recently Richard has had some bad health news, and we decided to do a road trip together in the North Island of New Zealand.

There were two others who used to ski with us at that time, Doug and Mark. Both psychiatrists. We all got together for a meal in Wellington the night I flew over.

The four musketeers: Mark, Doug, me and Richard

View from Richard and Rob's house in Wellington

Richard

Rob

We took the bus up to Palmerston North and Fielding to collect a car from some friends who had been borrowing it. Then on to Whanganui, to stay in an AirBnB. Whanganui has collected a number of creative artists. Good pottery and glass-work.

Next on to New Plymouth, a city near a major volcano, Mount Taranaki.

The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery

New Plymouth street art

Waitara

We went for a four-hour tramp up Mount Taranaki

Mokau, on the coast north of New Plymouth

Looking back at Mount Taranaki

Drone shot looking north from Mokau

Turkeys, sheep and horse enjoying some shade.

Near Lake Taupo

Lake Taupo

Toetoes and Mount Ngauruhoe

Going up Mount Ruapehu in the gondola

Tensing and Hillary

From the skyline on Mount Ruapehu.

Tongariro River

From Turangi, near Lake Taupo in the centre of the North Island, we drove to Hawkes Bay, on the East Coast. We took a back-country road with very little traffic. Some textured landscapes along the way.