Away Days - Part II

Day II, Tuesday 14 March - was the Big Day - by the end of it, my wife's Fit Bit indicated we had walked 28,000 steps, and boy, I could feel it, but how I felt on Tuesday evening was as nought to Wednesday morning, I can assure you!

That is two and a half hours each way (although, in the event, the return was significantly quicker than the ascent)

The first half hour was a gradual incline, on a mainly step-free board walk....

.... although the remaining two hours were a constant series of steps

About the three quarters mark, we emerged from the bush into more open country.

A great view from up here.

The Department of Conservation hut, where you can spend the night, if you have an over whelming desire to sleep in a wooden hut on a bunk bed, halfway up a mountainside!

Just above the hut was this area of lunar like landscape.

The protected wetland area - this would definitely be hard going and reduce movement by 75%!

Fortunately, there was a boardwalk over the marshy ground 

Mount Taranaki, with its summit hidden by cloud.

A short video of the "lunar" area

Your correspondent, experimenting with a selfie, in the manner of Matt at "Wargames in the Dungeon"

(Actually, its pretty crap - looks ok this size but its out of focus if you make it full size!)

And now its time to head back down again....

Back at the motel, a bit of pre-dinner relaxation....

And tonight, its a seafood curry, including a couple of scallops as well as the customary fish and prawns (although no squid, which I have never had or seen on an Indian menu, as far as I can recall......)

Another sunset from a bit further down the coast than the previous evening

Mount Taranaki from a different angle, minus cloud on the summit this time!

And that was us for another evening - back to the hotel where, to my wife's delight, we had Sky TV including the CI (Crime Investigation) channel, so we watched two or three hours of (mainly American) true crime investigations each evening before bed! After four days of this, I have come to the conclusion, most small US police departments need significantly more training, as, they tended to either jump to the wrong conclusion and make the facts fit their suspect, ending up with the wrong person in court/convicted/in the worst cases, on death row! OR they missed investigation steps/evidence that was so basic and fundamental, that the criminal was able to evade arrest for months or even years longer than they should have! Interesting fact - Harry Konnick Snr (yes, father of the singer) featured in one case - and it was not a flattering portrayal.....Joseph Harry Fowler Connick (born March 27, 1926) is an American attorney who served as the district attorney of Orleans Parish (New Orleans), Louisiana.