To the Pinnacles (and back again) another great outing.

Well before I post any more pics of models on this blog I shall show to you my most recent tramping adventure I did with two of my friends. this walk took 3 days instead of the previous 2 and has some very nice pictures... anyway onto the adventure.

the three adventurers. from left to right Me, Miles and Trent

OH and By the way this post contains around (I may have deleted some I thought were duplicates) 60 photos...

Day one: 11th of December

well we set off at around 1 pm. this days tramp was predicted to be about 3 hours long.

to start out the track looked like this, nice and easy and very pretty.

then we got to the old road built into these hills for the Kauri loggers. here's Trent up ahead of me.

that overhand covers the path to a swing bridge... which is used when the river crossing is impassible due to floods

a break for afternoon tea after climbing more steps than in the escape rout of a skyscraper.... no wonder the preferred group name of people going to the hut is #Hatestairs.... seriously though there were loads of steps.

looking up the side of the valley.

a cool rocky outcrop the Coromandel is full of these sometimes weird and wonderful formations

looking of into the distance... photo bombing done by Trent :-P

this is the old path/road cut into the hills really nice... much better than some of the paths around town.

a little stream which clearly becomes nasty during floods

another outcrop a volcanic plug I assume.

Oh yes and that is table top mountain the same as from the previous hike but from a different angle.

getting close to the hut... hut is not really the right word as it is not a small structure at wall (bigger than many houses in fact)

and the last picture of day one taken just before we got to the hut.

we got to the hut an hour early and after meeting a few people including a guy from school we settled down for the night.

Day 2:

Day two was a day of very little adventures in the morning we all went up the Pinnacles without our bags... as it is only a 50 min climb... spent the rest of the day relaxing and chatting to other people from all storts of countries. Germany, Belgium, France, Singapore and Sweeden to name a few. Trent and I went up with a group in the evening to watch the sunset but Miles was to tired and went to bed early... here are the pics of the day.

early morning mist runs over the pinnacles but clears quickly although it leaves the air nice and fresh perfect for a climb

very pretty place and in the morning light it is even better.

it's strange to think that nearlly all this is re-growth... these slops were heavily deforisted in the 19th and 20th centuries.

our goal

our goal again.

we start our climb and look back at table top mountain. a new angle but still impressive,

Trent and Miles up ahead. we only took our water bottles on this climb as we didn't need anything else... well I did bring the Camera and the Binoculars.

Table top mountain again but from a higher angle thanks to thousands of steps the path increases in altitude quite rapidly.

as we get higher the surrounding area is revealed to us.

a look back at the hut. so far away now... and it hadn't taken us that long to get this far.

zoomed in again but another look at table top mountain or flat head as Stephanie (Mile's mother) called it.

a look down a valley... breath taking but it's a shame you can't get an impression of depth this is really cool in 3D.

not at the top yet. at over 750m the pinnacles give you a great view of the surrounding landscape

At the top? not sure... next photo I am more sure.

the view from the top.

there is a sign saying don't go here. but the lady who took our picture and climbed the pinnacles 7 times said we should go and check it out.

cool eh?

Mayor island in the distance.

some pretty little flowers growing amoungst the rocks

these rocks are not barren at all, they are practically covered in life.

table top mountain in the distance as well as other hills that make up these ranges

looking south east (roughly)

these are not the teeth of some ancient monster although this is middle earth so maybe.

a cool rock... what do you see? I see some stone giant pulling the finger. anyway this was taken once we decided to go back down.

one of the old Kauri dams. we took at look at once we came down and soon got bored.

an arty farty shot. :-P

miles walking along the stream

anyway we decided to follow the little stream by the Kauri dam... this isn't a trail but it was easy to follow.

this was taken very carefully as the water would kill my camera

a mini waterfall.

anyway after a restful day and dinner which we shared with a French man as our pasta dish was more than enough Trent and I went up with a group of 2 German boys and 2 girld from Duneidin and went to the top of the Pinnacles again to see this!!!

Certainly something I recommend you all see.

one more for luck!

DAY 3:

Day 3 was a long way... hours of walking as we took another route out heading east. We were going to Rangihau road where we got picked up by Mile's mother and taken to their batch (holiday home to non kiwi speaking peoples) in Tairua. in Tairua we could relax and do all the kayaking, swimming, sea biscuiting and set skiing we wanted but first we needed to walk! and this time the trail was not nicely pathed by loggers.

this morning was really misty! this mist did no lift until around 10-11am.

the sign at the point where the path from the hut meets the trail... interestingly another sign gave us the impression that the time to the Rangihau Road end (the route we were taking) would take 7 hours!

tree's in the mist

clambering up hill and down dale through swamp and over rivers we went.

at the top of the hill shown in the previous photo this shot was taken... electric cabels dissapearing into the mist.

OH and this is the track... well one of the nice bits. other times it was just waterlogged mud that would swallow your boot, leg and in some places you up to your waist.

after tramping through the undergrowth on a narrow trail we came to an area where all the trees had died. how??? No idea but from now on the track was designed so that a 4x4 could pass so the walk got easier.

we came to a stream and filled our water bottels. a look up stream and all the tree's are dead.

BUT downstream is this.... all I did was turn around. this is the same place.

After 5 hours of walking we came to the end of the trail and found this! this guys gate is right next to the gate (off camera to the left) at the end of the track

cool sign.

After 5 hours we made it to the end of the trail. really happy and well ahead of scheduel we had a bit of a walk yet to the pick up point further down the road. we must have got to the end of the trail just after 11 as we reached the pick up point just before 12 an hour early.

anyway we had to walk for another hour to get to the pick up point. this is the river by which we rested and waited.

after getting picked up we spent the next couple of days in Tairua going home on the 15th. unfortunatetly I didn't take any photo's because we had an awesome time. it was my first time going sea buiscuting, pulled by a jet-ski... and I didn't fall out. great time saw some amazing marine life, such as a huge sing ray. it was great. but I imagine that you've read enough now so I'll leave it here.

for Christmas I shall return to Tairua so perhaps I can bring some pics back from then. BUT UNTIL THEN UNLESS I DO ANOTHER POST I WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY, HEALTHY AND JOYFULL....

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

Leopard 2 and Lynx attack of the cats

Well hello to you all! and I bet some of you are thinking what is Gowan going to post this time? well this may come as a shock but models are in the post today (crowd in disbelief). yes it's been too long but finally I have some thing to show you and I think it is a well rounded post including a Kit, Diecast and a figure, but also, a vehicle, an aircraft and and infantryman.

Well lets start off with my personal favourite the Tank! the Leopard 2 A6(M) according to the Revell box. But as with nearly all the tanks it's Oronegrean built and bred.  The kit was a bit of a hassel to build certainly the solid tracks were not nice to put together and I failed misserably at doing the whole warming and bending thing. (one worked OK but the rest snapped and have been glued into place). Another problem was the garage clear out that took place half way through construction meaning that the decals were lost and now are possibly out with the rest of the rubbish. So the tank has no markings or licence plates that would have been nice to add but one problem can be another opportunity. This tank because of its unique camouflage can be an Oronegrean tank, a German one or another nations tank. certainly what decals would have given the tank aesthetically is made up with new found usability.

a soldier for scale purposes... no decals but that doesn't bother me. it just makes this all the more usable.

This being Oronegro, the tank is clearly Oronegrean built so this is the Leoplard O3 with advanced gun, a lighter varient of the same nigh impenitrable armour of the Oronegrean Challengers and Abrams. Not to mention a ridiculous engine that makes the advanced hydrogen fuel cell of the challengers look sane. this tank is Nuclear powered! (extreme disbelief) now, now don't you worry not all are so powered many have conventional internal combustion or hydrogen fuel cell power plants but a few of these tanks incorperate nuclear powerplants... which I'll explain later and (as with the challengers) back up diesel engine.

this one was an interesting build with all the many parts... not the hardest kit I've made but not an easy one

noo the table is showing I thought I had got all shots with only white background

from behind

 Right lets talk about the engine as we're at that end of the tank (previous photo). it is nuclear but uses an element that does not exist on the normal periodic table, this element decays very slowly but gives off lots of energy, three rods are placed in the reactor which is shielded by a casing of ridicolouslydenseium  which shields the crew (though the reactor manager does wear an NBC suit for extra safety). only one of the three rods is ever active at one time, all three would potentially cause a meltdown. in case of an emergency or one of the rods going out of control the rods can be automatically loaded into special shells and fired out of the main gun (which has a shieled autoloader) these shells, if loaded into armed shells (there are two types eject, for emergencies, armed for using them as weapons) explode with a reasonably large nuclear blast. should all three rods be ejected the diesil engine can let the big cat limp away at a stately 15km/h.

the required "propoganda" shot

 Next up is a Lynx this is an advanced version based on the AH7. this one is built (wait for it) by AgustaWestland NOT IN ORONEGRO (more disbelief) this lynx has been given the most powerful, reliable engines on offer so that it can reach the top speeds of the fastest models, i.e the fastest of all helicopters. equipped with the TOE missiles (advanced version of the TOW) and a door gunner occasionally opens the door to cover the side (mostly they stay inside, its unnerving flying low at such high speeds)
Now this lynx came with helicopter magazine... I had a difficult choice as I had to choose between the lynx or a German eurotiger (would have gone well with the Leopard) but as I have an apache kit I thought another transport would be better and the missiles gave this one the edge. Now I do have a comparison shot later of both Lynx (what is the plural?) so you can see the difference.

this is a nice diecast, although I have had to cut and glue a few things here, I clearly got the runt of the litter.

 Now for the figure. Sorry about the photo's as I didn't get the lighting right. This man is Oronegrean Special forces (haven't decided which... marine?) who unusually for my figures has the Oronegrean flag painted on his shoulder. he's one of a few figures I have been working on for a while, real mixed quality as some of the figures had unexpected flash (strange for caesar figs) and were primmed with nasty Tamiya primmer (really thick sticky coat) but many are also conversions so it's interesting to see how they're turning out.

sorry about the lighting

still too dark but you can see the camo pattern reasonably well.

 Now for that comparison! Scale difference is minimal which is nice although clearly the new lynx is of better quality. I don't have any british forces in Oronegro but they along with many NATO forces were involved, so perhaps down the line I should get some. have the helicopter but no-body for it to support to transport. the old lynx is pretty generic though and despite its either Soviet or Polish origins its not too bad compated with the new one IMHO.

from above

different angle.

 All together now.

Rebels beware more forces have joined the goverments cause.

Well thats it for today.

Prizegiving... THE AWARD

well what can I say... a fortnight ago the school had it's senior prizegiving. a big formal event where the awards are given out. Well it went as expected though I did get up at the wrong moment luckily I realised though I still looked silly. Anyway I collected my humble endeavour awards (for working hard in my classes) and sat down not expecting to get anything else and just to be an average person. I was a little sad as I had hoped to do a little better... BUT THEN...

happy

Well as you can see from the picture I clearly have an award. :-D it is a big one too one I never expected to get. Anyway this is the story...

I was sitting feeling a little glum though I was happy to see my friends and fellow prefects getting their awards. Then it came to the Principals award chosen by Mr Vanderlaan himself. for a student who has overcome adversity, still I didn't expect much but then there came the speech... (this is roughly what he said)

this was an award to a student who at his primary school was taken out of class to receive special help with his mental disabilities. Asperger's syndrome, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and ADHD which made it hard for him to socialise.

At this point I knew it was me, the smile on my face went from ear to ear (it would stay like that for a while too, fortunately its gone back to normal now) I also started to notice how the prefects next to me were one by one figuring it out also.

The speech went on for a while but when it came an end I rushed up on stage to applause, certainly a moment I shall not forget... I shook hands with Mr Vanderlaan and looked across my stage to see my dad being given the award to hand over to me. not knowing whether to hug him or be really formal I collected the award from my father and walked off stage... shaking... that was an emotional moment for sure. the prize-giving went on for a bit longer I watched good friends getting the top academic awards, but I was happier than ever, I didn't need 3-5 awards (our head boy Ethan did, or more, one of the nicest people I know)

Well that was a while ago, I was just waiting for the picture! the award I'll have to give back for the next year's recipient but I have a nice certificate and received $100 with it. Although now I am going through my BIG EXAMS so it's not all over yet. but I think that MY FINAL DAY OF SCHOOL EVER (apart from the exams and university which doesn't count) could not have ended in a better way.

hope your all well and happy yourselves. I have a Leopard 2 (my favourite tank) and another Lynx (a die-cast) to show off to you next so don't worry I will show some models on this blog soon enough :-D

happy, happy, happy, MAD, happy, happy, taken to the mental hospital, happy, happy, happy. (ok that's enough of that)