The days were just PACKED

Ah, some of the joys that warmer weather and longer daylight hours brought back when I was in middle school make for great memories: going for endless hikes in the woods around the neighborhood; building forts out of scrap materials in those same woods; riding BMX bikes along Mike's paper route after school (I had a Mongoose with mag wheels and a chrome chain); burning through piles of quarters playing Spy Hunter and Tempest and Sinistar and the like at the local arcade; sledding down that awesome hill up the street whenever it snowed in winter; staying up late playing too much Atari and Intellivision.

The other day I got a chance to emulate that to some degree by taking a hike (tramp) through some woods in my new neighborhood, sans any friends from middle school or a BMX bike.

OK so I didn't bring my toy stuffed tiger along with me, either, but you get the general spirit of the situation.

The tramp in question leads to Cannon Point. It's at the top of one of the hills overlooking the Hutt River Valley, in which I currently reside. There are other branches off this trail once you reach the top of the ridge, and if I were so inclined (and I am not presently, as these blisters on my feet will attest!) I could hike along old Maori hunting trails all the way over the hills and to the ocean on the west coast. It might be worth it to tramp that far one day to have a view of Kapiti Island from the hilltops, but that's another tramp and another fresh set of moleskin.

The complete tramp had about a 90-minute return, starting from my front doorstep. There's plenty of other tramps along the Hutt River itself and I mean to check those out one day soon as well. A mountain bike and a set of in-line skates (sadly I had to leave my pair back in the U.S.) would also be great things to have, especially for the river trails.

So there's about a dozen or so photos from this tramp here, and although the views aren't as intriguing as some of the others I've had over here in New Zealand, they are pretty rewarding for a trail that starts in my own backyard, basically. The biggest payoff is the view of Wellington harbor (the last photo in the album I believe), and you can make out Soames Island in the foreground which is also pretty cool. I need to see this distant harbor view of the city at night at some point as well but I don't have a good enough torch (flashlight) for this yet.

Right, well, that's enough forced viewing of my vacation slides for now. Thanks for indulging me!