pinnacle pick up

After our camping adventure we made our way down the coast to the city of Thames... now, I use the word "city" lightly because it was basically one long strip of cafes, restaurants, banks, and stores with some surrounding houses. Pretty small "city" - but nonetheless the biggest one in the Coromandel...

We stayed in a hostel the night before the big climb. We were set to do a trail called The Pinnacles. It's a 3-4 hour hike to a hut way up some mountain-y hill and then another hour (and 813 stairs) to the top peak - the Pinnacle(s). Then you spend the night in the hut and hike back out another trail (4-5 hours) the next day... pretty sweet. On our way out the hostel door, our landlady (who was quite interesting in herself with her flesh coloured tight spandex pants and crazy cats) asked if we had room for one more in our car - not for her (thank goodness) but for some "tall English bloak" down at the other hostel. We said sure and picked up our new British friend, Dominic.

Dominic probably deserves his own post because he was SO FUN! He was really funny and laughed a lot and we had a good time with him. We actually ended up hiking the whole way up and back with him and then met him for drinks the evening following... pretty cool guy. Back to the Pinnacles...

We made our way up the STEEP climb to the hut, had lunch, and then continued up to the top... it was gorgeous!! We could see clear from the east to the west. The climb from the hut was pretty well paved and had plenty of stairs to the top. 813 we counted. There were also sets of ladders and pegs to climb up near the top. But we made it... all intact.

We spent the night in the hut - room for 80 in just two rooms. There weren't traditional bunk beds, but you basically laid side by side the person next to you... no seperation... the hut wasn't full, so we had some room to spread out, but there were a few interesting characters -- a group of 12 highschool aged girls that were facinated that we were from the States/Canada, German and Holland school teachers on spring break, an I-know-everything-about-the-States pessimistic Kiwi, and, of course, the mummy moaner. The moaner woke everyone up with a creepy "MMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAA" at like 2 in the morning! It sounded like a cow was just outside the window. The next morning everyone was trying to guess who the sleep moaner was... our money was on the the 60s something short shorts man... only because we could see his TIGHT whity tighties due to the fact that his shorts were THAT short... now that's just wrong...