ZL1/WK-024 – Pureora. A Summit for Easter Weekend ticked off

Somewhere out between Te Kuiti and Taupo on DoC land, Pureora Summit calls itself home.  Getting to the base car park was easy driving (metaled road) and the tramp to the summit was gentle for the most part, although as you near the summit there are a lot of steps.   Conditions were perfect for a tramp until we neared the summit and light drizzle came overhead and while it did not hang around too long it left a bitterly icy cold chill in the air / wind.

 

 

The track is well maintained and we did see a few people out and about making use of it on Easter Monday.   Once you leave the entry to the track there are no signs or markers, though, the track is clear enough that it is easily followed.

The view from the summit went for miles, although photographing conditions were very poor we still managed to come home with some for the blog as usual.  Views extended out to Lake Taupo on one side with the top of Ruapehu obscured by cloud a little further round and would make a great picture on a clear day, in particular in snow capped winter months.   To the left Tauhara (ZL1/WK-026) can be seen, another summit we recently ticked off the list.

 

It took us a little under 2hrs to reach the summit and once there Warren made quick work of getting set up when it looked like rain may set in.

 

Warren was on the air in no time and SOTA contacts today were easily found, including a nice collection of summit to summit contacts with keen SOTA Hams in VK.   14 MHz was fruitful and we made many contacts with our Australian friends in VK land. We dropped down to 7 MHz to collect a few ZL contacts and then, while chatting with John ZL1PO (ground watch) on a local VHF repeater we tried reverse and then successfully QSYed to simplex to gain another contact.