Te Araroa : Ahipara to Paihia

KM this section : 142
KM completed : 243

Knee deep it was.

I walk out of Ahipara, and into something of a nightmare.  The route is along so-called 'forest tracks', but in truth there is no sign a path has ever been made, let alone maintained, here.  Worse, the ground underfoot is horrible, deep, sticky, slippery mud, even on steep and frankly dangerous slopes.  Progress is agonisingly slow, the way is either too muddy, too steep or too overgrown, often a combination of these.  I have to pick every step, and sometimes clamber over deadfall trees that have clearly been there for years, my speed dropping to as low as one kilometre per hour at times.  What looked to be two easy days on paper become dawn 'til dusk slogs on what are surely the worst 'paths' I have ever walked.

Camped in a random field, at least it is out of the woods.

Thankfully on the third day things pick up, the morning is mostly gravel logging roads, and then a river.  No, I don't mean a path alongside a river, rather I (and a bunch of Americans who I meet along the way) walk in a river for about five kilometres.  It is actually rather fun, and the cool fresh water doesn't feel too bad on the feet.  We even have a little swim where the river joins a more major course.  Still a long day though, again I walk until sunset and camp high up on a wooded ridge.

With less mud underfoot I can appreciate the forest a bit more - I could almost start to like the place...  It is certainly an alien environment, Tea Trees and giant Kauri grow beside odd looking palms and what looks like giant bracken.  Cries of strange birds fill the air...  It's kind of shocking then to emerge from this strange jungle into what could be a British hill farm, with sheep and cattle grazing.  I have a few kilometres of this before Kerikeri where there will be a proper campsite and real food, I am not in good shape though, tired after the last few days, and my legs are swollen from the number of insect bites I've received, mosquitoes of course and I swear, hornets... but it's not far.  Of course at the campsite a swarm of midges descends on my poor legs, but at least Kerikeri has a pub.

It also has a large waterfall, and NZ's oldest stone building, I walk past these on an easy tramp over to Paihia, a charming resort on the Bay of Islands (there are four hundred or more islands, as counted by Captain Cook).  I have a motel here booked for two nights, there are several pubs, it is good.  Though I really hope not much of this walk is like those two days in the forest...

Rainbow Falls, Kerikeri,

Photos to go with this post can be found here.