Te Araroa : Cape Reinga to Ahipara

KM this section : 101
KM completed : 101

Sign tree at Cape Reinga, start of the walk.

OK, now I am walking.  I've wanted to do a proper long distance path for a while, indeed one reason for creating this blog was to document such a trip - has taken me a while to get started.  But now I have the time, so off I go.  At this time of year it has to be the Southern hemisphere, and I confess that English speaking is a draw, New Zealand it is then.

Te Araroa ('the long pathway' in Maori) is a three thousand kilometre trail from Cape Reinga at the northern tip of North Island, to the far end of South Island - don't know how far I'll get, but if I make it the whole way it will probably take four months.  It takes a couple of days of buses and motels just to reach the start, and then I start walking, along a beach.  Ninety Mile Beach, it is well named.  The tide comes in, out, in again, the sun sweeps across the sky, and the beach remains.  As do I, striding over the packed sand, the Tasman Sea to my right, dunes to my left.  Highlight is the first evening, a strong southerly wind drives streamers of sand like will o' the wisps around my feet.  Next day, there are parts of the beach where every shell has its own little wind sculpted aerofoil of sand, pointing my way south.

Accommodation on the way includes a random sand dune and a cabin shared with a German fellow hiker.  Then at the end of the beach I find Ahipara, time to rest up for a day in a nice motel before continuing.  I expect blog entries will become less frequent as the walk continues... I shan't be stopping every three days :)

Ninety Mile Beach.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.