Te Araroa : Te Kuiti to Taumarunui

KM this section : 142
KM completed 1048

A beautiful Boxing Day morning.

Te Kuiti is pronounced 'tay quitty', but I'm not quitting just yet, it takes more than some lost pegs.  In fact I find everything I need in town, new pegs for four dollars from The Warehouse - I love The Warehouse - food for the next four days, and tasty mince and cheese pie and carrot cake for lunch.  The afternoon walk goes well, the Mangaokewa gorge is glorious, rivalling the best of the UK peak district, and the path is fine - somebody has even been along with a strimmer.  But as evening draws in, Te Araroa madness resumes.  I can handle the boggy bits, not pleasant and slow going though they may be.  But for long periods, the path climbs crazily away from the river, in the form of a narrow, sloping ledge of either wet grass or mud, along which I carefully pick my way in fear of tumbling down the slope towards the river below.  Eventually, several kilometres short of plan, I camp on a rare spot of flattish grass.  My tent pole snaps, again - it has broken four times now in various ways.  Funny way to spend Christmas eve... somehow I get the tent up anyway.

Wild camping in the woods.

Christmas day, and thankfully only a few kilometres of bush before an easy day of road walking.  I make short work of it, at Ngaherenga campsite for 6pm... there isn't a lot here.  Not even anybody to take my money, well I'm not putting a fifty dollar bill in the honesty box.  At least the tent goes up OK, and I enjoy a Christmas feast, there is cake, chocolate and biscuits, and then an early night, ready for an early start.  Turns out Te Araroa has a present for me after all, the walk up to the summit of Mount Pureora is a lovely one, on a gently graded and well made cycle track.  From the top of this, the first peak over one thousand metres on the trail, I get magnificent views of Lake Taupo, and even larger mountains to the South.  There is even phone signal so I call family back in England, it's still Christmas there.

This section is described by the guide as 'alpine', so, will there be grassy slopes, cows with bells on and singing nuns?  Or will there be horrible bush?  The way the guide suggests three to four days for just fifty-one kilometres implies the latter, but in fact it's OK, not too muddy and a lot of it is flat.  This high altitude forest has a different character, the undergrowth isn't as thick, and every tree has a root to leaf covering of moss.  The place seems ancient, and I do find myself expecting to enter a clearing and find a gathering of elves.  As it is I do at least find clearings in which to camp a couple of times, and emerge from the alpine section one hour into my third day.  Along the way I pass a number of nicely appointed Department of Conservation huts, and resolve to buy some tickets so I can stay at some of these.  Oh, and I pass the one thousand kilometre point, one third done!

One thousand kilometres.  See, I am making an 'M' with my fingers.

It's an easy and pleasant road walk into Taumarunui, highlight being some actual trail magic, courtesy of a young man named Sam who has set up a stall with ice water and free sweets for passing hikers.  You, sir, are a hero of the trail.  I reach town for 4:30pm, time for beer then, and, oh yes, a real bed at a motel.  Except, turns out not only does the wretched place have no pubs - three liquor stores and two big supermarkets, sure - but worse yet, every one of the town's numerous motels is full.  Why, or indeed why anybody would want to come here, I know not.  I walk a further three kilometres to a campsite, tent again, yay.  At least the nice campsite man (from Yorkshire!) has some beer to sell me.

In honour of the pegs incident (apologies to Jarvis Cocker) :

I lost my pegs, I walk alone,
It's eight o' clock, I want to go home,
But there's no way, not today,
So instead I call my mother,
And say,
'Mother, I have to go shopping again,
Because I've left an important part of my tent
Somewhere in a field in New Zealand.'

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

Te Araroa : Hamilton to Te Kuiti

KM this section : 116
KM completed: 906

I rather like Hamilton, nice to eat some proper food, pizza, bacon sarnies, mince and cheese pie (sounds weird but it works), and a good meal with actual vegetables at the Londoner - they even have English beer on tap, bit pricey though.  I sit through half an hour of a nativity play, well it is Christmas.  Turns out the guy who invited me in (with promise of cake, which will get me anywhere these days) wants to talk about god, I have shopping to do though (and there was no cake, grr).

Eight hundred whole kilometres done.

I make a late start out of Hamilton, faffing around with breakfast and more shopping (new water filter, yay).  Many kilometres to do, easy enough to start with on roads that get increasingly minor as I go.  Honestly I'm not looking forward to leaving the road, it's going to be bush, and I am starting to, ah, have strong negative feelings about the bush.  But in fact something of a miracle occurs, I leave the road and walk onto a grassy hillside, then climb with turf underfoot and views for miles around.  This is how it is supposed to be.  I'm tempted to walk through to my planned campsite, but I won't get there 'til nine or so... a pleasant spot by a river will do nicely anyway, and if I now have a twelve hour day tomorrow, going by the guide, so be it.

One noticeable absence from the walk so far has been mountains, there will be plenty to come for sure.  Today is the first of any note, Mount Pironghia, at nine hundred and fifty-nine metres it doesn't quite hit the one thousand mark but it's big enough.  Just a pity it's bush all the way to the top, and indeed back down.  At its worst it's an utterly vile morass of sucking mud, and I'm actually doing worse than the two kilometres per hour the guide reckons.  Note to TA powers that be, 'utterly vile' is not the best phrase that could be used to describe your path.  Of course it is only me, your mileage may vary, etc.

Pahautea hut.

Well... next day I start from a random field, it's wet, there are of course bitey insects, and I am eight kilometres behind plan.  Off at 7am then... fortunately the plan was just a twenty-eight kilometre day, still lots of off-road, I am afraid.  But today, I get nice Te Araroa, more grassy hills and what bush there is, is OK.  Just a couple of flies in the ointment, first the bit where in the absence of any signage I follow the GPX line and end up standing, exactly on the line, facing an unsurmountable slope.  Hmm.  Had to walk through lots of bog to reach it too.  Well, I find my way around somehow.  More annoying because it is my own fault is when I stop for lunch, unpack the tent to dry it out, and realise I've left the pegs back in that random field, too much hurry to get going and away from the bugs I fear.  Good thing I'm at a proper campsite tonight, at Waitomo, where a lovely Canadian chap lends me some pegs.  Waitomo is in fact unexpectedly great, there are various drinking establishments, at one of which I consume a quite insane burger... it has steak on it.  And egg.  I feel a little better the next day, beer always helps, and the walking through farmland into Te Kuiti is easy enough.  It's just a lunch and resupply stop, but I need pegs too, and what will the afternoon bring?  Watch this space...

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

Te Araroa : Manukau to Hamilton

KM this section : 151
KM completed : 790

Looking down at the Wairoa reservoir.

So I made forty-five kilometres look pretty easy yesterday, things had to go downhill, and so : the bush is back.  Maybe the mud isn't so bad, but still, the thirteen kilometres or so of forest that caps the next day proves hard.  Have I mentioned how even when the ground underfoot isn't mud, it's often a tangled mass of roots so that you must pick every step or risk a trip or twisted ankle?  Did I speak of the tendrils of vine that snake across the path, hard as steel cable and ready to trip or tangle the unwary?  Occasionally the forest canopy parts and I get a view, but you know what?  I'd like a view while I'm walking, but even if there were one I have to watch my feet every step instead.  This is 'only' a forty-one day, but after twelve hours I'm still walking, will I make it to Wairoa dam where I plan to camp before dark?  Nearly... with a kilometre to go I reach a junction, orange triangles point both ways, no suggestion which is the Te Araroa route.  The GPX route I have from the official website says straight on... of course it is wrong.  Half an hour wasted and I walk down to the dam by the light of my headtorch.

More wild camping.

Only thirty-eight kilometres, haha, planned next day, trouble is the first fifteen or so are 'bush kilometres'.  I begin to suspect that not only has no real path been constructed through areas like this, but even the distance the marked route takes hasn't been measured.  Or maybe they think that switchbacks, detours around ravines etc. just don't count.  Anyway... I walk for four hours at what seems mostly a decent pace, maybe four kilometres per hour barring the odd tricky bit.  So, having stopped for lunch, it is with disbelieving horror that I find I've done less than eight 'official kilometres'.  I finally emerge from the bush after 4pm, with twenty-three kilometres still to do, well, at least I now have some flat, along roads and Dutch-style dykes.  A look at the guide suggests more of this tomorrow so I cut today's route short, still my second thirteen hour day on the trot though.

The Waikoto River.

The next day into Huntly is indeed easy going, more dykes and roads through the flood plain around the wide Waikato river.  Unbroken by the last two days I power through it to reach Huntly by 6.30pm... a real bed in a motel, yay!  But I'm gaining more respect for the trip times given in the guide, ridiculous though they seem at first.  So tomorrow there is a eleven kilometre bush section the guide reckons will take eight hours, meaning I have a fourteen hour walk to Hamilton, ugh.  But as it turns out, the Hakuna Matata, ah, sorry, Hakarimata Forest track takes me only four and a half hours, and is largely pleasant.  Lots of hikers here too, I chat to the usual mix of Germans and Americans, and even a Romanian today.  Another motel in Hamilton, such decadence, and for two nights, it is about time I had a 'zero day' - hiker terminology, a day of zero movement along the route.  Think I earned it.  Over a quarter done now!

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

Te Araroa : Auckland to Manukau

KM this section : 45
KM completed : 639

On the summit of Mount Eden.

It may seem a bit odd for a long distance trail to pass through a country's largest city, but there's no other option as NZ is only a few kilometres across here, and Auckland stretches from coast to coast.  Indeed, the path through it is named the Coast to Coast Walkway.  First though, I have a lazy day, it was only eight kilometres to the university so plenty of time to relax, shop, check out the Christmas displays in the main shopping area, and of course get to a pub.

Auckland, complete with numerous volcanoes.

In fact, hold the walking for a minute, let us talk of pubs, because NZ, you have a problem here.  In two nights in your biggest city I've now been to three of TripAdvisor's 'top ten bars', and frankly they weren't up to much.  I get the feeling the early settlers here were clean living types who really didn't want to bring pub culture from the old country.  And more recently the powers that be here haven't been encouraging drinking - I suspect out of concern for the noble Maori, corrupted by the demon drink.  But anyway, in the present the NZ pub industry seems dead on it's feet... many establishments survive only by also serving as a betting shop, hardly a good way to attract a younger, family crowd - two of those I visit in Auckland are like this.  There are some micro breweries, and some 'English style' places, and the occasional gastropub - the Shakespeare, my pick in the city, ticks the first two of these boxes.  But often I've ended up going to liquor stores, odd places that mainly sell horrid alcopops, with the beer in a cold room at the back.

The walking?  Is nice, a pleasant stroll through the parks, cricket pitches and suburbs of Auckland, including a climb up Mount Eden, one of fifty or so extinct (probably) volcanoes the city is built around.  Then some easy, flat kilometres along various lagoons and estuaries, a bit of road walking including a visit to the airport, and I'm at Manukau for 7pm - forty-five kilometres done in eleven hours, not bad.

Ambury regional park.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

Te Araroa : Whangarei to Auckland

KM this section : 197
KM completed : 594

On the Mangawhai Heads cliff path.

Whangarei is some distance from the route, but I am able to get a bus some of the way, then it is just an eight kilometre walk along a highway busy with traffic for the nearby oil refinery - mainly logs for some reason.  In fact it is fine, indeed I'm enjoying the walking, which hasn't always been the case for the last week.  Partly my body getting used to it I guess, also I suspect my enforced cessation of smoking has got me down a bit.  But now I feel good, the pack seems lighter, and even walking past the oil refinery is fun.

The way continues, more beaches, some easy forest, and a pleasant cliff walk into Mangawhai Heads, where I relax in a holiday home for the night with some beer and fish and chips.  I'm getting into prime holiday / retirement home territory here, for sale boards are everywhere, much of the forest I walk through seems to be available in acre sections.  I think the lack of amenities might put me off, many of the settlements here don't even have a dairy (NZ for convenience store), let alone a pub.

Big beer in Puhoi.

Campsites are good around here mind you, with kitchens, BBQs and TV rooms as standard.  Beats the typical UK camping experience where you are lucky to get hot water.  Walking is good too, though I do manage to go the wrong way at one point - I was only looking at the orange arrows (well, and my footing) so missed a crucial junction.  Why the orange markers, reliable up to now, lead me off the wrong way I know not, but I recover and make it to Sheep World (oh yes) before dark.

Of course now I don't trust the markers and keep checking my GPS.  Predictably this causes the batteries to run out, and it's raining so not ideal for using the phone as backup.  Thankfully the arrows point truly today, towards the pub at Puhoi where I dry out and eat a huge burger.  More beach walking and more meat next day, I cook up some sausages on the campsite BBQ at Orewa.  So much meat.  I leave the two German lads who've been keeping pace with me at Orewa, they're having a day's break.  Suspect they will catch me up again.

D'you see what I did there?

From here it is a simple enough walk down the coast to Auckland, but there is one obstacle, the Okura river.  The guide says this can be waded at low tide, I arrive at what I think is a hundred minutes before it reaches the lowest point, that will be at 3.30pm.  With another eighteen kilometres to do I don't really want to wait.  Wading then... I don't get far before starting to lose touch with the bottom.  OK, ignore the map, there is a post upstream with a cross on it, maybe there?  I get further... one problem is, my rucksack with the drybag inside is acting as a flotation device.  I unbuckle the waist strap and carry on.  This time I'm nearly half way across when my feet cease to reach the bottom.  Ah, screw it... I swim on, bag holding me at the surface by the sternum strap.  It's not easy with the bag, my shoes on, and poles clutched in one hand, but I manage a sort of doggy paddle, and it's enough to get me the few metres needed.  And the drybag worked, reaching the far shore my electronics, and better yet my trousers, are dry.  From here it is easy going to Auckland, where I have a room waiting in a student hall of residence near the centre, but tonight a seaside campsite out in the suburbs is plenty far enough.

Photos to go with this post can be found here and here.

Te Araroa : Paihia to Whangarei

KM this section : 154
KM completed : 397

Handy having a small tent sometimes.

Paihia is really nice, and I am sorry to leave, still if I must then there are worse ways than a walk along the lovely bay of islands coast.  Oddly, after six kilometres or so the guide suggests I charter a boat up the inlet, this will cost me, plus any others I can rope in, a hundred dollars.  Well stuff that, I pay one dollar instead to take the vehicle ferry over to Okiatu (former capital of NZ, not much of a place now).  From there I walk along the charming (and well constructed!) Russell Walkway, and then onto roads.  Things go fine until I reach my planned camp spot - which turns out to be in a river, oops.  Well, the 'path' continues along the stream but I manage to scramble out and camp in the bush OK.

Footbridge from Pataua North to South.

The next few days seem to be mainly road, and I strike up a rhythm, basically walking during daylight hours, then pitching camp, cooking and sleeping.  For these are long days, not so much on paper, but every day there is some bush, and always it is a continual slog up and down vertiginous slopes.  Of course, this involves a fair amount of switchbacks, and I swear the route doesn't allow for them when calculating the distance.  Highlight of this section is Ngunguru, where I crash the local bowling club's Christmas dinner and have proper food, and beer.  I even pull a cracker!

Eventually I get back to the coast, is very pretty, and there is more beach walking, followed by a gruelling climb up Eagle Point Rock, then right down again to camp at Peach Cove.  So many steps...  then next day I walk around a bay until I reach a small jetty, from which, according to the guide, I should get a lift over the bay from a fisherman.  Well I am sure not swimming it, must be three kilometres at least.  No fishermen pass near.  A family does turn up to fish from the jetty, but they have no boat, and seem bemused by my presence.  I wave at distant boats to little effect.  Time passes.  The fishing family packs up and goes, and shortly after another turns up.  They also seem confused as to what I'm doing, and to be honest I'm starting to wonder myself.  Eventually they get the idea I am waiting for a boat, and tell me I have no chance of finding one... I curse the guide and head back to the road, nothing for it but to hitch a lift to Whangarei, where the nearest bridge is.  Too late to go any further, still at least there are pubs here.

Eagle Point Rock.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.