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.