Orewa to Te Kuiti

Day 34-39
Km 0
Cumulative Km 451.5

I had a rest week in Auckland and had 2 Chiropractor appointments to try and help with the Achilles pain that I have had. No pain, no gain and both appointments were pretty sore, but helpful.

I did a fair bit of cooking at my aunt’s place, which was nice, with loads of vegetables and meat.

Day 40
28 November 2019
Km 16
Cumulative Km 467.5

My aunt took me to the Manukau bus station and I caught the bus to Hamilton central. It turns out that Moritz was arriving in Hamilton too, by foot and we decided to meet up in a cafe for lunch and coffee. Once we enjoyed our food , Moritz went to the shop to resupply and I waited for him.

We headed out approximately 13h30. I should mention that we started off at kilometre 759 of the trail, so I bussed a large section.

The walk to Whatawhata was pretty boring, a fair bit of roadways and the only highlight being the Arboretum. There was also a section through 2m high grass and thistles… not fun!

So the best part of the day was arriving at the only bar in town, they allow us to pitch tents for free , have a shower and use the toilets. We in turn had dinner and a couple of ciders. They went down great!

Day 41
Km 24
Cumulative Km 491.5

Today consisted of a walk along the river, which sounds pleasant enough but the trail was horrible, unkept, hard to follow. We had to crawl under electric fences and bypass a fenced off area where the track goes through but was the holding pen for about 10 bulls! This section was followed by a boring road section.

The last section of today was a flat, 2.5 km walk, close to the river. The track is wide, so is pretty easy. We got into Kaniwhaniwha Campsite at about 16h30.

Day 42
Km 8
Cumulative Km 499.5

Not many kilometres today, but they took 5 hours. The first 5km were not bad and through a pleasant forest. The last 3.5 km were much tougher. Very steep uphills with muddy sections. Luckily it hasn’t rained much for the last few days, so the mud was firmer than usual in many places. Thank goodness for this! The views of the whole area are great from the Pirongia Summit lookout. Passing the ferns and bushes near the top, I felt like a bull dozer pushing through as the vegetation is very thick. Often you cant see the trail .

A half hour walk from the summit is the hut we were staying in. Luckily we were the first to arrive, as during the afternoon it got completely packed with hikers- it was also a Saturday – so there were many overnight hikers.

Day 43

1 December 2019
Km 12
Cumulative Km 511.5

Miraculously it still hasn’t rained, which is such a big blessing for coming down this mountain!! I need to review my weather forecasting app as the last 2 days should have seen a fair bit of rain. We woke up, after not much real sleep, to a misty and cool morning.

The first part of the hike is along boardwalk and stairs to reach the Hihikiwi summit at 900m. The view is not for very far due to the mist.

We then commenced our descent, which of course is through a valley, so it’s a steep downhill, followed by a steep uphill and then all the way down very muddy, root covered goat tracks. The recommended time was 3-5 hours. Moritz did it in about 3.5 hours while myself and 2 new friends- Kiwis- Karen and Frances made it in 4.5 hours. This included pulling Karen out of knee deep mud!

The forest was a lovely moss covered one and has a lot of bird conservation projects happening. The trees near the summit are also visibly shorter than we have seen before due to the elevation.

It was great to be able to rinse mud off in the stream at the bottom of the climb. We then had lunch and headed off on 12.5km of road walking. We did about 7km when we were picked up by a local guy with a van to fit all 4 of us and packs in! This was great! So nice of him, and he even went out of his way to drop us off at the door of the trail angel where we were staying.

Cassey, our trail angel showed us around her property bit, we had toilet and hot shower and the best surprise was a home made pizza and beer. I swopped my beer for another piece of pizza 😉

Day 44
Km 30
Cumulative Km 542

Seeing that Cassey has chickens she was nice enough to share eggs with us and even left us a packet of strawberries with a Merry Christmas message on them!

Today’s plan was pretty ambitious, for me anyway. It was the longest day kilometre wide, bar on 90 Mile Beach, which was all flat of course. The plan was 32km. The day itself was pretty varied, between forestry roads, bush track and farm crossings. There were some very sticky, clay mud sections, probably more than we anticipated.

One of the very “TA” moments of the trail was when we had to cross 5 x pretty steep valleys across farmland just to make it to the airstrip which was at a very similar elevation to what we were at the start. The running joke always is… if there is a hill or mountain, then the TA trail WILL go over it!

There was a river crossing that we did, me in my hiking shoes which were already wet, though my feet did not love this decision. When I took them off at the end of an 11 hr day they were shrivelled and very sensitive. Lots of pain in the base of the foot.

But I diverge. The last few hours of the trail was a mixed horse riding and tramping trail which the horses destroy the clay mud through and make walking through harder than it should be. This trail intertwined with flat forest trail where horses were not allowed and was good walking… all bar a kilometre or so of a gorse tunnel. I have taken some photos so you can see how spiky this weed is.

Just after 6pm we hit the tar road into Waitomo. Moritz had worked himself up for a pizza, but we had a deal that if we got a hitch then we would go, if not then we would stay at a cheaper campsite just 1 5km out of town. A few cars passed with no luck, until a Maori lady and her daughter stopped and packed us into an already packed car! She even took us all the way to the YHA!

At the YHA I found out about a deal where one of the restaurants in the area does a free pick up and drop off, $ 15 buffet casserole, rice and potatoes and $5 beer, wine or cider. Winning!!

Day 45
Km 0
Cumulative Km 542

Today turned into a rest day for me as my soles of my feet were still very tender and sore. So I organised a bus ticket into Te Kuiti. 6 hours walk vs 15min by bus!

Moritz did the Waitomo Glow worm Caves Tour in the morning, then we met up for breakfast. He hit the trail at about 11am and I headed to a different cafe for another coffee. On my way down the road I spotted Karen and Frances with Ro and D. This was great as Frances had very sore ankles and camped at a flat area in the forest. Turns out she did further damage and sprained her ankle in the slippery clay too!! I told them about the bus and everyone grabbed a ticket and then we were off to grab food and coffee.

We stayed at a trail angel in Te Kuiti, 7 of us in total, so it was a full house! We took the opportunity to by and cook dinner and breakfast together, so that was great!