Punaruku to Whananaki

Day 19
Date 7 November
Km 17.7
Cumulative Km 246.3

The day started out with some proper breakfast- with the availability of eggs and bread , I wanted to make French toast. The Germans, never having had it before?!?!, looked on with interest and decided that they too were going to make some! They loved it!

Our walk started with an unexciting 12km road walk, though there was huge amount of oncoming traffic! We found out from some locals at Helena Bay, that everyone was going to see the arrival of a number of historical ships and Maori wakas- war canoes- that were headed to Waitangi. Unfortunately we had just been there and were missing out on this action.

We had an early lunch at a misty Helena Bay before starting the Helen Ridge trail. It was a good ,wide trail most times and also meandered, though mostly uphill, through kanuka and regenerating forest.

The uphills were tough! We made it to our camp at km 297.8, a clearing in the forest, at about 2pm. We discovered that there was very minimal water in the tank and went on rations.

I actually managed to sleep a few hours, which is good progress! We had a dry night, with drizzle just before we were due to get up, and thus had wet tents anyway. This after not actually having condensation on the inside of my tent for the first time in many weeks!

Day 20
Km 16
Cumulative Km 262.3

Today was another tough track- mainly due to big changes in elevation all the time. We dropped from near 300m to 0 when crossing a small stream a few times, back to 220m and quickly back down to sea level at Whananaki. Both the uphills and down hills were very steep. I can definitely feel my knees hurting from the braking… and the Achilles wasn’t delighted with the stretching on the uphills.

On arrival at the holiday park we were welcomed with a free soft drink… how lovely! Just for being TA walkers. We then found out that there was going to be a woodfired pizza evening happening. We could choose from some 12 toppings and build our own medium sized pizza. It was delicious and such a great way to be spoilt! One pizza only 7 NZD!! It was delicious, fresh and so good from the woodfired oven!

Whananaki is well known for having the longest footbridge in the southern hemispherehe- 500m. It’s in the photos below too. I decided to take some photos early as it may be raining tomorrow.