About the Hike

23km Day : 548km Total
15 January 2015
-41.20274, 174.031773

Today I left camp a little before 8am.  I had only a minimal breakfast (granola bar) before leaving with the idea of stopping around 10am to brew up some oatmeal and coffee.  For those first couple of hours the track was mostly uphill and I struggled to keep a good pace.  Attributing this to my reduced hiking fitness from the 6 week break I took.

As I got ready to make oatmeal I realized my spork was inside a sack inside a sack (repeated phrase intended) near the bottom of my backpack and I wasn’t in the mood to completely empty my pack to get at it.  Especially since there were a lot of other people around to witness such foolishness.  So to avoid eating oatmeal with my fingers I opted for an OSM Bar and a granola bar, washed down with 2 cups of instant coffee sweetened with sugar packets “acquired” from a cafe in Wellington.  The modified breakfast with the extra coffee did the trick, because for the rest of the day I was able to keep a good pace. Lunch was salami and cheese on pita bread.  Dinner was salami on pita (the cheese was starting to smell ripe), two packets of ramen noodles and hand full of nuts and raisins.

I saw heaps of other trampers on the trail today.  All of them were day-hikers staying at lodges at nights between sections of the trail and having all of their luggage transported by boat from lodge to lodge.

As a side amusement I’ve been counting Wekas as I hike.  Two seen yesterday and eleven seen today.  Two of them are probing around my tent as I type this, to see if I left anything edible in reach.  The current Weka count is 13.

23km Day : 548km Total
15 January 2015
-41.20274, 174.031773

Today I left camp a little before 8am.  I had only a minimal breakfast (granola bar) before leaving with the idea of stopping around 10am to brew up some oatmeal and coffee.  For those first couple of hours the track was mostly uphill and I struggled to keep a good pace.  Attributing this to my reduced hiking fitness from the 6 week break I took.

As I got ready to make oatmeal I realized my spork was inside a sack inside a sack (repeated phrase intended) near the bottom of my backpack and I wasn’t in the mood to completely empty my pack to get at it.  Especially since there were a lot of other people around to witness such foolishness.  So to avoid eating oatmeal with my fingers I opted for an OSM Bar and a granola bar, washed down with 2 cups of instant coffee sweetened with sugar packets “acquired” from a cafe in Wellington.  The modified breakfast with the extra coffee did the trick, because for the rest of the day I was able to keep a good pace. Lunch was salami and cheese on pita bread.  Dinner was salami on pita (the cheese was starting to smell ripe), two packets of ramen noodles and hand full of nuts and raisins.

I saw heaps of other trampers on the trail today.  All of them were day-hikers staying at lodges at nights between sections of the trail and having all of their luggage transported by boat from lodge to lodge.

As a side amusement I’ve been counting Wekas as I hike.  Two seen yesterday and eleven seen today.  Two of them are probing around my tent as I type this, to see if I left anything edible in reach.  The current Weka count is 13.

25km Day : 525km Total
14 January 2015
-41.127954, 174.147356

This morning I caught an 8am water taxi from Picton to Ship Cove.  During the ride 3 dolphins followed for a short time alongside the boat.  After two other stops I was dropped off at 9:15.  Ship Cove is the place where Captain Cook first set foot on land after discovering New Zealand.  I stopped for about 5 or 10 minutes to check out the monument to Captain Cook before starting my way up the trail.

The Queen Charlotte Track is the most developed part of the Te Araroa trail I’ve walked so far.  The views were awesome when the trail offered views of the bays and coves.  As an experiment, I created a video that I hope gives an indication of what the trail and the views it offered were like.

Tonight I’m staying at the DoC campground at Camp Bay.  Getting  into the tent was almost like returning home.  Once inside, its comfortable and familiar with all or my gear arranged the same way around me, no matter where the tent is actually located.

13 January 2015

The last several days were spent in Wellington preparing to resume the hike.  I really like the city of Wellington. It has a more relaxed feel to it than Auckland does.  It’s a lot like what I would consider a college town in the US. It also has a very nice waterfront district on Lambton Harbour. Contrary to my common practice for cities in New Zealand I did not eat any pizza while I was there. But I did eat in several pubs and restaurants of which there are many good ones to choose from.

Cuba St

Lambton Harbour

Today I took the ferry from Wellington to Picton.  It was nearly a 4 hour ride that I spent enjoying the views, eating a late lunch and reading a book.  During the trip the clouds cleared away and it became a very nice afternoon to spend on the deck of the ferry.

My Ride

I arrived in Picton at 5:30 this evening. Giving me just enough time to stop at the visitors center before it closed, to arrange for a water taxi to Ship Cove. While I was there I also purchased a pass for the Queen Charlotte track, which is the only portion of the hike that requires a pass.  I will be taking the 8 a.m. water taxi to Ship Cove tomorrow, which is where the south island portion of the Te Araroa trail starts.

Picton

11km Day : 500km Total
11 JAN 2015

After 6 weeks of resting my legs and sitting on my butt, I’ve returned to the trail.  As can be seen from the title of the post I have not returned to the point where I left.  Since there is no longer enough time for me to complete a thru-hike, I’ve become a section hiker.  The section I walked today is Wellington’s City to Sea Track, which took me through various parks in Wellington down to Te Araroa’s Southern terminus of the North Island.

I given a lot of thought to how I want to continue the hike of New Zealand.  For the first couple of days after my shins gave out, I strongly considered just ending the hike.  But after allowing the initial disappointment to subside and after some suggestions from a good friend, I’ve decided to continue the hike on the South Island, with the thought that I can return to complete the missed North Island portions over the next several years in sections.

My frame of mind has changed considerably since the day I arrived at Reinga Lighthouse.  I plan to take a more measured pace with longer rests as I continue the hike.  It is likely that I will also take side trips along the way. This may mean not making it all the way to Bluff by April, but this is no longer a priority for me, as long as I can enjoy the hike and continue without additional injuries.

I’ll be taking the ferry across to Picton on Tuesday.  Today’s short hike was a test of my legs (which held up well) and a test of my frame of mind to determine if I’m mentally ready to get back on the trail.  For some reason it has been more difficult to mentally prepare for the return to the hike than it was to begin it in the first place.  The excitement is still there, but it is a gear lower than it was the first time around.

Below are a few more photos from today’s walk.

I’ve completed a bulk upload of nearly 300 photos from the hike to my Panoramio account.  Over the next few weeks I will add comments and locate them on the map (they are not geotagged).  Once I’ve placed them on the map they will also be visible as Google Earth photos.

The photos are currently in reverse order of when they were taken.  I will see about rearranging them in the order they were taken during the hike.  The last two photos are from Australia, uploaded as a test when I opened the account.

The shins continue to improve and are only painful when I do random specific things, like point my toes, or make quick stops when walking, or try to sit down or stand up without using my hands to take most of the weight.  I expect to be back on the trail during the first or second week of January.

After staying in Warkworth for 4 days and Auckland for another 3 days, I am back in Sydney.  My shins still have a dull ache but  are no longer painful to the touch.  It will take some time to get them back into hiking shape, as putting any stress on them is still painful, and just pointing my toes creates sharp pain in my shins.  I have gotten to the point where I can (slowly) walk about a kilometre without significant pain, so a least I am mobile now.  But I will stay off of my feet as much as possible for the next couple of weeks.

The plan now is to wait until January to return to New Zealand to continue the hike.  But it will depend on how quickly my legs recover.  With this much time off of the trail it is clear that I will not be able to complete a pure thru-hike, so I will need to revise my hiking plans.  I’ve got a few weeks to think about it, but I will probably become some variation of a section hiker.  An option I’m considering is to skip ahead to hike the South Island, but as I said, I’ve got some time to think about it, so my plans are not yet set in stone.

14km Day : 489km Total

I started the day with an ache in my left shin, but I have walked with worse pain, so I was not too concerned.  After a short road walk I began to climb up through steep pastures where the first steady, prolonged rain of my hike began to fall.

As I entered the Tamahunga Track through the Omaha Forest my left shin began to hurt more and an ache was now developing in my right shin.  This along with the rain making the track muddy and slippery began slowing me down.  For a while, walking along the ridge in the low cloud layer did not give much view to appreciate.  It was pretty much a screen of white and gray for anything more than 100m distant, until the cloud layer lifted and the rain stopped.  The notable features along the trail were a helicopter landing pad and a weather satellite station.

Toward the end of this track the walking became difficult with narrow muddy paths on steep side slopes (memories of Herekino).  I was very glad to see the DoC sign and stile over the fence to Matakana Valley Road.  The rain had also stopped so I used this opportunity to clean the mud from my rain pants and have a late lunch.

This track took me much longer than I expected due to the rain and the pain in my legs.  From there it was a 3km road walk to the steps up to the Dome Track on Govan-Wilson Rd.

It was now 3pm, and looking at the map and considering the increasing pain in my legs, I realize I was unlikely to reach an acceptable, legal camping spot before dark.  The decision became clear that I had to retreat back down the roads I had just walked and hitchhike to Matakana Village and get a ride into Warkworth from there for a reasonable place to stay.

There was no traffic on Gavan-Wilson, but when I got back to Matakana Valley Road I got a ride immediately going all the way to Warkworth.  Tonight the pain in my legs is so bad I can barely walk.  I will need to take some extended time off from the hike to allow my legs to completely recover.

Zero Day

As expected I took the day off from hiking to allow my shin a chance to recover.

I contacted “Lookout” Lance in Puhoi for a place to stay Saturday night and Kayak rental on Sunday for the river trip to Wenderholm.  High tide Sunday is not until 2:30pm, so I will have all morning to spend in Puhoi.  There is a street market on Sundays in Puhoi. Exploring this should be a pleasant way to spend the morning while waiting for the tide to allow me to kayak to Wenderholm.

The shin is better today than it was last night.  But there is still an ache when I walk and it is painful to the touch.  I will reevaluate it in the morning and if there is improvement I will continue on the trail tomorrow.