About the Hike

22km Day : 475km Total

From Mangawhai I walked the road SE through paddocks and a pine forest.  This was followed by a 3km beach walk to Te Arai Point.  There were a group of teenagers taking a surfing lesson when I arrived.

I stopped here for a short break at a picnic table.  Enjoying the ocean breeze, warm sun and the sound of the waves.  As I was leaving, a group of the surfers moved over to a 10m cliff and were jumping off of it into a deep natural pool at the edge of the ocean.

After a short walk over and around Te Arai Point I was back on the beach on my way to Pakiri Beach Holiday Park thinking it was to be an easy, short day.  But I soon started felling a sharp pain in my left shin.  By the time I reach the Holiday Park I was just limping along.  I will almost certainly take a Zero day tomorrow to give my leg a chance to recover.

28km Day : 453km Total

The day started with a 7km walk on gravel roads.  And then trails through forests and over grassy ridge lines that gave great views in all directions.

Then I came to a point in the trail with a tape across it that said, “Danger, Do Not Cross”.  My first thought was that I had taken a wrong turn.  I backtracked up the trail and found official trail makers, then took closer looks at the map and compared with gps readings.  Everything agreed that the “Danger” path was the right one.  So I went under the tape and 30m beyond it were track markers again.  Someone had also put a wooden barricade across the path here.  Apparently a local landowner is not happy that the trail passes adjacent to his property.  The tape cost me about 30 minutes of mucking around trying to figure out the right path.

After this was several kilometres of walking through hilly pastures.

And then a clifftop path along the coast.

This path led to Mangawhai Heads where I stopped at a cafe for a burger and fries.  And then continued on a well-developed path along the road to Mangawhai where I stopped at a Holiday Park for the night.

28km Day : 425km Total

This morning I wasn’t sure how early to expect the refinery workers at the boat ramp.  So I was ready and waiting before dawn (~5:30).  At 6:15 a man (Tony) driving a small tractor, pulling a boat arrived.  I asked if I could catch a lift with him and the first thing he said was, “One Hundred Dollars”.  I was speechless for a few seconds and then he smiled and said he’d be happy to give me a ride, no charge.  He wouldn’t even accept money for fuel when I offered it.  Note for other walkers:  you will get wet feet when getting in the boat, so be prepared wearing sandals or similar if you don’t want to get your hiking shoes soaked.  (Bare feet would be painful because it is very rocky.)  As we were pulling away from the ramp another tractor/boat combo was arriving.  Tony said that that boater would also have given me a ride.  The harbour was dead calm and it only took a few minutes to cross.

From the dock where I was let off there was a short walk up the pier and around to the beach.  Just up the beach there was a large dock that extended out to an oil tanker.  As I approached I could see a large warning sign, but it was mainly prohibiting vehicles from driving under.  I walked under it without setting off any alarms or being arrested.

I walked the beach near high tide so I was walking in soft sand most of the way.

Before reaching the Ruakaka estuary I took the road walk option around it because of the high tide making wading a poor option.  It turned into a good choice because there was a small cafe across from Bream Bay College where I stopped for a good flat-white and a sweet roll.  Much better than my original breakfast of a granola bar and a drink of water.

For the rest of the morning I had my mind set on the village of Waipu because two independent sources recommended the Waipu Pizza Barn for excellent pizza.

I arrived at Waipu at 1:30pm and found the Pizza Barn closed!  (Closed Mondays and Tuesdays prior to mid-December) A huge disappointment as I had spent a considerable part of the morning trying to decide on pizza toppings.  I ended up going up the street to an Indian restaurant for a Kebab.

It was another 90 minute walk down the road to Waipu Cove where I’m spending the night at the Holiday Park.

18km Day : 397km Total

The day started with completing the walk of Ocean Beach,

but it was dominated by the walk of Bream Head Track.  Imagine spending 5 hours at the gym on a stairmaster machine, then throw in amazing coastal views and it pretty much describes the experience of walking this track.

It was up and down steep tracks and built-in stairs all day.

At around 3pm I finished the track and emerged at Urquharts Bay.

The next task was to find a boater who would be willing to give me a ride across the harbour to Marsden Point. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and there were a lot of families around taking advantage of the great weather, but there were few boaters at this bay.   I continued around to Taurikura Bay where I met a kayaker who said he would have been happy to give me a ride across on his kayak earlier in the day, but now he had to go home.  He recommended catching a ride with a refinery worker at Reotahi Bay on Monday morning.  There are workers at the Marsden Refinery who live on this side of the harbour, and commute to work in their boats.

There is a Marine Reserve (Park) adjacent to the boat ramp, so near dark I found a reasonable spot to put up my tent for the night. The bad news for the day is that the face of my tablet computer has cracked.  I am writing the first draft of this post with pen and paper.

34km Day : 379km Total

At 7:30am I caught a ride out to the spot I left the trail at the intersection of Ngunguru & Ngunguru-Ford Roads.

It started with a short road walk, then onto a forestry trail.  This included two stream crossings, one almost knee deep and the other just above the ankles.

Then it was back to the roads, where I came across Bobby and Margaret, an American father an daughter hiking duo I first met in Kerikeri.  Margaret gave me the name and number of someone at McKenzie Bay than can help with a place to stay and a boat ride across the harbour if I have trouble finding a ride.  Before long I reached the town of Pataua, which is divided into North and South by a river with only a footbridge connecting them.

Two kilometres later I was at the Taiharuru Estuary.  When planning this part of the hike, for some reason I thought I would would be wading for 3km in waist deep water.  It turned out to be a lot less water and a lot more mud than I expected.  Since I was crossing at low tide it was mostly mud flats with a few shallow (knee deep) streams to cross.  The tricky part of this crossing is determining where to make the crossing.  The best way is to follow the west bank for a couple of kilometers until you see about 5 or 6 small white posts that make a line that crosses the estuary.  When you see these look to the right of them.  You will see a lone pine tree and a short (~3m) white-clay cliff.  Just to the right of these is where the trail resumes up the bank and onto a paddock.  I recommend picking up an extra litre of water when crossing one of the streams.  You will need this to clean the mud off of your shoes and legs after the crossing.  You won’t have any other way to clean it off for a while.  The photo below is looking back across the estuary after the crossing.

The next leg of the day’s hike was up to the top of Mount Kauri.  This was the only serious exertion of the day, but it was a pretty good workout to walk to the top, mostly on gravel roads and a nice section of trail.  The views were awesome.

Camping in the dunes of Ocean Beach tonight.

Zero Days

Whangarei has a nice downtown area with pretty much anything you could need or want.  I also discovered a pizza place north of CBD called “Hell”.  I ordered the “Envy” pizza.  But in spite of their clever theme, the pizza was merely okay.

The first Zero day was spent getting resupplied and replacing the broken trekking pole and the cap I lost in Herekino.  I also replaced my sunglasses that were being held together with duct tape.

I took the second Zero day for no particular reason, and spent the day eating junk food, taking a nap and seeing a movie at the cinema.

I’ve dropped into the Warkworth library to just give a quick blog update on their public computers.  The reason its been a while since I’ve updated the blog is because Ī cracked the face of my tablet computer on Day 21 so that only about 1/3 of the screen is now responsive to touch.  This makes it only a marginally useful brick in my backpack.  I’ve been recording my daily journal with pen and paper since then and expect to have them all posted in the next couple of days.

I’ve put a number of the photos from Day 1 on my Panoramio page.  This was just a test upload.  I will be mass uploading photos soon, and will put descriptions and placing them on the map as time allows.   http://www.panoramio.com/user/8355156

On a more serious note, I’ve developed a problem with my legs (stress fractures in the shins)  and will need to take an break from the hike to give them a chance to heal.  More on this in a future post.  It is not especially serious, but requires time to heal before returning to the trail so as not to aggravate the issue or make it more serious.

10km Day : 344.8 km Total
Today’s walk consisted entirely of a short road walk.  When I reached the point of the TA trail closest to Whangarei I detoured away from the trail and hitched into town for resupply.  A lot of hikers have a low opinion of the road walk sections, but I enjoy them almost as much as the other tracks, especially with the paddock views you get in NZ.  The only aspect of the road walks that can be an issue is when the road shoulders (a.k.a. margins) are narrow.  Today the roads had wide margins so it was a very pleasurable walk.

27km Day : 335km Total
The day started with a walk across the Whananaki Footbridge.

Soon after I crossed I noticed two other hikers crossing.  They turned out to be Chris and Tony, the Kiwi hikers who I’d met two other times since the start of the hike.  We hiked on and off together for the rest of the day. 
It was a beautiful day with a good mixture of different types of trails, thru paddocks, beaches, forests and roads. 

In Ngunguru I stopped at the Salt Air Cafe for an excellent pizza.  The manager of the cafe informed me that the Holiday Park where I was planning to stay had recently closed, and offered to give me a ride to the Holiday Park in Tutukaka when the cafe closed.  I thanked her and left this option open and went out to see what other options there might be in Ngunguru.  I almost immediately met Sharon and John who were planning to stay at a Bed & Breakfast whose owner is a big supporter of the TA trail and allows hikers to set up tents in his side yard.  So I joined them to stay the night there.

-35.513949, 174.453266
0km Day : 308km Total
I took a Zero day today for several reasons.  First of all my legs and especially my right knee were complaining from walking a hilly 73km over the previous 2 days.  Also, I needed to get a better handle on my daily hike planning.  Racing the setting sun makes for a good story, but it’s not the way I want the rest of the hike to go.  Also, it was raining this morning, which made the decision that much easier.
I spent half of the day sleeping and a lot of time looking at maps and track notes to get a good idea of what the next week will bring.  I also stopped at the small grocery next door, which is very well supplied with hikers in mind.  The day of rest did my legs a lot of good and my knee is no longer bothering me.
Tomorrow morning I set off for Ngunguru.

Below is a photo of Matthew with one of his carvings. His intent was to use the last 4 letters of the town name (Whananaki) and indicate that the hikers that stay there arrive “knackered”. But the hikers that he shows it to tend to read it in a different way.

Matthew and Tracy take photos of every TA hiker that stay at their park. They told me I was #60 so far this year.