Quadruple digits
Days 40-44, Waitomo to Taumarunui
Ngā mihi nunui o te tau hou, e te whānau!
I’m currently lying on a lawn in Taumarunui, feeling the rumblings of livestock trucks as they roll on past. People seem relaxed here and in full summer mode. It’s hard to believe that, as of yesterday, I’m now one-third of the way (distance-wise) through this little adventure.
Just a quick note to say that I’ll be out of reception for a bit over the next couple of weeks, so I’ll post a bumper blog when I get the chance.
DAY 40 - Waitomo caves to Te Kuiti (15km)
I spent the last day of 2020 walking into Te Kuiti. The only memory I have of the town prior to this is sharing a deep fried Moro bar with my sister on a road trip when we were kids. Though the day was short distance-wise, the morning’s walk felt relentless as we followed the lines of hilly farm fences. There’s an app called Guthook in which walkers can add comments on particular sections of the trail. Some previous walkers had commented on the ferocious bulls in this part, which thankfully we missed out on.
In Te Kuiti I satisfied my weeks-long craving for a flat white and then went over to Sue, my trail angel’s place, located conveniently right behind the New World there. Sue was still at work as I arrived but her mother welcomed me in and I set up my tent. Next stop: resupply! In typical fashion I bought way too much food (history never repeats?) but knew it was necessary and would be eaten in no time at all.
At Sue’s place I met a vivacious Italian man called Roberto. He had just been kayaking down the Whanganui river and was making his way back up. Roberto, if you’re reading this, it was a pleasure to meet you and thank you for walking me off in the morning! Sue made me feel very at home and I watched a bit of TV before heading bedwards. Being New Year’s Eve, I was expecting to not get much sleep. Apart from a few fireworks, the neighbourhood was quiet and I got a decent sleep.
DAY 41 - Te Kuiti to Mangaokewa Reserve honesty box campsite (25km)
Sue warned me in the morning that the next section would take 7-8 hours and is not often maintained. Taking everyone’s comments about this section with a grain of salt (one walker said the trail seemed to have been built by a ‘psychopath’) I decided to take it easy and see what the day brought.
The first 3km was a gentle track along the Mangaokewa river and transported me to a track near my uncle’s place in Philadelphia. The forest had a distinctly North American feel to it. Once the track crossed over to the Mangaokewa Reserve, the track got... interesting. Overall this is a beautiful reserve and I enjoyed the ever-changing terrain. That said, there were more than a handful of laughable, if not super dodgy sections of the trail. Over the 15km I encountered gorse tunnels, hidden mud bogs, tightrope-like single tracks sidling the river, and person-high grass.
The funniest part was the point where an orange triangle pointed up an almost-vertical hill which I guess we were expected to find our own way up to the top of (see photo below). I felt like I was scaling a mountain with my poles. I somehow found a marker at the top and after a few wrong turns I finally made it on to the track again, dipping into a shady eucalyptus forest. With 2km of farm road walking to go, I powered onwards grateful that the hardest part was behind me.
The sign on the roadside depicting a little tent was a beautiful sight. The campsite had been set up by local landowners for TA walkers and had a shelter, water, tent spaces, a long drop, and washing powder, and a visitor’s book. It was fun to read walkers’ reactions to the trail we had all come from. I set up my tent, washed the caked mud off my body, counted the gorse scratches on my arms and legs (too many to count), finished my book, and then made dinner. Soon after, Baggins and DiCaprio arrived, equally as (un)amused by the trail as I was.
DAY 42 - honesty box to start of the Timber Trail (37km)
The drizzle set in pretty late in the morning as I pitter-pattered along the road with it. There was a distinct change in scenery from the past few days, with huge boulders and hilly farmscapes running parallel to the road. I recognised this distinctly as the heart of the King Country. I feel as though I’m getting faster on flat roads without relying on a shot of peanut butter to boost me through the day. A few podcasts and a rumbling tummy later, I took refuge under a tree for a lunch break and DiCaprio and Baggins soon caught up to me.
The rain settled and I trucked onwards to state highway 30 for the next 11km. It had been a while since we’d walked on busy roads, so I had to re-adjust my focus and get used to walking on the slippery road shoulders. I passed a slaughterhouse right opposite a marae, which was a strange contrast. The trail app suggested the river right beside the meat works as a ‘possible water source’ but I personally don’t like remnants of dead animals in my drinking water.
Holding out for my next muesli bar, I started counting the white road markers on the die of the road. It took approximately 1 minute to walk between each of them, but I actually don’t know what importance that holds of why you would even remotely care. Seeing the sign for the Pureora forest turnoff replenished my energy and I picked up the pace for the last 4km. I briefly called home but the reception was patchy. It’s amazing, though, how much hearing your family’s and friends’ voices even for a second can change your motivation levels. Every step taken on this trail is one step closer to seeing Dad on the Whanganui river journey, Maike in Palmerston North, Sarah in Paekakariki, all my Wellington whānau and Nyla, my beautiful dog.
I love it when the timing of the weather and setting up camp is perfect. Just as I’d set up camp at the Ngaherenga campsite, it started raining. Hard. with my limited reception and data I checked the weather for the next few days. Turns out there was a severe weather warning for the central north island, and this was it. My tent started dripping inside and my problem-solving instincts kicked in again, just as they did at Apple Dam in the Northland Forests when my tent broke. I set up my little drying system and all was well, if a little damp, in my whare for the night.
DAY 43 - start of timber trail to Piropiro campsite (40km)
I slept surprisingly well until I was woken up to a chorus of about 300 mosquitoes at 5am, serenading me on the fly of my tent. Nature’s alarm clock! They must have known it was going to be a long day and wanted to make sure I left bright and early. It was indeed early, but not bright, as I entered into the ancient podocarp forests of towering kahikatea at 6.30am. It gradually lightened up but the mist lingered.
The Timber Trail, as I recently learnt, is a popular 84km-long biking trail that winds through the Pureora Forest. It’s well maintained which made for easy walking - by far the best maintained track on the walk so far. The TA diverges and takes walkers up an extra 200m to the summit. This track is not quite as maintained which meant I got drenched scrambling through the wet plants on either side of me. It was bitterly cold at the top,m with no views. The track down was even more overgrown, but soon returned down to the fancy bike path.
I stopped for lunch after the first big suspension bridge and basked in what would be the last bit of sun for the day. It began to drip, then drizzle, then pour, and by the time I got to Piropiro campsite (a basic DOC campground) the grounds were flooded. Luckily, DOC had been so kind as to provide shelters for us . I chose not to go up to the Timber Trail Lodge 500 metres away (there all the wealthier bikers stayed) for pizza and free wifi, as I didn’t want to disturb my discomfort.
A couple who were also camping at the site soon came over and kindly gave us newspaper, a yoghurt little of diesel, some beer (not to be confused with the diesel) and some wood to start a fire with. They’d been camping for a week and were so friendly.
Baggins had reserved a bike for me to ride the second half of the trail in case I wanted that option. I took the offer up; at this point I welcomed a change of pace and scenery. I somehow managed to find a a dry-ish spot to pitch my tent in a mini forest and crawled inside to read Elton John’s autobiography.
DAY 44 - Piropiro campsite to Taumarunui (70 km cycling, 5 km walking)
The bikes were delivered to a slightly fancier campsite across from ours at 9.30. We had a leisurely morning drying out our tents and then set off for our bike trip. We’d got the big climb out of the way the day before, so it was mostly downhill from here. It turns out my dog’s vet was staying at the fancy campsite. We smiled at each other awkwardly, the sort of ‘I think I know you from somewhere’ look. We then hopped on our bikes and zoomed off to Taumarunui.
It took a while for us to get used to the art of mountain biking, but overall it was a welcome relief to be using our bodies in a different way. The inner Wellington cyclist came out of me on those uphill climbs, but I had less fun on the juddery downhills. The walkers-turned-bikers I was with couldn’t believe I enjoyed the climbs but not the descents. We went over some amazing bridges and through diverse bushy landscapes. There’s a point called the Ongarue Spiral, which is where the trail turns and goes under itself. That added a bit of thrill to the ride. Just before the spiral, Baggins stopped and took a photo. We’d reached the 1000km mark - one third of the distance through our hīkoi! It’s still sinking in.
The road from the end of the Timber Trail to Taumarunui went by in a flash. Soon, we were sitting in the Taumarunui Macdonald’s waiting for the rest of the group to join us. I don’t frequent Maccas enough to know if it’s common across all the ones in Aotearoa, but the signs in this one were bilingual, using both Te Reo Māori and Te Reo Pākehā.
We had 4km to walk from the town centre to our accommodation for the night, the place where we are hiring our canoes for the Whanganui river journey from. Apparently they deliver fresh bread and coffee to you in the morning. As soon as I walked up the drive, a group of paddlers who had just been on the river for 4 days waved and welcomed me into their gathering. One kind man gifted me with fresh fruit, carrots and sunflower seeds. I’d later learn he was a keen ultramarathon runner and so I guess he knew the importance of god food as fuel. I hadn’t eaten such a sweet, crunchy carrot in a long time. I had a wonderfully warm outdoors shower as the sun set, then spent the rest of the evening chatting and laughing with this group of lovely people.
My shoes and socks are getting holes in them and I’m beginning to think more and more about the coming weeks (Wellington, here I come!) That said, there are a few challenging bits of the trail yet to come: the Tongariro crossing, the Whanganui river journey, and the Tararua ranges. Oh, and then all of Waipounamu, the South Island. It almost feels as if this last month has been a warm-up to the more epic adventures that lie ahead. I’m trying to take each moment as it comes and not worry about things too much.
Mood: a little overwhelmed by the next stretch, but edited to see dad next week and Maike the week after!
Currently reading: Me by Elton John
Distance walked (and now cycled): 1034km
