Mountains calling

Days 58-64, Whanganui to Gable End Junction

Right, now where did we get to? It seems there is a lot to catch up on, so let’s get straight to it! This post begins at the sea and moves into the mountains. It’s sort of a part one to the Tararua ranges, the adventures of which you can find in the next post.

So, Dad and I had just finished the river journey and had made our way into Whanganui, a city that grows on me every time I visit. But to paraphrase John Muir, the mountains and Palmerston North were calling and I must go.

DAY 58 - Whanganui to Koitiata (36km)

In the morning Dad and I walked to the bus station to see him off back to Wellington, but first we bumped into Marianne on Victoria Street. She’d just come off the river too, but had walked most of the way and was looking to buy new shoes. I’d love to return to walk the Whanganui River section one day. The trail climbs to the lookout at Drurie hill before an exciting 30km of road walking for the rest of the day — some country roads, some State Highway 3. I knew a storm was brewing and, sure enough, the erratic weather began just as I left the suburbs. The relentless northwesterly propelled me both forwards and sideways, and for the whole day, sunshine alternated with the odd rain cloud bucketing down. The four-seasons-in-a-day reminded me I was inching closer to Wellington, home.

I walked past a pen full of sheep ready to be picked up for slaughter. As I crossed the driveway, the transport truck driver gave way to me. I raised my hand to say thanks, but I regret not stopping in the driveway and refusing to let him through or opening the pen gate. State Highway 3 was a pretty dangerous stretch, probably the most unsafe I've felt so far because of the no-existent shoulder and wide Fonterra milk trucks whizzing past. To make matters more unpleasant, I had to walk an extra 3km down the to avoid the Turakina river crossing at high tide. At lunchtime I texted my friend Shannon to say hi. It turns out she had just driven past me and only realised a little later on before it was to late to stop! Classic Aotearoa—it’s rather small.

I finally got off the busy highway and turned into the 8km stretch that took me to Koitiata. The weather was being just as Jekyll and Hide-y as before, and the tailwind became a headwind. The rain kept bucketing down whenever it felt like it, but I got good at spotting the rain cloud behind me and bracing for the downpour. After a lengthy busy road walk, it was time to listen to some podcasts.

Koitiata, my destination for the night, is sleepy cluster of baches along Turakina Beach with an active residents association who have installed surveillance cameras and posters everywhere reminding everyone to pick up their dogs’ poo. I seemed to be the first and only person to arrive at the campsite that evening, so I had the facilities all to myself. I was impressed with the reading material provided in the kitchen shelter, including tourist brochures for just about every region in Aotearoa. I spent the evening learning about Hawke’s Bay and Whanganui and Nelson and Taranaki. The reception was patchy but I managed to call my sister and parents, too.

It rained all night.

DAY 59 - Koitiata to Bulls (34km)

The morning started with a 14km moody beach walk through a driftwood cemetery. It felt like the somber version of Te Oneroa-a-Tohe / 90 Mile Beach. I listened to waiata while plodding along to the rhythms. I switched to new shoes in Whanganui, so my feet were still getting used to them. I think they were mourning the loss of my first pair which sadly got too hole-y to wear (it’s amazing how deep one’s relationship to a pair of shoes can get). The GPS line on the map ended up being different to the actual trail. As luck would have it I looked up just at the right time to see a Te Araroa marker veering off the beach, I followed it into a creepy pine forest that looked like it was straight out of a fairy tale. I was expecting Hansel and Gretel to skip around the corner. It was a relief to be off the beach, and the sun even shone for the whole duration of the forest walk.

Nothing is permanent, however, and I was soon back on the quiet country roads again. Just as I was wilting a little (it was almost lunch time), I found a song that was a perfect tempo to strut to and lift my energy. I had lunch, went through the cycle of being drenched and then re-heated repeatedly, until I got to Bulls where my trail angels for the night, Jo and Mike, lived. I had a cosy hut to myself that evening. Mike made a joke about me being vegan (‘so you only eat grass?’) and Jo made roast vegetables for me, after trying to catch one of her canaries who had just escaped. Their kids were awesome and showed me around their big property.

DAY 60 - Bulls to Palmerston North (47km)

I’d been dreaming about this day for quite a few weeks now: I was going to meet my friend Maike half way in Feilding today. She’d bus in and we’d walk to Palmy together. I left early from Bulls to make it to Feilding in time to give her a big hug as soon as she stepped off the bus.

On my way out of Bulls, I saw the first road sign for Wellington, which was a sure sign I was heading in the right right direction. Most of the walk to Feilding was on quiet unassuming country roads and I was passed by the occasional car. The weather was still patchy but I’d rather it be now than before on the river, or after in the mountains. I’d heard that Feilding has been voted most beautiful town 16 times, so I had high expectations of the place. Friendly Feilding is indeed a charming town, and I found a cafe there to wait in before the momentous event of the day: meeting Maike. The rain hammered down hard as I sat sipping my flat white and offending customers’ nostrils with my tramper stench. I’m sure they could all smell it but were too polite to say anything. The Dominion Post (Wellington’s newspaper) was on the table of the cafe, which made home feel even closer.

Maike’s bus soon arrived and out she came. It was wonderful to see her in person after two months and that she could join for a pretty decent 27km stretch of Te Araroa with me. We got some sushi before heading off to the bustling metropolis of Palmerston North. Time whizzed by as we caught up and Maike experienced the joys of TA road walking. It wasn’t all road; there were snippets of grassy trail and even a stream crossing to keep things interesting. Maike is quite the cow whisperer so I felt extra safe when we walked through a field of them together. When the mama cow came towards us, Maike clapped and the mama stopped in her tracks. Why couldn’t Maike have been with me at every cow paddock crossing?

A few kilometres later we reached the industrial outskirts of the city, but still had a little while to walk yet. At this stage I was getting tired and my feet began to ache. It was interesting walking through suburbs I’ve heard about but know nothing of, really. At last, we reached the river with 6km to go until Maike’s home. The river was pleasant and its familiarity made the sore legs and feet a little less sore. As soon as we got to the turn-off to Maike’s place, I stopped and realised we hadn’t had a break for a while. I ate some peanut butter for an energy boost, and then we were off on the home stretch. Maike made me nachos while I did a load of overdue washing. The soft carpet under my feet could not have been in more contrast to the pavements my feet had become so attuned to over the last few days. We watched the documentary My Octopus Teacher together, which reminded me of just how incredible animals are.

DAY 61 - Rest day in Palmerston North (0km)

This was the best rest day so far. Whenever I visit Maike we have a day-long Scrabble tournament. Naturally, Maike won both games, but I had no hope that I’d win anyway because Maike with her game-brain always wins. Through the day I ate 2 bagels with peanut butter and jam, a combo I’d been sorely missing on the trail. The only walking I did was when we went shopping for my resupply which felt a little different this time as I was buying food for nine days, the longest stretch yet. Back at home, I updated my blog which took ridiculously long because I almost deleted the draft but luckily we saved it. Phew! Maike had the genuis idea od making (vegan) hot dogs for lunch. They were delicious.

We spent the evening trying to squish everything in my pack. My pack was horrendously heavy the first time I packed all the food (a common diemma) so Maike sang waiata on her ukulele while I harmonised intermittently and frantically re-packed. To unwind a bit, we watched a bit of Netflix, me soaking up the last of the home comforts before the next adventure began.

DAY 62 - Palmerston North to Te Whare o Moturimu (31km)

Maike dropped me off at Te Ara Kotahi bridge in the morning before she headed off to do real-life things like washing and school meetings. As soon as I set foot across the bridge, I saw two packs with legs walking towards the bridge who soon caught up to me. They were Hannah from Canada and Jenni from Ireland, two lovely walkers who were part of a bigger group I’d heard were one day ahead of me. I appreciated that their packs were as big and as not-ultra-light as mine. As I was beginning to think that having an ultralight pack was the norm on this trail.

I thought I might meet up with the group on this stretch as it’s common for walkers to wait out any bad weather in Palmerston North before heading into the Tararua Ranges. I got to know Hannahand Jenni a bit better as we walked out of Palmy, and we soon fell into our own walking paces. The track went through pleasant walkways out the southern end of the city. There was some farmland, but I was surprised at how much bush track there was. The Manawatū section of Te Araroa is by far the most well signposted of all sections. Even the notes were meticulously detailed, so there was no way we’d be getting lost here.

The rest of the day’s walk was mainly along 4WD track heading into the northern tip of the Tararua Forest Park. At around lunchtime, we met another walker called Mark (a New Zealander who’d been living in many countries before coming back). It’s amazing how, after weeks of walking alone, I was suddenly merging and putting faces to names I’ve heard on the trail. We eventually got to the beautiful shelter, built by volunteers in 2019 in the style of a marae. The hut had two recently published magazines to offer as reading material (always judge a place by its reading material) and a platform for 6 people to sleep on. I chose to set up my tent around the side. We were sharing the camping spot with the Search and Rescue team holding a training weekend and joked amongst ourselves that we could be test subjects for them in the Tararua Ranges (while hoping of course that we would not need their amazing service).

After we’d all had our dinner, the rest of the group of eight trickled in. They’d only left Palmy at 12pm - maybe they loved the city so much they didn’t want to leave? So many new people to meet! Just as I went to bed, the rain kicked in and poured down sporadically for the rest of the night.

DAY 63 - Te Whare o Moturimu to Tokomaru shelter (14km)

It’s never a fun feeling to wake up to buckets of rain splattering on your tent fly. I took a while to dare to sit up and peer out to the rainy outside world. With no choice but to seize the day, I packed up my things in the rain and headed off with Mark who was also ready to go. The 4WD track climbed steadily until we reached the turnoff go Burtton’s Track, a trail that James Burtton built as he lived in the bush for 33 years (and tragically died while building a bridge). There were many river crossings in this section, and with the rain I was anticipating some strong flows, but luckily none were too high. We passed the site where his whare was located. This instilled gratitude in me for his efforts to create this track.

After 4 hours of sploshing around, we arrived at the Tokomaru Shelter just in time for lunch. Like the previous one, it was built in 2019 for TA walkers by volunteers. Unlike the previous one, this was more cowshed-style. We spent the rest of the afternoon cosily crowded (and definitely not physically distanced) in the shelter, reading and chatting, napping and laughing, and grateful we weren’t outside getting drenched in the pouring rain.

DAY 64 - Tokomaru shelter to Gable End junction (27km)

The plan was to walk to the Makahika outdoor pursuits centre, which was about 18km away. I got up early and walked straight into a puddle on the way to the long drop of which the door didn’t close properly. It really set me up well for the day. Setting off by myself, I left into the mist past a reservoir and the official sign that marked the Tararua Forest Park. The Makahika track started off as a slippery muddy forest, which was easily recognisable as Tararua forest - goblin moss trees and dense canopy overhead. I was surprised at how dark the forest became at times despite it being mid-morning. I soon caught up with Jenni and trucked on up to the first of two lookouts, which afforded no views whatsoever — or another way of looking at it, a large white canvas upon which to imagine my own view.

On the way down I met a woman with a two dogs, which excited me a lot. What felt like a thousand river crossings later, I popped out at a pleasant campsite and was glad to see that, after two days of bland weather, the sun was making an appearance in the sky. I was soon joined by a few other walkers who passed me heading straight for the outdoor pursuits centre a few kilometres down the track.

After my two peanut butter wraps (my culinary standards have plummeted since starting this walk) I traversed some farmland to meet the others at the centre. Mark told me about an alternative route we could take, which John at the pursuits centre had told him about. It went up to South Ohau Hut via a 5km upstream river walk. I was initially in two minds about it because I’m not the most confident around rivers, but thought it could be a good idea to make progress while the sun shone and shorten the next day’s walk.

So, Mark, Genevieve and I said bye to John’s hospitality and free wifi and continued on to the start of the ‘real’ foothills of the ranges. A couple of hours later at around 5pm, we got to the start of the South Ohau River trail. The river was fast, loud, and looked deep in some parts. After crossing the first bit, my gut told me not to continue and instead camp at a sheltered spot I’d eyed up earlier just up from the river. Mark and Genevieve were both feeling safe and energetic, so I departed from them there, re-crossed the river, and set up camp for the night. It was one of the best night I’ve had of wildercamping. There was no wind and I was proud and glad I listened to my instincts about not going on. This meant I could also walk up the ridge on the official TA trail the next day, and as someone who loves climbing hills, I was pretty excited about that.