Map

Here is the map:

https://onthegomap.com/s/ki0p37t4

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(Short?) Summary

Saturday 03rd December

After a hearty breakfast, we jumped in the car and Ian drove us to Till’s Lookout, a park on the outer skirts of H-town. We were slack-packing out of Hamilton with Karen and Ian picking us up later to stay at theirs for one more night before we leave forever. We did joke about just coming back to Hamilton everyday though.

At Till’s Lookout, we met Reid’s cousin Nathan, along with Nathan’s friend Jonah. Both were cool dudes. Jonah certainly knew all about outdoor gear. He quizzed us as we walked along, though that may have been his natural journalistic instincts. Cool guy for sure, as well as Nathan. Nathan brought along these absolute mean (that’s Kiwi speech for “good”. Much like “peak” is London speak for “bad”) brownies. Made to perfection. We got the recipe off of him later.

We buzzed along. First along some paths and tracks, through very family friendly forests, before embarking through cow fields. So many stiles! We were blocked at one point by some big ones, so we had to make a little diversion. It worked out, except for the muddy muddy shoes!

We eventually got into Whatawhata where we saw our first TA road sign put up by the council. It was kinda warming sight to see. We posed beside it, of course.

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From Whatawhata we walked through some more fields. Quick aside, Kiwis don’t use the word “field” for anything agricultural, only in the sporting sense. Instead, they use “paddocks” – they have paddocks of wheat etc.. Madness.

This then transformed into the Old Mountain road and we made our way along, it slowly changing from a sealed surface to loose gravel by the end. We also met Nas here too and she was surprised to see us too, but it was lovely for sure.

The last push of the day was through some amazing limestone hills, looking like somewhere out of Rohan for sure. Or maybe Ithilien. That was cool, real nice walking with some great company. We saw some daywalkers too.

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We eventually made it down through a forest and through some more cow fields (at which point Jonah demonstrated his uncanny ability to talk to cows) and headed out to where we were going to be picked up by Ian and Karen. Whilst we waited, there was a close by, closed down fertiliser factory thing which we adventured around.

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That night, when we got back to Reid’s parents, we got some Indian takeaway from around the corner, before we headed to bed, stuffed. Sleep found me quickly

Sunday 04th December

We left, full packed up this time. I had forgotten what weight felt like, whoops. Karen and Ian wanted to weigh our packs but I was really not wanting to find out how heavy my pack was, especially compared to Reid and Rob’s! I did weigh myself though and, uh, found I’d put on some weight… I blame all the amazing hospitality over the last week or so!… Eek, better get hiking again!

Ian and Karen drove us to Kaniwhaniwha where we got out and started hiking up Pirongia. Reid’s poles had actually stuck from lack of use and he couldn’t get them open! This was not an issue for hiking really, but it was for his tent later which was a pole tent!…

Maybe five minutes after being dropped off, we bumped into Nas, sitting on a picnic bench in the sun, along with Daphné. They were having tea soooo… We just joined in. Gotta ease ourselves back into this hiking malarkey! Nas had this amazing tea though, Mariage Frères. Oh it was so good. I would buy this as a gift in the future I think.

But we got going again before long. Rob wanted to go visit some nearby caves, so left to go see that (but he forgot his head torch so I don’t think he saw much…), Reid headed off first and I hiked along with Daphné up Pirongia for a little while, catching up. This was the first time I heard about “The Cult”, a group of hikers which we had caught up to and who kept to themselves and did things only amongst themselves… Sounds sinister.

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I soon left Daphné and charged uphill. I do love me a good old hill. Or I guess this is actually a proper mountain this time. Yeah, there’s something about the exertion of going uphill. Sometimes I hate it, but I think most the time I enjoy it, in a type two sense.

And indeed, I caught up with Reid and got to the top before long. It wasn’t as steep or hard as I thought it was going to be in all honesty. But also additionally, it was a super nice day to be hiking. Hot sun and a clear sky. I was stoked to get to the top and see the views!

When I did get there, they were so well worth it! Wow! I could see so much from the top. I think I must have stayed there for a good half an hour to an hour, just looking all around! There were mountains away to the north west (Mt. Karioi), to the east and the Kaimai ranges with the Waikato basin spread out like a tablecloth beneath us inbetween. There was also the Sanctuary Mountain, Maungatautari, where there were no predators at all and birdsong is in a constant orchestral symphony. I plan to go there I think, on my way back up after I finish. Along with Hobbiton, of course. And then faintly, teasing us in the distant, was the white peaked shadow of Mt. Ruapehu and the the Tongariro Crossing! Wow! I couldn’t see Mt. Taranaki though, so I may have to go on the way back up too, do some walking over near New Plymouth.

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After gazing, awed, all around me for a long time, I turned reluctantly and headed to the first New Zealand Hut that I would be staying in, Pahautea. Yeah, it was nice, but very much the same to the ones in Tassie so I’m not so impressed yet. They have been amped up to me for a while after all. As Rob would say, “Expectations were this high” and they fell below that. On the topic of great expectations (cracking book by the by), H-town had lived up to the hype Reid had inadvertently been laying down for the first, like, 4 weeks. Yeah, I liked Hamilton for sure!

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Reid and I settled into the hut, being amongst the first to arrive, along with Kiwi Peter who we had met way back when. Kiwi Peter actually fixed Reid’s poles at this point. Wise guy, he knew a whole bunch of tricks! A true Number 8 mentality. But yeah, people started to trickle in and before long we had a merry gathering going on at the hut!

Sam and Charlotte showed up and we played cards with them on the run up to dinner. Funnily enough, the same card games from Tassie. Card games seem to be universal and I love it. Very easy. It was at this point that Sam gave me (yet another) nickname of “Full body stomach”. I inhale food apparently. I honestly don’t think I’m that bad!

I also met Olivia and Karena, a Mother-daughter combo who were section hiking it and I chatted to them for a while along with Nas and Daphné before I headed to bed. Not having to set up a tent for, like, the last week has spoilt me, my bedtime was creeping later and later!

Monday 05th December

We woke up to a complete contrast of the previous day, it was foggy and unpleasant. Guess we were in a cloud, whoops.

I packed up and headed out ahead of most everyone else. We were descending on the Hihikiwi track which was notoriously muddy, and sure enough, it was… But not that bad. It was avoidable with a bit of gymnastics and a good mindset! I hopped and jumped and vaulted my way down the mountain until I emerged onto a gravel road. I really enjoyed that descent, though I would have hated going up that way for sure.

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I headed along this road after having myself an OSM bar. It was a nice quiet road and I could chunter along with music in one ear. I also passed a herd of cows which had Halters on! This is crazy technology. These collars allow you to turn your dairy cows into remote control cows! Seriously, check it out, crazy! Real cool, and possibly revolutionary for farming.

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This emerged onto a road where I headed along briefly before jumping back onto a back road. We anticipating that this day would be a lot longer and a lot more exhausting than it actually was soooo… Our campsite was a kilometre away or so, at a Trail Angel’s called Casey. I didn’t wanna show up so soon, so I sat on the road and had myself an early lunch, and Reid and then Rob soon both joined me! We made our way together to Casey’s where we were welcomed and shown to her back garden where we could pitch.

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Other hikers soon started trickling in, including Niv and his friend from Israel, Tomer! Tomer had joined Niv in Hamilton and had three months in NZ, and so was gonna be hiking the TA as well for the next wee while. How exciting! They knew each other from childhood, so it was funny hearing some stories about Niv.

Reid had heard about a project run at this Trail Angel’s, called The Te Araroa Project, which was done by a professional journalist called Tom in his spare time. We wanted to be part of it, so we asked about it and eventually texted him and he came down and took our photos and asked us some questions. Yeah it was real fun, and funny too. Enlightening as well, there were a lot of people doing the TA for a whole bunch of different reasons or whatever. You should look it up, The Te Araroa Project on Facebook or Instagram!

Casey, our host, had made us hot bread and fresh salad and free beer was handed round for those who wanted it and it was just such a lovely pleasant evening. Although no one can cut bread. Wonky pieces everywhere, Flora would be having a meltdown, right Flo? Haha

But it was time to sleep. Casey had told us that her husband, a keen gardener, had sown chamomile into the grass. It was the best night sleep I’ve ever had, I swear.

Tuesday 06th December

I have a secret to confess. Not a bad secret. A funny one. For this entire time from Hamilton, I had been packing out an extra pair of shoes. I didn’t want to use them up too early from Hamilton and get them horribly mucky on Pirongia, but it was now time. New treads, let’s go.

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We left Casey’s and headed down this back country road, fun times! Gang reunited, and we also bumped into Marie, Grace and Alexa too. And Miriam and Toby were there too. Yeah, it was surreal, there were like ten of us hiking altogether in a big Congo line at points! We also met Johanna, Daphné and Nas at points, meaning there were even more of us! Hikers everywhere, the stink!

We all bumped along these amazing farm tracks with hills spreading out around us. They were the classic looking NZ hills as well, with those contoured lines in them. I reckon NZ is geologically very young and the reason it has so many slips and stuff is because the land is still settling. Plus, isn’t it all like clay? (I’m referencing a Skipinnish song here, my only source of NZ geological knowledge). Anyhow, we walked along these tracks which soon turned into another rainforest track, slightly muddy and wet. Trees towered over us and we fought our way through lawyers (a type of vine) and over fallen trees. I should have kept a count of how many times I’ve clambered over a fallen tree, it would be lots.

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We soon emerged back onto farm tracks and we boosted down along a road as a big blob of people. I actually listened to Pride and Prejudice whilst walking along here, walking at the back. But I had to take the headphones out before long when we turned onto a farm where active hunting was taking place. There were large signs warning us to stick to the path along the fence line, but still, felt vaguely nerve-wracking. These hills went up and down, up and down like frozen waves. Up steep one side before plummeting down, and then hard hard work up again.

Another forest where we had lunch in the middle of the path before we continued on. We had left Alexa, Marie and Grace behind at this point and it was just Rob, Reid and I. When we got to the big Moakurarua river which we had to cross, we waded out slowly and met Niv and Tomer on the other side, basking in the sun. This was when I heard the fatal words from Rob “Oooh, that looks really nice to swim in” and we then silently all looked at each other, seeing if anyone would act on it…

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Niv did, stripping off and doing a big ol’ Manu into the river, and we all followed suit. Maybe I was a little less keen, but to be fair, it was fun to splash around and wash the sweat off.

Spontaneity, isn’t it superb? We all dried off, laughing, before dressing ourselves and setting off once more, a good mood shared amongst the group.

The rest of the way was just an easy forest walking track and we ate up the kilometres before we emerged onto a road and walked up into Waitomo. When Rob, Reid and I passed the Waitomo Glow Worm caves information centre, we went and checked if there were any tours tonight and sure enough, there were two spots left on the final tour of the day. We wrangled with the lady at the desk, and they allowed all three of us to come on the tour. Awesome, we had ninety minutes to get into camp, pitch up and freshen up, before heading on back. Easy!

We got into town ten minutes later, and had our tents pitched soon afterwards. Leave the shoes out to dry and put the jandles on and we were back off to the caves for 17:30. It was funny being amongst proper people again, doing touristy things!

We were greeted by our guide for the day, a Maori guy who was a descendant of the landowners who found the caves, who then took us down and talked about the formation of the caves, the history of it (the government just… Took it at one point. Bit disrespectful, no?) and showed us around the caves. There were no glow worms in the dry bit by the way, just amazing stalactites and stalagmites and a beautiful large cave section called the cathedral. The previous weekend they had had a Christmas carol concert down here, that would have been awesome!

But finally we got to the bit we came for, the glow worms! He took us down and down and down to an underwater lake and drew up a boat. We weren’t allowed to talk, for vibrations in the air spooked them and they turned their lights off. Therefore, as silent as night, we got all loaded on this big rowboat in the pitch black before our guide grabbed the overhanging ropes and slowly oh so slowly pulled us into the glow worm cavern on silent ripples. Oh my goodness. It was like a sea of stars!

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Thousands upon thousands of glow worms were probably there, lighting up the cavern roof. They were contoured all around the roof and as the boat moved, it was like seeing the stars move. They were also reflected in the black water beneath us. We all stared, open mouthed above us. This was such a unique sight, it was magical, truly. Slowly lapping ripples were the only sound, and the stars/glow worms the only sight. Can you imagine!? It was… Stunning. Incandescently beautiful. I am so grateful we did that tour.

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It ended though and the guide took us out of the cave. We thanked him and he gave us a good old Ka Pai before we headed back to town. We got ourselves a pub meal dinner (pizza for me, burgers for them) before I headed to bed.

We all agreed that today had been spectacular. Just such a feel good vibe to the day. Swimming and glow worms, along with a wonderful dinner and even better company, trooping through the New Zealand back country, I don’t think anything can get much better than that. Plus, it didn’t rain!

Wednesday 07th December

We awoke and left Waitomo sleepily, heading up and past the bar we had had food at last night. By the by, that bar had been recently robbed (not us!), local tidbit for you. But yeah, we hopped a stile and started out through some cow fields, as ever in the Waikato region it seems!

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We headed on, strung out by a little amount of space, going over stiles, zigzagging up hills and down the other side, going through fields and inevitably facing another stile. Easy going really, just a bit of hard work. A lot of the fences were electric fences, and I felt the full force of that at one point when trying to get past one. They had elastic, charged cords with a plastic handle allowing us to continue on by unclipping the cord from the fence to which it was attached. However, when I tried to replace the cord when we were past it, I think I accidentally electrocuted myself four or five times much to hilarity of Rob and Reid. Rob had to do it for me, rescue me. Whoops

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After OSM bar time at 10:00 where we sat on top of a hill above Te Kuiti (Rob phoned a lot of delivery people here, trying to find his stuff he had ordered), I put in some music and headed on, bopping. Over hills and through some more fields. I nearly got run over by a car at one point as we got closer to Te Kuiti. Lesson learnt, not gonna listen to music on roads.

We stopped at the first coffee stop for the required boost of caffeine for Rob and Reid and then headed on, over the tracks to New World where we did a cheeky wee resupply. New World sucks by the way, waaaaay too expensive in my opinion. It exists solely for the reason to be the high-end of the market. Despite selling the exact same products as everywhere else, they are all more expensive!

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Next, a lunch stop (a bakery) and then we headed on! We walked through the high street and out the other end of town, passing a mechanics and onto a river track. Going strong.

New People

• Simon: Kiwi from Wellington with a massive 85L Osprey. Done the Tongariro Crossing tonnes
• Karena and Olivia: Mother-daughter Kiwi combo who are hiking from Hamilton to Wellington, section hiking.
• Toby and Miriam: Swiss couple. Doing sections of the TA on a whim before they get a campervan for the South Island.
• Tomer: Niv’s best friend from Israel who has joined him from Hamilton for three months. Real nice guy, he brought Niv a towel and flip flops from Israel.

Status

• Physical: 10/10
• Mental: 10/10 – Waitomo caves were phenomenal
• Distance covered: 880km
• Most memorable moment: Waitomo Glow Worm caves. Or the top of Pirongia
• Toughest moment: Getting shocked by an electric fence four times in a row
• Burnt-o-meter: 5/10
• Random thoughts: What is the collective noun for hikers? I wonder why I dislike swimming when I actually quite enjoy it on the occasion?
• Number of times I have fallen: 6
• Jars of Peanut butter: 5
• Oatly bars eaten: 32
• Song suggestion: Ain’t no Mountain High Enough; Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell (Flora, I hope you remember the dance moves!…)

What’s Next?

From Te Kuiti, we head to the Timber Trail and then on into Taumarunui. From there we’ll organise the Whanganui Canoe and then head on down to the Tongariro Crossing. And my concert! Well excited!