Map

Here is the map:

https://onthegomap.com/s/f9edpev8

(PS find the spiral on the Timber Trail)

Short Summary

Wednesday 07th December

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.

The river track passed close by factories, separated only by a loose chain link fence, before the track dipped down into the Mangaokewa Reserve and we made our way into a gorge, losing all phone reception.

Trees crowded in over the top and the river gurgled away to our right as we made our way along the banks. As with any river track, it was muddy and had a lot of tree roots to hop over as the track wound it’s way to and fro. At points, we walked right beside the river and the track disappeared where a small slip had happened, and so we had to either jump or skirt around the slip in other ways.

This was all well and good and actually quite fun, but after a while we got to a large suspension bridge where we were carried over to the other side of the river. I sat in the long grass, it coming up and over my head as I waited for Reid and Rob. There was a large wooden sign saying “TA hikers, 5hrs to Mangaokewa North Road” which we scoffed at, surely not!? It was like only 12km away or something!

When we were a group again, we set off. We knew there was a campsite at kilometer 893, but we wanted to get to the one at 902 so we’d have a shorter day on Thursday.

However, after this sign, the track degraded severely. Mud up over the ankles and sitting water all over the show. On top of that, the gorge walls got closer and steeper, and so any wavering from the river edge led to a steep uphill climb over loose roots and wet dirt. This was not a well looked after track.

We scrabbled our way forward, and towards 16:30, we arrived at the camp at kilometer 893. We were knackered. There was (weirdly, and magically) a glass table with patio seats around it with some flat ground in the forest behind it. Flat ground, we hadn’t seen that in a while! We sat in those three chairs, packs beside us, and had a discussion of whether to stay here, or push on for another 2-3hrs and try and make the next camp. Arguements for going were a shorter day tomorrow, no difficult start to the next day, and there was still time today, albeit we would be getting in late. Arguements for staying were tiredness, the light would disappear quickly in a gorge and this was a lovely camping spot just to ourselves (with the opportunity to swim!). What would you have done, go on, or stay?

We decided to stay and get a real early start the next day. Therefore, we pitched up in the woods and opened a packet of crisps on the table and had a nice afternoon snack. We had a cheeky dip (I only went up to my knees this time) and washed off the worst of the sweat before laying out our clothes in the warm afternoon sun to dry out.

We had ourselves dinner at the appointed time of 18:00 and then I clambered into my tent and headed to sleep, knowing we had an early start to the next day. It really was a wonderful camping spot with just us around and the gurgling river close by, providing a white noise background to fall asleep to. I rate it.

Thursday 08th December

We woke super early and I was up and walking at 06:30. Time to smash out some k’s. In the grey morning light, I made my along the path with my pack weighing on my back. Carrying a hunky thing like that really is a good way to wake up. Still, there were a couple moment my brain started spelling out some zzzzz’s and my foot slipped and I fell. Not badly, but I berated myself each time to be more careful!

For two hours I pushed through the dense forest, through the wet mud, up steep hillsides (scaring herds of goats clinging to the side of the terraced hillside) and even clambered over large rocks at moment. The sunrise happened, pink on the horizon, but I wasn’t too aware of it as I navigated my way along this gorge.

I eventually got to a stile that promised the Mangaokewa North Road in just over a kilometer and there was a lovely lovely path leading directly to it, past cow fields and out of the widening valley. What an ordeal! I got to the start of the gravel and sat down to eat an OSM bar. Love these things by the way. OSM stands for “One Square Meal” – two of these rectangular bars together is meant to be nutritionally enough as a single meal. And they just tasted so good, big energy boost after eating them. But they were heavy…

But yes, I ate one of these bars and then hung around. As the time approached 09:00, no sign of Rob or Reid yet and I started getting anxious. Had something happened to them, an accident that they were dealing with? They shouldn’t be too far behind me! I left my pack and jogged back down the track a little but couldn’t see any sign of them. I set a time limit for myself of 09:30 before I promised myself to walk back to find them.

Reid’s orange shirt eventually showed itself at 09:10 though. Turns out they just got lost is all, and lost quite bad. On top of that, I think they stopped for a coffee. Relieved that nothing bad had happened, I wanted to get a crack on with the day. We had another 30km+ to cover. Reid and Rob were cool with me heading off at my own pace so I set off, leaving for a little break at the start of the road section.

OK, I am not gonna lie, the rest of this day was, uh, not very thrilling. Not that hiking generally is thrilling, it’s a slow burning satisfaction if anything, unless you get to the top of a mountain. But today, yeah, I just walked down a dusty white gravel road for the entire day. The sun beat down on me. At times I listened to music, at times I caught up with Ms. Eliza Bennett with her wonderful wit. I passed farms and cows and sheep. I met some farmers who were herding cows from one field to another and I had to stop in the road as the herd went past. I met Johanna at one point, out on a day walk (she’s amazing by the way. Breaks her arm, but sticks around and insists on walking as much as she can). Occasionally a massive truck thundered past and clouds of dust would blow across me. I had lunch, lounging beneath a tree providing a small pool of shade.

Maybe the most exciting part of this day was meeting The Cult. This was a group of people whispered and muttered about for the last several days and who we knew were just ahead of us. Apparently they only talked to each other and in camp, they set up their tents away from everyone else and in a circle. I was disappointed by the way, they were nothing like this and were actually proper decent human beings! Rumours can be vicious.

I eventually got into Ngaheranga Camp, at the beginning of the Timber Trail, at 16:30. 47km in 10hrs, including breaks and lunch. Motoring! But also, it was a really easy surface to walk along after Mangaokewa Gorge. There was masses of people there already and it felt like I had moved bubbles, jumping into a whole new social dynamic like I had had before with Nas, Niv, Daphné etc. before.

But they were super nice anyway, I had met most of them, however briefly. Primarily I saw Arwin and Oz again, along with Simon and Shona, so it was super nice to see familiar faces and get introductions that way. However, I kept an eye out for Rob and Reid, glancing back at the way I had come every now and again.

There was also a bunch of cyclists at the camp who were doing the Tour Aotearoa, a long distance cycle route which runs the length of NZ, much like the TA but for bikes. Specifically we met Helen and Jonas who were from Switzerland and were lovely people. But additionally, they had a Hilleberg and I felt an instant connection. I think it was an Anjan 3 GT. We chatted tents for a while and I left their little camping spot with a smile on my face.

At 18:30, Reid walked in to a waiting cup of tea, and at 19:15 Rob walked in too. Tired aching feet were released from their laced prisons and we had ourselves a fire as we ate our dinner together. 47km! That’s a chunky chunky day for sure! Safe to say we were a little tired for sure and we just wanted our beds. The next day was meant to be great, the start of the Timber Trail!

Friday 09th December

Firstly, it’s 09/12, so it’s Grannie’s birthday. So happy birthday Grannie! But it was also Johanna’s birthday and so we all filmed a little clip of ourselves wishing her a happy birthday and sent it to Daphné who was gonna stitch them altogether into a big birthday message.

We packed up in the damp morning and set off in the wet morning air. It wasn’t quite raining, but just by walking we seemed to be getting wet… Yeah one of those days. Today was the start of the Timber Trail section. This was a popular 84km long trail which was commonly mountain biked over a couple days. We had actually wanted to bike some of it too. Well, at least, Rob had wanted to walk all of it, Reid wanted to cycle and walk it, and I wanted to cycle it all. We converged on Reid’s idea. We were going to walk to Piropiro flats, halfway along the Timber Trail and then mountain bike out to the end, using one of the many local companies.

Therefore, we set off through this driech (alert, Scottish word!) day and up into the forest. The first day was meant to be awesome – people ahead of us had told us so! It was going to be full of beautiful sights and sounds and trees as we climbed up the side of Mt. Pureora. An explosion of different plants and trees.

Instead, switchback followed family-friendly switchback. Lots of elevation, but those promised sights and sounds, not so much. I don’t think it helped that it was raining a tonne and we were basically climbing into a cloud… The birdsong wasn’t really there, just the occasional sad sounding Tui. There was a sign at one point at a break in the trees proclaiming that we could see Lake Taupo, but nah, just cloud. On a good day this would have been stunning, but alas, it was not the best of days.

We got halfway up and dived into a red shelter, dripping on the dry concrete floor. We met Sean and Neele here, a Brit and a German lady who were part of “The Cult”. Turns out, they’re really nice people, and I also found out that Sean hiked the CWT at the same time as me! Except he started at the top and finished in Fort William. Since there are a bunch of different routes, we think that we crossed over when Cam and I went to Knoydart and he went along the paths to the east of us. Still, a funny coincidence, encountered six months later and on the other side of the world!

We continued on up the Timber Trail and after we passed the summit (zero views), we started downhill. This was when the people who had decided to bike the entire Timber Trail passed us, whooping and cheering as they sped by on their mountain bikes, mud splattering all their clothes.

The rain was now beating down and fat drops kept falling from the leaves of the trees that we passed under. However, as lunchtime was approaching, all of a sudden, we got a brief reprieve from the forest when we emerged to the most amazing bridge! Wow! It had just appeared from nowhere and stretched across the entire gorge it seems! Naturally, I ran (with absolutely no screaming…) across it with my heavy pack bouncing on my back.

Several more of these bridges presented themselves to us, each diminishing with size as we kept on heading downhill. After lunch, I got the stomp on and charged ahead of Rob and Reid, head bent against the rain and emerged into Piropiro flats at close to 16:20. I pitched my tent at the free DOC campsite, thinking to myself that I must be ahead of everyone since my tent was the only one there. I left my stuff in my tent because across from the campsite at Piropiro was the Timber Trail Lodge where rumour had it that you could get pizza. The lodge was very reminiscent of the hunting lodges you sometimes see in the north of Scotland.

However! When I headed through the doors of the Lodge into the large common room, I saw a table full of TA hikers, including Reid. I was thunderstruck – that was the word that Reid laughingly described my face. I had expected them to go and pitch their tents first (like me) instead of heading straight to pizza. Guess I underestimated the pull of Italian food in rainy conditions. To add insult to self-inflicted injury, they had just sold their last pizzas to Reid. Therefore, I sat down with all the other hikers in the lodge and when they told me there was free tea and coffee and biscuits, I went to grab said free tea and biscuits. Yeah, uh, the manager then sidled up to me and told me that they weren’t free and I had to pay up. Fair enough. It was just a bad experience really haha, all in all. No pizza, got called out for trying to steal (unknowingly) tea and cookies whilst the other hikers had managed to nick all their tea and biscuits for free… Yeah, clearly I shouldn’t lead a life in crime, I would suck at it. I sat there across from Reid, looking at him eat a pepperoni pizza. At least there was a fire.

My day wasn’t bad though, compared to Rob. I haven’t mentioned him because he wasn’t there. He had actually lost his phone, dropped somewhere on the Timber Trail in the rain. He had gone back to look for it, but he never found it and he came into camp, dripping and a bit hacked off. You really can’t seem to go anywhere without a phone nowadays. It had some visa stuff on it, all his pictures, notes… At least he still had his bank card I guess. We headed to sleep that night after just a day full of drizzle.

Saturday 10th December

OK, today was gonna be better. We packed up our stuff and then headed to the Lodge where we were collecting our bikes for mountain biking down the Timber Trail. We handed our packs to the shuttle which would take them to the end for us, and then jumped on the bikes. Ooooh, this felt really weird after walking close to 1000km! Different muscle groups being used I guess.

We had plenty of time to get to the bottom. We had until 15:00 to cover 40ish kilometres, all downhill. Easy days. Therefore, we actually set off the other way, back up the Timber Trail, on the hunt for Rob’s phone. He actually kinda knew where it was, about 5km up the trail.

It was all up hill, but at least it wasn’t raining. This is where I think my size and mass don’t help me, I was well struggling to get up the hills compared to Rob and Reid! They shot off and I was left panting as I worked my way up the hill after them.

But good news! After 40 minutes of heading back up the track, I heard from ahead of me Rob let out a big “Ah woooooooo”, much like a wolf call. Seems he found his phone. And what was the true miracle, it was still working! A full night of rain and his phone still turned on! And his phone was already in a knackered state, the screen had some blurry bits and cracks and it was already half broken when he dropped it. Pfffff, Miracle on the Hudson? More like Miracle on the Timber Trail. (OK, we can’t actually compare the two events, but still…)

Turning our bikes around, we headed downhill. Lessgo! Going downhill was so much fun! The wind was whistling through our helmets and through our hair and it was just so good! We returned to the Lodge where Rob put his phone in a bag of couscous (rather than rice) to try and dry it all out and then we pushed on.

Oh man, I can understand the thrill in mountain biking. Loved it a tonne for sure. Well, going uphill was a bit nasty, but downhill was where it’s at. You’re standing on the pedals, crouched over the handlebars, twitching this way and that to avoid a certain puddle or a patch of mud. It was so good.

The day continued this way. We had lunch at a shelter with Helen and Jonas who were bikepacking the Tour Aotearoa route. My shirt was splattered in mud and that was just the start of it. I couldn’t see my socks pretty much, they were covered in a layer of mud. My white shoes most certainly weren’t white anymore. Yeah. Gross for some people, but if you embrace it, it’s well good and amazing fun, especially with a bunch of friends! Over lunch, we also came up with our band name (hypothetically), Cows on a Beach. The first album would be called Progression of Dirt.

After lunch, we continued bombing downhill like a runaway freight train. At one point though, I, uh, may have crashed. I would guess that we were going at about 30-40km/hr down a particularly hill but there were these large, narrow ruts in the track and when I went to go round one of them, I wasn’t quite quick enough and my back wheel caught the rut and sent my off the track! Luckily, there were no trees and there was a large grassy, downhill sloping verge. I slammed on the breaks as soon as I felt it going wrong so that I only crashed into a bush and fell over at a moderate pace. Whilst this was all going on, I heard Rob behind going “oh oh Oh OH OHOHOHOH” as he watched the disaster unfold in front of his eyes. I was fine though, a bunch of scratches on my right bicep and forearm, a bruised shoulder and a nick on my right calf. Nothing to write home about. Could have been worse, but it wasn’t, so life goes on. I think I jumped up from the crash straight away, laughing my head off. My heart was banging like snare drum in a pipe band and the adrenaline coursing through me was something else for sure.

We continued on, and I was metaphorically and literally back in the saddle straight away. We continued bombing downhill. Maybe a touch more caution this time, watching carefully where and what Reid was doing, ahead of me. Reid really looked at home on a bike. We spun on down, passing people and emerging from the forest and onto a large downhill with a beautiful view over some foothills.

We got to the end and gave the bikes back to the company whilst we received our packs (after a little annoying setback of them forgetting them and having to drive back and get them again). We used the hose meant for the bikes to hose ourselves down with too, before we set up camp right then and there, at a TA only hut at the end of the Timber Trail. Yeah, what a thrilling day! And Rob’s phone still worked after being dried out in some couscous! Sean and Neele, as well as Arwin joined us at the campsite and we had a nice evening eating Oreos and drinking tea.

Sunday 11th December

We packed up and I headed out towards Taumaranui ahead of Rob and Reid who were wanting a chill day. I mean, it was like a short 20-something kilometre day, all road walking. Rob actually ended up hitching into town.

As I walked alongside SH3 and the railway line, I listened to my book, Pride and Prejudice. Oooh, Mr Darcy isn’t very well liked at the moment. Ooooh, scandalous. I love it so much. It was all very easy walking though, a backroad with zero traffic and not much elevation. Kinda boring really. Sean and Neele caught me at one point and I kinda started shadowing them. They were rapid though and absolutely set a blinding pace.

Before we knew it, around lunchtime and after a bunch of rain showers, we got into Taumaranui, a small town which I would come to call Purgatory. I met Rob at a café in town and I ordered myself a large salad. Delicious. I really do love fresh food! Reid joined us an hour or so later and we had another round of food. We then all headed to New World (supermarket, not The New World) where we did a resupply, getting some food for that evening.

OK, this is where it gets complex. The TA route from here goes out towards Owhango, Tongariro Crossing, National Park and then down into Whakahoro where it joins the Whanganui River Canoe Great Walk. Yep, that’s right, a canoe down a river is one of New Zealand’s ten Great Walks and is part of the TA as a result. I intend to do a couple of the Great Walks after I finish the TA since they are meant to be just stunning. Hence why they are called “Great” I guess. But basically, we had to book the canoe trip. The best company to book with was called the Taumaranui Canoe Company and so we had phoned them in the café where we were eating our food. Turns out, they offer free camping for TA hikers with a free shuttle soooo… We just jumped on the shuttle at 15:00 and five minutes later we were a touch out of town at a family run business. They gave us free tea and bread with honey and they were just the most welcoming people ever really.

The Taumaranui Canoe Company was a family run business and so we spoke to Siena, the daughter-in-law. All the bookings for the campsites were full after Christmas and a touch before too. Seems, since it would be the summer holidays, that doing the Great Walks was a massively popular thing to do as a Kiwi during the Summer Holidays. That meant we had to book our canoe trip to happen well before Christmas. We settled for heading out on the 17th December, just less than a week from now. It was difficult, we had many considerations to take into account:

• Reid needed to be in Whanganui for 23/12 for his sister to pick him up en route to Hamilton for a family Christmas.
• Rob wanted to head back to his home base in Taupo (where he had had a job before the TA) to pick up some mail orders and have a break. His legs were real sore after some long days before and during the Timber Trail.
• I had my concert on Tuesday.
• We could not go out in flood conditions, so we needed to find a window of good weather.

With all of these considerations, we decided to skip the Tongariro Crossing. The weather forecast for the next week was rain over by the central plateau with four red weather warnings for the Tongariro Crossing for a whole bunch of days when we would be there. Instead, Rob was going to hitch back to Taupo, I was going to head to Auckland on Monday and Reid was going to head on to the base of the Tongariro Crossing before hitching back to Taumaranui for the canoe. Yeah, it was complex.

Anyway, what it all means is that we pitched up at the canoe hire having booked our canoe trip for the 17th. Well exciting! I was happy to miss the Tongariro Crossing for now, it was actually part of a Great Walk called the Northern Circuit that I think I will do on my way back up from Bluff. My date with Mount Doom will have to wait.

That evening we had some delicious food that we had bought in New World altogether before we headed to bed. We would be splitting apart the next day for a short bit, sad! C’est la vie.

Monday 12th – Wednesday 14th December

OK, side trip to Auckland. I packed up in the morning of Monday and then we all headed into town (that is, Taumaranui) where we did some laundry and chilled for the morning. I caught my Intercity bus to Auckland shortly after lunch and sat in a roasting hot bus all the way up to Hamilton where we then needed to switch buses to one that had the freezing aircon on full blast.

I then checked into the hostel that I had booked in Auckland, the same one that I had booked when I first arrived in NZ! I was put in a room with a whole bunch of French of people and Brit guy from Gloucester. I had a hot shower before I ate two pizzas for dinner and headed to sleep. Easy day of travelling.

The next day, Tuesday, was the big day of the concert and I was well excited. Issue is, it was in the evening and I needed to fill my day! As a result, I watched a couple films (including 7 Years in Tibet which was a really really good film. Highly recommend, loved it!) and went for a meander around Auckland’s CBD. Nothing too exciting.

I still had my AT Hop card so when it got to 19:00, I hopped onto the bus and arrived at the Powerstation (the venue) at 19:20 where I queued for over an hour. When the doors did open, I managed to find a space right at the front, just off to the right. Oh I was so excited! And when the show commenced at 20:40 with Jacob Collier jumping onto stage (literally) I loved every moment. He was barefoot for the entire show and the lights and music perfectly reflected his highly positive, energetic personality. The show finished at 22:00 and his encore finished at 23:00. We did the whole audience choir too which was well fun. Pfffff, just the best evening really, I loved every moment. I was even close enough to the stage that I got a high five from him towards the end! Cheesin’!! Towards the end we were also asked to sing certain notes that he was recording to compile into a large many voice choir for use in his next album, Djesse Vol. 4! So I guess I will be in that album to some extent!

I left the venue and hopped on the bus back to the hostel, getting in close to midnight where I then sat and chatted with the people in my dorm for a little while before I headed to sleep, exhausted.

The next day, Wednesday, I was up and out early where I then caught the 08:30 bus to Hamilton and then the local bus back to Taumaranui, requiring me to use my Bee card. Intercity buses to Taumaranui don’t run everyday, only like three days a week sorta thing. I actually met Tomer on the bus to Taumaranui! He had needed to return to Hamilton to pick up something, so we sat on the bus as two stinky hikers. Or at least, I was stinky. I very much fell asleep too.

When we arrived into Taumaranui, I then hiked out to the canoe hire place where there was free camping for TA hikers and I pitched my tent in the same spot as where I had it several days before. I recognised practically nobody (once again proving that people travel in bubbles down along the TA) except Daphne who was hanging out there for a bit too.

Thursday 15th – Friday 16th December

I had two days to burn in Taumaranui, and this is why I call it Purgatory. I was just waiting around really, catching the free shuttle into town, eating food and hanging around. On Thursday, Reid got back. He had walked to Owhango on Tuesday and then he did the (closed) 42nd Traverse on Wednesday after being told by a DOC guy that it was actually safe to competent trampers. He had then hitched back into Taumaranui since it was pouring rain at the central plateau and there was no way anyone was going up and doing the Tongariro Crossing anytime soon. We hung around in town eating some food for a bit before we caught the free shuttle back to the canoe hire place. Niv and Tomer joined us at the canoe hire place and we had some familiar faces now around us, fun! They were heading out on the river at the same time as us and they too had skipped the Tongariro Crossing due to the weather and booking issues with the canoe place.

Rinse and repeat day, we went into town and did some shopping at New World for five days on the Whanganui River. We took cans and cakes and things we wouldn’t normally buy since we didn’t have to carry anything! It was a fun shop. Rob also joined us again and we had lunch together. He was a new man, reinvented. New shorts, new glasses, clean gear.

We spent the evening packing our barrels for the canoe before we packed down for the evening, ready for the safety briefing in the morning and getting out on the river. Well excited!

New People

• Sean: Guy from Lincoln who did the CWT at the exact same time as Cam and I!! Except he was NoBo and did a different route evidently. He also did 2000km+ of the CDT this summer before his visa ran out. Rapid. Part of The Cult.
• Neele: German lady who hikes with Sean at said rapid pace. Part of The Cult.
• Roxanne: Part of The Cult, I think. All I know, didn’t really talk to her
• Aaron: Scottish guy who hikes in a kilt. Represent! Part of The Cult.
• Rafael: Swiss guy who likes meat. Part of The Cult.
• Magellan: Swiss lady. Part of The Cult.
• Gijs: Dutch guy who did an alternative Timber Trail route and used to carry a massive 100L pack and organises everything for The Cult, and as such, is the de facto leader of said Cult.
• Emma: Scared of heights. That’s all I know of her.
• Cornelius: Quiet Dutch guy who’s biggest day has been 25km. Respect, for going at his own pace.
• Stella and Marten: Funny German couple who gave me caramel cappuccino shots (which I promptly passed on to Reid).
• Marius: Romanian guy who did the (closed) 42nd Traverse
• Helen and Jonas: Wonderful Swiss couple who are biking the Tour Aotearoa. They have a Hilleberg yes! The Anjan 3 GT I believe.
• Pierre: Belgian guy who accidentally walked the full 84km Timber Trail in one day (22hrs) by not wanting to pitch his tent in the rain. Made his own backpack
• Kendall: American lady who we met doing laundry and has a PhD.
• Niall: Re-met Niall from the first time I was in Kaitaia, before starting. Brit-turned-Kiwi guy who has a YouTube channel (which I may appear on!). Just look up “Niall Tongariro Crossing” and you should find his videos and channel and stuff if you’re really interested.

Status

• Physical: 8/10 – sore toe, scratched up arm, lots and lots of bug bites
• Mental: 10/10
• Distance covered: 1040km
• Most memorable moment: Biking downhill in the rain on the Timber Trail
• Toughest moment: Biking uphill in the rain on the Timber Trail
• Burnt-o-meter: 3/10
• Random thoughts: It’s funny how people take photos of different things, shows how we view the world differently and what we notice.
• Number of times I have fallen: 10 (plus three in Mangaokewa gorge, plus the bike crash)
• Jars of peanut butter finished: 8
• Oatly bars consumed: 44
• Song suggestion: Hajanga; Jacob Collier

What’s Next?

No Tongariro Crossing for me at the moment. The weather is looking rather unpleasant (Reid had four red weather warnings) and forecasted rain for the next two weeks. I really want to do this though, so I plan to walk Taumarunui to National Park via the Tongariro Crossing on my way back up from Bluff. I won’t have any deadlines to reach either for this!

And so for now, I have the Whanganui River Canoe (with, uh, said forecast rain…) for four or five days into Whanganui. This is meant to be an amazingly memorable experience, so I’m well looking forward to it!