Map

Here is the map:

https://onthegomap.com/s/tskhg1pa

Summary

Friday 30th December

Lorna, Mark and I set off from Brian and Paula’s house, thanking them for their kind hospitality. And it really had been the kindest ever. I love staying at trail angel houses, they are always wonderful people. I haven’t yet met a rotten person on this entire trip!

We crossed a bridge and then walked up and along a small track beside a river, leading us up and out of Palmerston North. It was handy that Brian and Paula lived right on the far side of Palmerston North and so we could easily jump back onto the trail. Laura and Mark were good company and we got a good pace going. They had both quit their jobs to do a spot of travelling and hiking around the world, love that so much. Laura worked for the council back in Brighton whilst Mark worked in TV. Did you know that there were laws for what colours can appear on TV?

We pushed on up to Turitea, walking along muddy tracks, skipping over roots and just heading along a general walking track. My backpack was fairly heavy, it had a whole bunch of food in it after all! Out of Turitea, we also heard a bunch of shotgun blasts out in the bush. I guess it was hunting season. Still, I really dislike hearing the sound of guns. Having been brought in the UK, I am totally unused to seeing them. Yeah nah, not keen. Still, it just meant that we had to walk a little more briskly to get out of that area really and before we knew it there were no more shotgun blasts to be heard.

The track which we walked along was a gravel road leading up and alongside the foothills of the Tararuas. We wouldn’t actually be going up into the mountains for another couple days, but we were certainly doing some climbing up and over some small hills. the track twisted and winded it’s way along a valley, slowly climbing. Trees and fields surrounded us. You know, standard walking scenery in the North Island it seems.

We had our lunch at the Kahuterawa Reserve car park where we also bumped into Pierre. Pierre was cool. Nice guy for sure. We pushed on. I was going to go ahead of Mark and Lorna but I realised that today was a big day, it was halfway day! We would be passing the official halfway marker on the TA, as well as the official 2022/23 halfway marker. Why are they different, I hear you ask? The track changes from year to year. Places close, DOC change tracks. That means that the halfway point changes too from year to year, sometimes by only a kilometer, sometimes more, sometimes less. The official halfway is just the easiest to go by, but there are always the people who want to know when they are exactly halfway along the trail too…

Anyway, I wanted to celebrate halfway with people rather than myself, and so we wondered along the Reserve, along this gravel road that slowly degraded, crossing streams and rivers and seeing waterfalls splashing down from above occasionally. Before long we got to halfway and we sat down at the bench beside the board and ate some sweets. Delicious! It’s great to reach halfway, a wonderful feeling for sure. A real accomplishment! I just needed to do the same again and life would be a dream… Well, it already is, but it would be even more of a dream! Haha

After leaving Mark and Lorna at the sign, I got a crank on and pushed on through the woods and along the gravel track. It was slowly becoming more and more hilly as we went, but that was to be expected. I eventually came upon the place to stay tonight, Moturimu Shelter. This was a marae style hut which was built specifically for TA walkers. So kind! It is always funny browsing through the log books in these huts, seeing whose names you recognise!

People started pouring in though. I think we had maybe eighteen or so people at this shelter, all TA hikers bar two people out for a weekend tramp (that’s “hike” in Kiwi). The hut could only sleep six, but everyone crammed in there anyway. Well, I like my personal space, so I set up my tent and headed to sleep before long with everyone else kinda crammed into the hut. No ragrets.

Saturday 31st December

Mark and Lorna got up late, so I was up and out before them… Or anyone else in camp really. I set off along the track, happy to be moving. I like moving, I don’t like sitting around doing nothing or waiting sometimes, although I would judge myself to be a patient person.

I climbed through some pine forests before arriving at a stile leading to Burton’s Track and into Tararua Forest Park. The stile had a symbol showing I had signal, so I checked my phone, sending some messages before switching it back to aeroplane mode and cracking on. Up and over and into the forest. Immediately I was confronted with my old frenemy, mud. Joy oh joys!

Following the orange triangles, I walked at a steady pace through this forest. My pack was a little heavy, but nothing too serious. Talking about pack weight was a big thing among hikers. I feel there are different categories, ultralight (< 5kg base weight), lightweight (5-10kg), traditional (10-15kg) and heavy tanks (> 15kg). I didn’t actually know my base weight and wasn’t too interested in finding out, but I knew I was somewhere in my own category of “traditional”.

I followed Burton’s Track down towards a whole bunch of rivers that I crossed, balancing and hopping from boulder to boulder, sticking up out of the rushing water. There was a point where the map told me to cross the Tokomaru River, but the signs pointed up the other side of the river, up a hill along a clear marked trail. This is what my hosts in Palmy had helped make. The other side of the river was private land that the trail had passed through since it’s birth in 2011, but the new landowners didn’t want trampers on their land anymore so the route was now diverted and made active a couple weeks ago to mean we had to walk up and over a small hill, instead of crossing the river and entering private land. Intriguing how that side of things works, it was interesting talking to Brian and Paula about that all.

Up and over this hill and I found myself at Burton’s Hut. A guy called Burton had lived here all alone in the early 20th century, carving out a living for himself and farming the land. He built a tonne of trails around the area too. He died when a bridge he had built collapsed whilst he was crossing it. Moral of the story? Don’t build bridges yourself.

From Burton’s Hut, I pushed on and out of the forest park and onto a 4×4 track, leading me happily down to Tokomaru Shelter which was once again, TA only. It was actually being renamed to Ian and Franks Hut. The time was 11:45 and I was unsure whether to push on, or chill for the rest of the day. I sat a while and read my book and ate my lunch. Pierre arrived, then Liam and then Rick and Taylor… They were all going to push on for the next spot, Makahika Outdoor Pursuit centre, but that seemed a long way off to me, but I didn’t want to hang around here for the rest of the day.

Looking at the comments on Farout, I decided to keep going and have myself a cheeky wild camp! Exciting! Therefore I set off with them all and we all walked along happily. Along the road, past the dam and into Tararua Forest Park again. Up up and up. We were in some foothills after all! We paraded as a long line through the forest for several hours. Bird call was around us and it smelt wonderfully fresh and clean. I had some good yarns with Liam about Lord of the Rings. He was wearing a One Ring on a chain which he’d picked up in Hobbiton. Gotta love it.

Eventually we crossed the Blackwood Stream and we climbed the hill on the other side. This is where I called it a day since there was the most perfect wild camping spot in amongst the trees and it was well past tea time. The others continued on. They’d be getting in at around dark, not so keen on that. I instead spent my afternoon setting up my tent, putting me jandals on and metaphorically putting my feet up. The forest was quiet, with a faint background noise provided by the Blackwood Stream. The occasional bird call, but nothing too much really. Just very peaceful.

I had myself some dinner, treated myself with some chocolate and tea and then headed to bed, reading several chapters before I closed my eyes. I set an alarm for 23:55 and I woke up then, having slept already 4hrs or so. I watched the new year roll over, before I followed suit, rolling over and back to sleep. Happy New Year everyone!

Sunday 01st January 2023

A New Year, but same little, old me. 2023 already. Still, I barely dwelt on it as I packed up and left my small wild camping spot in amongst the wild NZ bush, an old old forest which had probably seen more New Years than I could comprehend.

I had a big day today, I wanted to get to Te Matawai Hut at the very least today. Therefore, I set off from my little camping spot with a spring in my step. Mountains here we come, what a way to start the new year. Down from the little hillock and then I made my way through the grey light in and along the trails in the forest. Hopping branches and skipping over roots, I was in high spirits!

I eventually came upon the Blackwood Stream again, and much like the Mangapukahukahu Stream in Northland, I walked down it, splashing from rock island to rock island. What fun! I sped down this and eventually emerged out of the forest and to a small clearing with a toilet. It seems that Liam, Rick and Taylor and Pierre had all stopped here last night and didn’t make it to the Makahika Outdoor Centre last night. Pierre was still in his tent, asleep when I passed through at 08:30 in the morning!

Passing through some cow fields and passing through some gates, I came upon a gravel road and bombed along it towards Poads Road where the turn off to the mountains were. I had some music in and on the occasion, a car passed by throwing up dust that I shielded my face from, covering my mouth and nose and squeezing close my eyes. I got to the outdoor centre where I saw some tents that definitely belonged to hikers, before I saw some people! I cried out a “Happy New Year” before I saw that I knew one of them, Seera, who I had last seen in Kerikeri for a pot luck!

I stopped and chatted with Seera and two others, Riikke and Leah, for a bit. Turns out the weather wasn’t bestest for the Tararuas tonight and people were being advised to maybe go to Waiopehu Hut where it was more sheltered than Te Matawai. Sounds good to me. Seera had damaged her knee and she feared she had to give up her hike from a combination of injury and lack of funds. She looked a little gutted. She wasn’t going up anytime soon, and so she was giving way a bunch of food. I guilty pillaged her bag, taking away a bunch of snack food that I looked forward to eating for sure.

Saying goodbye, I continued along the road and eventually reached the Greek Monastery that marked the turn off to Poads Road. Up that a little and then I got to a gate that welcomed me to the Tararuas. Here we go, yo!

I passed through, after writing my name in the intentions book by the gate, and then made my way through a couple of cow fields and then into a dense forest, much the same NZ bush as it had been for the rest of the island! I got to a junction after climbing a little. The TA signs pointed to the left along the Gable Ridge Track and towards Te Matawai Hut, but I turned to the right and up the Waiopehu Track as I was recommended to do. Lessgo. Hype!

I mean, I wasn’t expecting it to be easy, I very much understood it would be tough. Still, I like me some mountains. They’re peaceful in a rugged way. A steep climb left me with sweat dripping down my temples (why are they called the temples? There’s nothing religious about them…?), and my forearms and legs had little rivulets of sweat carving through my sunscreen. The juices of hard work.

A gentler climb and I pushed up. Up up and up a little more. Another steep climb. I had to actually pause halfway up. Firstly I was knackered, but also it was lunchtime. I sat on a fallen tree and ate some food, gorging myself on some snack food Seera provided for me too. NZ bush was just beautiful to sit and chill and eat in. Heaps of people passed me. A trail runner with a sprained ankle coming down. A group of old fogies coming down too. A guy with three dogs. Several couples heading up. I smiled and nodded to each and all of them up.

I soon was up and on my way again and I soon caught up with one of these couples, Jesse and Michelle. They each had packs as big as mine but had stuffed their packs with only food and a sleeping bag. Makes sense I guess. I followed them and chatted to them all the way up. Easy enough.

We finely got to Waiopehu Hut and I was glad. I emerged out onto the deck of the Hut and the views of Levin and out towards Palmy spread out below me whilst the ridges out to the east of me were lit up with the afternoon sun. Wonderful. There wasn’t much of a breeze so I was happy to chill out on the deck for a little while. I met only one other TA hiker here, Emily from Melbourne.

As the afternoon burnt on, I settled into the hut, claiming my spot easily in the bunk rooms. There was a group of three Asian gentlemen who started cooking and filled the Hut with most heavenly smells. Jesse and Michelle produced food after food, but Emily and I were stuck with only our hiker meals. We got some pity food though which was nice of them! It was a nice evening, seeing the pink of the sunset.

I had been up for a while, so I decided to head to bed. Since it had been dry for so long, we had been told that two huts ahead of us, Dracophyllum Hut and Nichols Hut had no water. This was a worry but nothing too bad, I knew about this and had planned ahead to carry more water with my bladder.

However!

When I went to fill my water bladder up before bed, there was a leak! Ah no! I may have sworn aloud. Sorry mum. I couldn’t do two days across the mountains with only two litres and I wasn’t trusting any glue or anything to fix the hole. Grrrrr. I decided to play it safe, rather than sorry, and formed a plan of heading alllll the way back down, catching a lift into Levin, picking up more water bottles and food, and then heading back up to Waiopehu Hut and maybe across by one hut, Te Matawai, all in one day. Jesse and Michelle were a little anxious about the water situation at Dracophyllum and Nichols, so they asked me to grab them some water too. No problem, I thought! They promised to pay me back with food. I headed to bed, ready for another big day. Good news though, several big days in a row now and no pain from my foot. Fun times!

Monday 02nd January

The next morning, I resolutely got up early and packed up and marched down the hill, the same way I had come up. Oh this is depressing. Pfff. Well, nothing for it and as such, I stuck in my earbuds and started listening to music. Mood booster. I wasn’t quite awake, I definitely had some trips and stumbles in the early morning light. I had left at 07:00 and had arranged to meet a trail angel, Donna, at 09:30 at Poads Road so I had a deadline to get to the bottom of the hill by.

After my mood had been boosted, I switched onto listening to Pride and Prejudice and learnt all about the ball at Netherfield. Oooooh Lizzy danced with Mr. Darcy. Oooooh, Mr. Darcy has found her family wanting. Uh oh!

I tumbled all the way down this hill and arrived at Poads Road just a little after 09:00. A touch over two hours. My knees didn’t thank me. A big puff of breath and a little wait and a car rolled up. Donna the trail angel wound down the window and I hopped in as Pierre hopped out – she had just picked him up en route from Levin!

We drove into Levin having a good old yarn. She was listening to Robert Galbraith’s books (AKA JK Rowling) and she may have convinced me to read the rest of the series rather than just the first book. She dropped me at the New World and I dashed in. I collected 4L of bottled water, some fruit and veggies, some chocolate and some more pasta packets. Pfff, the carrier bag felt heavy!

I lugged this out back to Donna and got back in the car. Whilst she had been waiting for me, another TA hiker, Eva, had come out of the New World and Donna had shouted out and offered Eva a lift. Fun times! We drove back towards Poads Road and the beginning of the Tararuas. En route, Donna spied another hiker, Armound, and she swerved violently and suddenly right across the road to roll the window down and offer him a lift out. What a wonderful person! Donna is a retired lady who just patrols around Levin in her car, seeking out hikers that she can give lifts to I think. That’s what I like to imagine at least.

She dropped us off, along with a selfie, and we then set off. Armound and I started boosting. Skip the Gable Track like yesterday and up the Waiopehu Track, much better. Red Rocket in action. My pack may have been about 6kg heavier than usual. I thought yesterday had been difficult, today was more so. Sweat ran down my face, my back, my legs and veins were showing on my carves. Pfffff, hard work.

But Armound and I, what a pace we set! I’m out of breath thinking about it! We were at Waiopehu at 13:30, having left at 10:45. Rocketman. We took a deserved break at a now deserted Waiopehu, wondering around shirtless and leaving our shirts on the line, drying in the breeze. Armound was cool. We didn’t speak much, but we shared some food at lunch. Quickest way to a person’s heart? Their stomach.

OK, but it wasn’t even 14:00, we can’t stop so soon yet! Therefore, after sitting for a while, recovering, we gingerly put our sodden shirts back on and our packs back on, and set off to Te Matawai. Emily had dropped me a text letting me know how long it took for her to do Waiopehu to Te Matawai, so I was expecting another two and a bit hours of work. And sure enough, we climbed to the top of Waiopehu and across to the Twin Summit (what stunning views, such promise of what we would be climbing. We could sketch the ridge we would be walking) and then down and along the Dora Ridge to Butcher Saddle. That was all downhill.

At this point, my body was protesting. You can’t bleeding well tumble down a mountain, climb it again in a frankly stupendous speed with 6kg of extra mass, and then go on ridge walking to the next hut without feeling some adverse effects. At Butcher Saddle, I stopped, leaning on my sticks, and waved Armound ahead. He smiled, winked, nodded and kept going.

I sat a little in the dead silence of the bush atop Butchers Saddle, panting. My skin was tacky from the dried sweat. A tough moment for sure. I had no doubt I would get to Te Matawai, but I just needed a breather. It may be tough right then and there, but it would be fine in an hour or two and I’d be grateful of the extra water to carry for the following days. You know, not perishing from thirst or whatever. I wouldn’t be having to bomb down back to Levin again, so no stupid descent and ascents again. OK, so just a long day in paradise, doing what I loved. That’s what I came to realise. Type two fun.

I forced a smile, a laugh out loud, philosophising and thinking over and stood up and continued on up to Te Matawai Hut. First true mental test over, though it wasn’t much of a test, just a cursory inspection of mentality. I eventually reached that beautiful beautiful red hut and went in and set my pack down. Success! I can only imagine the sight of me. I was panting, shiny from sweat and hair in my eyes. Probably looked dead knackered. I got my stove out, made myself a pot of tea and sat down and ate an entire packet of Oreos and drank that entire pot of tea. There, better. I was happy again.

I claimed my space in the bunk room and then sat out with all these new TA hikers, socialising. That couple, Jesse and Michelle who asked me to bring them up some more water, they weren’t though! What! I had just carried an extra litre of water up for them, and they weren’t there! Turns out there little concern over their water carrying abilities wasn’t enough for them to stop and wait for me to come back with their extra litre. Pffff, well… More for me.

Armound was there, as was Pierre. That’s all the people I knew. I met Maarten, a Dutch engineer working in Swiss land. An in depth conversation with him persuaded me to apply for PhDs and jobs in Swiss land. There was also a Kiwi there called Matt. He was section hiking the TA and had brought a laptop with him. He too was an (storm drain) engineer for Wellington but was writing a historical fiction book about Marcus Aurelius in his free time. Hardcore. Real cool guy. Lorna and Mark showed up later (they took the Gable Track. They set off an hour earlier than me and Armound, and arrived a couple hours later), as did Rowan, a guy called Tim (snorer!), Dutch Erik who was trying to catch up with Magdellan ahead of us, a couple called Gianna and Ryan (Gianna’s shoes were held together with K-tape and glue and she’d been in a moon boot from a twisted ankle a couple days previous!) and Riikke and Leay showed up after I had gone to bed (which was embarrassingly early, like, 19:30 early!). What a day. Be assured though, I was well impressed with myself and certainly found me some new limits of what I could possibly do or not!

Tuesday 03rd January

I awoke as others started stirring and getting up. What a solid night of sleep. I found myself sleepily chuckling to myself, I saw Erik get up and I thought to myself “Only a hiker would sleep in underwear and a cap and then pour dry cereal directly into his mouth for breakfast!”.

I set off with Maarten, Armound and Matt. It was a cool morning with some clouds draping themselves lovingly over the mountain tops that we were aiming for. We emerged from the NZ bush and into sort of tussock grass and rocks, the ridge being comparatively really thin. I had walked thinner ridges in Scotland, but this one was thin for sure. By the time we pushed to the top of the mountain, Pukematawai, the clouds had disappeared and the sun was in the process of emerging. Several photos on top of here, and then we set off down the other side. Descent. Knee crunching stuff. There were large steep rock fall sections that we had to scrabble down, but also a lot of very pleasant ridge walking. An amazing valley was to my left, a little river winding it’s way down the centre of it and to my right spread a massive amount of bush. It was crazy, two completely different landscapes on either side of me!

We descended several hundred meters before we wibbled and wobbled, up and down along the ridge. It was actually really hard work for sure, a lot of unseen elevation climbing. We had also descended far enough down to go back into the tree line, so we were walking through this forest that was short and stunted and covered in moss, an occasional orange arrow pointing us the direction, reassuring us that we were still going the right way!

We eventually made our way along the ridge, Matt and Maarten talking ahead to each other in engineer language, to Dracophyllum Hut. Not quite lunchtime, but most definitely snack time. Draco Hut was tiny! Two bunk. It was more of an emergency shelter in my opinion, and in a wonderfully brash shade of orange that didn’t try to blend in with the bush at all! We continued on until a short little while after 12:00 where we sat down on the trail and all ate our lunch. Maarten’s bags nearly rolled away from him! That would have been a disaster!

Up and down the ridge undulated, climbing above the tree line and dipping back below it at times. There were clouds in the sky, casting distorted shadows across the dramatic views and it was just a wonderful walk. The weight on my back was heavy for sure, but the views made up for all the effort I had put in the previous day. How lucky I was, I love mountains!

We eventually did a big climb up Nichols Knob where I sat at the top of. The hut was just below us, a red roof in amongst the tussock scrub. I sat atop the mountain for a while, chatting to Rob and Reid on our group chat, and taking in the stunning views, before I descended and entered the hut, claiming a bunk. Another hard, long day, but so rewarding and exactly what I had been hoping for. Armound had decided to continue on to the next hut since it was still fairly quite early in the day, so he headed up Mt. Crawford and then down to Waitewaewae Hut. If you have difficulty pronouncing the name of that hut, just think of it as ytyy hut since that is how you say it phonetically. “Why-te-why-why”.

People started trickling into Nichols Hut. Well mad by the way, Nichols Hut turned out to have a little bit of water in the tank! I hadn’t actually needed to carry all that water in the end… But I am glad I did. I dealt with the information given to me and made it work. Anyways, Mark and Lorna arrived looking knackered when they arrived. Pierre was happy as ever. Tim and Rowan arrived safely, as well as Eva. Riikke and Leah arrived after I was asleep again. Gianna and Ryan got a tent up outside. Yeah, all was well and the hut was full of the smells of cooking before long. I headed to sleep with a view over the mountains as the sun set. What a day, I love this!

Wednesday 04th January

Up and at it again. I got up early to see a pink sunrise before I packed up and left with Maarten and Matt. They continued their engineer conversations. I was interested in said conversations, but couldn’t really participate. Still, a really good insight into how engineer workplaces are like and how they run.

We climbed up to Mt. Crawford, racing some clouds! They got there before me, getting a good view but I arrived just as the first wisps of cloud were covering the top. Still, better than everyone else behind us, they got nothing!

My pack was so much lighter now. No extra water. I had feasted. Yeah, all was well really! The descent from Junction Knob down to ytyy Hut was brutal. A steep, perilous downhill that just never stopped. It was a full 1100m descent! Still, I bombed down, my knees still working and in good nick compared to some of the older trampers around who could barely sit down when they got to Nichols the night before… Yeah. I plummeted down like Indiana Jones running from that boulder. Saw Daphne on the way down too, she was walking the Tararuas NoBo for some reason I never understood. I got to ytyy, having to cross swing bridges and then sat on the deck, eating some snack bars as Maarten and Matt eventually arrived. All good. We pushed on. Ytyy hut looked proper fancy by the way, if I did this again, I would want to stay there for sure. I refilled my water bottles here, no need to worry about that sorta thing anymore.

From ytyy, they path led along one of the most disgusting paths ever. Disgusting in the fact that it was just horrible. Fallen trees, upturned roots, mud of all shades and textures. And vines. So many vines, they tangled with me constantly. I had to keep sweeping them aside like curtains to reveal the track. Our pace was slooooww. So slow. Up and over a fallen tree, across some mud, over or under another fallen tree… This track was just not well looked after at all. Still, it was like battling with a jungle, a true wilderness experience, and I guess that was the reason for leaving it like that. We had lunch on the trail once again and then fought on. I listened to music as Maarten and Matt talked engineering lingo up ahead of me. Matt got stung by a bee as well at some point. Yeah, deep in wilderness.

We eventually battled it out to the old logging tram line and it was such an instance change. This track led all the way to our end point for the day, Parawai Hut at Otaki Forks. We passed one of the largest slips we had seen yet, before settling into the hut. We had passed a lady called Jo on the way to Parawai and she had a friend waiting for her at Parawai, Björn. When Jo arrived, she gave us some chocolate (legend!) and then she and Björn headed off, planning to hitch out. We had the hut to ourselves for several hours. Matt worked on his book whilst Maarten and I read in the quiet afternoon. Pierre showed up towards dinner time, awesome! We all feasted, eating all of our food. We would be out of the mountains by lunchtime the next day after all. However, just as I was thinking about heading to bed, Loïc showed up! He had walked from Te Matawai all the way to Parawai in one day. Woah! What a monster! He had set off at 05:00 and had made it after walking up and down along the ridges for about fifteen hours. Madness, big respect. He had done my two (long) days in one go. He cooked his meal after stripping off his shirt and then ate his dinner whilst he smoked a couple of cigarettes. French.

Thursday 05th January

We all set off the next morning. We had to climb one last hill before we were out and free of the Tararuas. My bag was so light now. No food and enough water and my camping stuff. I had promised to myself that I would never complain about weight after doing that monster day up to Te Matawai. Therefore, we pushed ourselves up this hill and then along the hills through the bush to the summit called Pukeatua. We had just climbed like 600m, pffff, I was once again tired. Looking forward to some zero days for sure!

We had a nice view at the summit of Pukeatua, turning to see mist rising out of the valleys in the Tararuas. My last look at them. We turned and headed down the other side, emerging onto an actual road. Road walking, I remember this. We headed off, step following step. Stride after stride. The sky was grey, it had been showering all morning, off and on like a faulty hose. It was holding off for now though so we managed to make our way all the way down along the road, joining the main road and walk ourselves into Waikanae. Civilisation at last. We found ourselves a café and sat and ate some scrumptious food. I think I got smashed avocado on toast before buying some kumara (sweet potato) chips and some blood orange tea. And then some more food. Yeah, I ate a lot for sure. Eek.

Whilst eating all of this food, I phoned Reid and Rob who had met up again in Wellington. Rob had hitched ahead to Palmy over Christmas and had walked the Tararuas a couple days ahead of me. Reid had had his family function over Christmas and New Years and had now gone back to Wellington with his sister. He was going to do the Tararuas, but the weather was looking so bad that he decided against it and instead just walked with Rob from Waikanae to Wellington. Easy peasy. He’s planning on doing the Tararuas with his sister later on, he has plenty of time for that.

Anyways, they were together in Wellington and were planning the InterIslander and when to head to the South Island. We were keen to start the South Island together, so we settled on catching the ferry on Wednesday 11th since by then, the bad weather should have blown through, fingers crossed. Therefore, I had until Wednesday to get to Wellington really.

After organising this and figuring everything out, I said goodbye to Rob and Reid on the phone, finished my food and then headed to the holiday park in Waikanae with Maarten. Matt had caught the train home. The holiday park was madness. It was at the end of a brief walk along a river and it was just full of families. We were squeezed into a corner by the toilets, a redundant patch of grass that wasn’t being used. In the ‘real’ camping spots, big tent buildings were constructed, families running around and barbecues out in full. A camping experience, but a different camping experience for sure. Maarten and I had some hot showers (finally!), ate some food and then headed to sleep, long before the screaming kids did. I needed to listen to music that night to fall asleep, just to drown all the other noises out!

Friday 06th January

Maarten and I set off from Waikanae in the morning with some heavy, thunderous clouds overhead. The forecast was really not good, and we could see the rain approaching as we reached the coast and started walking along Raumati Beach. It was raining so much out at sea that we couldn’t even see Kapiti Island at times! We strode along the beach, and the rain finally reached us, beating us in the face. It was such a heavy downpour! Unbelievable the amount of water held in the air. It swept across us as we made our way down past Paraparaumu and on towards Paekākāriki.

Here, in Paekākāriki, Maarten decided to stop since the weather was only meant to get worse in the afternoon. I was super tempted to catch the train into Wellington then and there and join Rob and Reid in the Big Smoke. I found myself a café again and ate my lunch in the sun whilst I deliberated my options. Whilst I did so, I met Armound again, along with Emily! Emily had just slack packed the Escarpment Track to the south of Paekākāriki and really recommended it, despite the weather. Armound was about to set off to do it, and so I decided to join him, and then catch the train from the bottom of the Escarpment Track, at Pukerua Bay to Wellington. I was feeling well tired from the Tararuas and rumour had it that the rest of the track into Wellington wasn’t particularly worth walking.

Mind made up, I finished off the last of the crumbs on my plate and then set off with Armound, a rapid pace once more to try and outrun the rain that we could see behind us, out at see, shrouding Kapiti Island once again. The Escarpment Track was just a trail that ran above the main train line, climbing up and along. It was actually really sweaty work. There wasn’t much of a breeze since we were protected by the side of the hill, and the rain never reached us. We managed to make it all the way to Pukerua Bay before the rain. Success.

As mentioned, I then decided to catch the train into Wellington from here since I wasn’t too fussed to walk the last 30km into Wellington, it wasn’t to be anything special and I was wanting to see Rob and Reid again. Therefore, I hopped on the train that came along, paid the conductor $4 (yes, that really was how cheap it was!) and hopped off again in Wellington. I now considered myself to have finished the North Island. Well done me. I was well chuffed!

I checked into my hostel at Cambridge Backpackers and had myself a nice hot shower. Reid joined me before long. He couldn’t stay at his sister’s since she her flatmate wasn’t keen to have visitors for some reason… There was a lot there that I didn’t fully understand. Instead, Reid joined me in the backpackers. That was so nice to see him again. Last time I had seen him, I was unsure if I would ever see him again after all! We celebrated by doing some laundry and then heading to Hell’s Pizzas, a really amazing pizza place where I had avocado on mine. It worked, trust me. I fell asleep that night, stuffed.

Saturday 07th – Tuesday 10th January

The next several days were spent touring around Wellington whilst doing useful stuff. I won’t recount exactly what we did precisely when, just an overview. Reid had gone to university here so he knew all the best places to eat and places to go.

We changed hostels on Saturday to one that was cheaper and closer to the ferry terminal (Rob was staying with some friends of his brother). From here, we made our home base, buying resupplies. Reid bought some new shoes and was walking around on air. His old new pair (another pair of New Balances V2) didn’t really fit him so he got himself a pair of Hokas. Stick around to find out his developing opinion of them. We also bought a whole tonne of food here and packed it into boxes which we would then send to ourselves further down on the trail. There wasn’t much option of buying food on the South Island and we weren’t going through any major cities really and so as a result, to get food we had to send parcels to places that had agreed to hold them for us. I sent three boxes, one to Havelock, another to St. Arnaud and another to Arthurs Pass Village. That was an expensive shop, but it got the job done and I won’t have to spend that money later on.

We also toured the city. We saw Cuba Street, visiting along with Rob all the best food places. Midnight café, Fidel’s, Duck Island Ice Cream. Yeah, it was well good. Midnight café will especially stick in my mind since Reid and I ended up crying from laughter over an absurd situation we found ourselves in whilst there, it was just such a good place. The situation was just silly involving a mis-order and slow service. Recommend to anyone that is going to Wellington. Also saw a whole bunch of book shops, big love for that. I would love to run a book shop for, like, a week. It could get a little dull… But also, I could read so much.

I also met a lot of people. I met one of Reid’s good friends, Java. She was well cool, high energy. We met her at Fidel’s for breakfast on the Saturday, and also met up for lunch on Monday during her lunch break where we ate food outside of the Beehive, the parliament building. We also spent some time with Reid’s sister, Alex, and Alex’s good friend Ruth. We went for a road trip around all the bays. That was a magical evening for sure. Really good people. I also met Angela from the Overland Track in Tasmania. She had texted me, offering me accommodation but due to unfortunate timing, she couldn’t manage to do that. Instead, we caught up over breakfast on Tuesday which was incredibly pleasant.

The majority of the time, though, I spent inside the libraries using the public computers to write this blog and try and finish it as much as possible before the South Island. I wanted to not get too behind like I found myself with my Europe trip. I really enjoyed that, sitting, typing at a computer in a quiet environment. Yeah, that was good. Didn’t quite manage to finish this part though!

We spent the last night of the North Island doing a classic Welly thing, eating pizza on top of the boat sheds. That was wonderful too. I’m running out of words which mean “good”! Time for the South Island now, we had the ferry in the morning. Good times.

New People

  • Liam: Aussie from Melbourne who hiked the Whanganui to Palmy 110km in one go, 28hrs of walking.
  • Riikke: Finnish lady hiking with Leay
  • Leay: German lady hiking with Riikke. They always got in last.
  • Emily: Aussie lady who I met in Waiopehu Hut round 1
  • Maarten: Dutch guy living in Switzerland. He’s an engineer and has done many cool trips including driving the Pan-American Highway.
  • Matt: Kiwi guy who is section hiking the North Island, having already done the South Island. He is a volunteer search and rescue guy, is a storm drain engineer and brought his laptop with him since he’s writing a historical fiction book on Marcus Aurelius.
  • Tim: Guy hiking with Rowan who was section hiking the TA I believe.
  • Armound: French guy I went up to Te Matawai with and is super fast. Did monster days.
  • Gianna and Ryan: American couple from Montana. Gianna’s shoes were completely falling apart.
  • Jo: Kiwi lady who gave us chocolate at Parawai Hut.
  • Björn: German guy with a cool bush hat and big pack.
  • Simona: Austrian lady who I met at Paekākāriki.

Status

  • Physical: 10/10 – tired going up and down from the mountains but boy do I feel good
  • Mental: 10/10
  • Distance covered: 1715km
  • Most memorable moment: Walking along the ridges in the Tararuas, sunset at Nichols Hut.
  • Toughest moment: Walking into Te Matawai Hut having done a monster day by going back to Levin.
  • Burnt-o-meter: 4/10
  • Random thoughts: Is “can” short for “canister” i.e. a can of beans?
  • Number of times I have fallen: 15
  • Jars of peanut butter finished: 10
  • Oatly bars: 61
  • Song suggestion: Adventure of a Lifetime; Coldplay

What’s Next?

The South Island! Oh man, it’s gonna be so good. We are catching a ferry across to Picton on Wednesday 11th morning of. We’ll then do the Queen Charlotte Track before heading into the Richmond Ranges, Nelson Lakes and then along through to Arthur’s Pass and gradually down the island! We also have to organise some bounce boxes to send ahead of us since there are not many shops on the South Island that are readily available for us to resupply at! Exciting times!

Comments (4)

  1. Ishbel

    Reply

    Will show Billy the monastery haha.
    Nichols knob is an unfortunate name. Especially for you to be climbing.
    How are you not physically dead after all that! I can not comprehend how your legs keep moving, I can barely walk after one leg day at the gym and you’ve done 1500km.
    You must tell about this silly situation, I miss your giggle fits !
    All the best xx

    • Al

      Reply

      Honestly, I have no idea how my legs are still going. Food I guess!
      For sure, I’ll tell it over a cup of tea and a board game when I’m back!

  2. Reid

    Reply

    Great post.
    Your tofu scramble (?) from Midnight Espresso ever show up? Reckon we should speak to the manager…
    Just been in Tararuas with Alex – saw your name twice in Waiopehu and was reminded of your bladder incident!
    Will send you some pictures.

    • Al

      Reply

      Crack up, just read this at the lab and laughed, to the bewilderment of my colleagues! Yeah, definitely have to have a chat to the manager about that.

      Amazing that you did the Tararuas with Alex, looking forward to some pictures. See you in September!

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