Holy Cow it's an Adventure!

Good Boots/Bad Boots

Our claim to fame in the local newspapers

My old faithful boots turned out to be just old and I was told to rest for a week by the Physio.  With a kind offer from Inge at the Ora Ora Resort in Kerikeri to rest in her capable hands, we were picked up and taken to her for a week of ankle icing, sleep and kind lovely people.  While in Kerikeri we were able to attend the fundraising event Inge had arranged for us, which was meant to happen when we trekked through Kerikeri but as it was all arranged, it seemed crazy not to.  We spoke to the group of Transition Town people about our plans and the money we were trying to raise and hopefully got ourselves a few more supporters. We even found time for an interview with the local newspaper journalist in the morning before we left to return to Ahipara.

We were dropped back to Ahipara (and then back in Kataia and then Ahipara all over again before I finally decided I was happy with my foot and boots - thank you Robert and Richard for humouring me on this one) for one last check up by the physio, who said (despite the strange grinding noise in my ankle) that I was good to go.  I've been given techniques to manage the injury for the 5 months of hardcore tramping and have a new pair of boots but apart from that, bring on the bush!

Day 13 - 20 - Ahipara Connection - Kerikeri

We trekked along the road for about 8.5 kms before entering Herekino Forest.  I can't tell you how good it felt to be back!  We trekked for about 4 hours in total through the forest and over small streams, at a really steady pace before deciding to make the first day back a short one.  We set up camp in the forest and had come dinner and I felt it was a good start.  The adventure begins, take 2.

The view as we came out Herekino Forest

We woke up slowly the next day and set off on our new adventure at about 7am, and in fact, the whole day took on this chilled pace and as we meandered through the Herekino forest on the fun varied track, which at times was really hard to navigate due to lots of overgrown bush and fallen trees (thank goodness for those orange markers), we took nice long breaks and lunches and chatted and laughed our way out of the forest.  My feet and pack felt great and with a really steep descent we were out of the forest and looking over an amazing view of rolling green farmland.  With the sun still shining and a camp spot chosen we went to bathe our feet and fill up our water bottles in the nearby stream.  The track had been really exciting and I love it when you don't feel like a million people have trekked it before you.  I can't wait to have many more days like this one.

We started the next day at a very similar pace, with a relaxed start and lots of photo taking, the trail took us through a gorgeous meadow with really tall ferns and wild flowers.  I found myself walking along getting whiffs of perfume from the flowers and taking everything in and it wasn't long before we both confessed we were feeling in a very lazy mood.  After the mutual laziness was voiced and after a little bit of road walking down into Takahue, we saw John the farmer, who kindly let us stay the night on his land.  We set up our tent at about 11am by a river, made a lovely washing line from our trekking poles and built a fire on some rocks.  The sun was shining and we had nowhere we had to be and life was feeling pretty good.  After a bit of yoga and numerous cups of tea it was soon the afternoon and John came over later to chat and gave us a few tips on finding the trail.  We had come a little off the official trail to find a camp spot but were still on a walking trail and he recommended we continue along the road which was actually the original trail that went through his farm land and would eventually meet up with the other one on the ridge.  He even brought us over some eggs and meat to stock up our protein levels.  Shalane and I were talking about how simple life feels when you are trekking.  You feel rewarded at the smallest of things like a camp fire, or a finding a good bush to pee behind or even tying your shoe lace with your pack on, without falling over!  Life is simple.  Life is great!
So it was time to actually do some trekking, and with our sights set on a campsite about 10.5 hours away, we set off for a really long day.  We walked down the farm track and it was about 5 minutes before we came to two locked gates.  Good start to the day we thought.  But with definite permission from John we jumped the fence and continued along the way.  We entered the field with a very noisy cow and after a few strange howls and grunts, I realised the cow wasn't constipated but was in fact trying to communicate with the herd of cows in the next
field. Being calving season, they were all over protective of their young so we held our ground and kept walking at a steady pace.  The cow crossed our path a few times before letting us past and as I looked behind I realised it was scuffing at the ground like a bull.  We turned a corner and both looked at each other and then behind us again and both confessed we expected to see the cow race around the corner after us at a charge.  We made it through the next gate to safety, but when we looked up, there were about 50 cows all looking at us.  Shalane mumbled something about being the cow whisperer for the day and as I took on my new title, I held the cow's stare as we walked slowly forward all the time saying in a high pitched, girly voice "we mean no harm little cow".  She took some budging but the cow eventually ran, taking all her mates with her and we continued up the winding track which was gradually, and then not so gradually taking us up to meet the new trail on the ridge.  Being an old trail the orange markers we were following became a little spontaneously placed and we weren't entirely sure we were heading in the right direction.  In fact, that became the theme of the day.  As we reached the new trail on the ridge of Raetea mountain and began to climb to it's 744m summit, the trail was amazingly fun and close to extinction.  Overgrown plants, fallen down trees and vines and roots and anything else you can imagine a forest to have, completely masked our path and we had just the orange markers to let us know we were on our way.  We were only ever as lost as the last bit of orange.  These eyes are now trained so hard that I can spot orange a mile away.

After our cow encounter and morning climb in Takahue

It really was an amazing trail with very steep climbs but that feeling that you are on a path that isn't so well trodden was great.  IT was such an adventure and a beautiful one too.  We stopped for short breaks in spots of sun beaming through the canopy before tackling some more vines and limboing under more fallen trees.  When we reached the peak it was a scary sensation.  We really were on a small peak with nothing but sharp declining mountain edges all around us.  As we trailed down and back up some more ridges until we reached Mangamuka mountain, past the dead possums that lined our path (enough to make a heap of Pete's Possum Pies) we were almost at the SH1, the major road that would connect us to our next trail tomorrow, when Shalane fell and hurt her foot.  After a worryingly long moment of dizzy shock and a pain assessment, she decided she was ok to continue slowly.  Luckily the initial pain had subsided and it didn't turn out too bad.  We hobbled our way out of the forest and onto the road shoulder and a long walk after a long day down the road to the rest area that we would spend the night.  After an already long day made longer by a minor set back, we retired to the tent feeling suitably exhausted, but wow, what a muscle hardening, blood pumping, eye pleasing way to spend the day!

It is safe to say the next morning was a slow one but we didn't snooze too much before we were stuffed with oatmeal and back out on that road shoulder on our way down to Mangamuka.  After a quick treat in the first shop we'd seen for a few days (mine was a cheese toasty and Shalane chocolate) we continued our journey to the Omahuta Puketi Forest Track.  We walked and walked until we were bored of bends... "just round the next corner, the next corner....oooo maybe the next one" but it felt good to be out in the sun after being sheltered by the ooodles of tall trees for a few days and I'll never get bored of those green rolling hills.  There were 2 options for this next section, a dry weather and wet weather route and as we'd have over a week of glorious sunshine we chose the dry route.  We did end up walking a little too far due to our road not being named and our map not being too good and ended up setting up camp in the Kauri Sancturary.  We were slowly starting to loose faith in our map and it later on came to let us down some more.

Low clouds over the hills surrounding the logging roads

That night we were a little low on water so we licked our bowls clean of sweet and sour lamb and again the next morning of oatmeal and thought, why didn't we just do this from the start?  We set off early the next morning and using our slightly incompetent map and instructions from Te Araroa website, along with guesstimated walking times, we lead our way down to a logging skid site that was meant to have markers leading to the next trail.  We pushed through overgrown prickly bushes and my legs got ripped to shreds on "cutty grass" but we pushed on and came to the skid site, only to find more overgrown bush and not a marker in site.  After a little chat with Edmund Kiwi (please view videos) we decided to back track and take option B which would lead us along logging roads past Omahuta Forest and into Puketi Forest.  The logging roads were like a maze and with no road names even option B felt hard.  We managed, with a little help from the logging workers, to get onto the correct road, which was actually named something different on the Te Araroa website and walk the long, long long road across to Puketi Forest.  This didn't happen without an hour of walking in the wrong direction and a lot of sole destroying doubt and unsure decisions.  It was a really mentally tough day.  I also realised on this day that the diet we were on was not enough and I spent a lot of time feeling hungry.  The meals were not even touching the side and I started feeling a little weak.  We were slowly loosing the will to carry on after being unsure if we were even on the right road when we came to a split in the road.  Neither way looked particularly obvious so we dumped our bags and each took a road for 5 minutes before reporting back with our findings.  I was extatic to find a dead end, ruling out that way for sure and never imagined Shalane would come back with the incredible news that she did!  She found a sign complete with map and a time.  We were back in the land of the living and we knew we were on the right track.  The next journey was an hour of a well used forest track which was great, but it was tough and when Shalane said the best way to describe my starved face with grey tone and sunken eyes was Death, I knew I needed to stop and eat soon.  We had limited cold food left as we were coming to the end of our days and we trekked a little more before setting up camp in the forest and eating. It felt amazing!

We made it!  Rainbow Falls

The last day felt good from start to finish.  We were determined and up and trekking  in the forest with our head torches on as the canopy kept the light out.  It was all systems go and although I love an adventure, after a couple of days of not being too sure and a little bit of back tracking, we were enjoying the knowledge of distance and time we had on this day.  The forest we were in was great with plenty of river crossings and vertical mud banks to keep us entertained.  We trekked to Puketi Recreation Area and it felt like Christmas to arrive.  We both took a celebratory pee on the real toilet  with actual loo roll and set off along the road to the Kerikeri river track.  After a few hours and a nice long chat with a friendly farmer we made it.  I even treated myself to a cheese and bacon scone at Waipapa - Mmmmm!  We stopped at Rainbow Falls and decided to give it one last push to OraOra Resort to see our lovely family there.  These were the guys that looked afted us so well when my foot was hurt and Inge was kindly accepting a food drop for us from Back Country Cusine.  The river track is an easy path and as we walked along side it in the sun we had big grins on our face and it felt like we were coming home.  The day had been a long one after about 28 kms and nearly 10 hours (including breaks) and when we arrived at OraOra, Trish and Neil, the family that are woofing at OraOra greeted us with smiles and soup and even a salt foot soak.  The boys, Richard and Robert and then Inge soon turned up and it really felt like we had really made it.  They have all been so kind to us that it will be sad to move on to the next stage of our journey, knowing that we don't have them to look forward to at the end.  We hope to see Inge and possibly the family for part of the trek a little later on but for now they will definitely remain with us in spirit.

Our Amazing Family at OraOra Resort