Offline

Just a quickie to let you know that Shalane and I will be out of touch for a wee while.  We keep getting up and trekking and setting our sights on reachable goals but something appears to want to stop us.  After a constant battle with all things nature, whether it be weather or whether it be health or whether is be the general bush, something appears to want to slow us down!

We have recently ended back in Te Kuiti, somewhere that took us a week to trek away from as Shalane became sick from Gardia (a parasite from the water) and things have just not been on our side recently.

As a result, we have decided to go at it and go at it hard and therefore will not be updating the internet until we have beat whatever New Zealand has to throw at us.  We won't have a lot of time as we need to get to Wellington for our ferry crossing but will update you as soon as possible.

In the meantime Happy Christmas and New Year folks!

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of......State Highway 1!

I wish I could say that every part of every day of this trek is beautiful and great but there were always going to be slightly less inspiring parts.  I won't bore you with the details but......Ok, I will.

I feel that so far we have painted quite an idyllic picture of us skipping through meadows with the sun always shining and an amazing view always waiting for us around the corner or up a mountain but we haven't really gone into detail about how crusty our one outfit is or how we have to unpack and repack absolutely every last thing in our smelly backpacks every day of every week.  To be quite honest with you, these things don't really bother me too much. 

However, the trials of the trail are something that do get really tough and when the only way is onwards, it is sometimes difficult to remain motivated and keep walking.  The 3 days following Auckland were mainly road walking.  Long, endless boot on tarmac style road walking and this can can be tough for a few reasons.  Firstly, is the physical aspect.  When walking on a hard, flat surface for a long period of time everything that can hurt does.

The weight of the pack on top and the hard tarmac below means your ankles swell and calves tighten.  The backpack moves with every single step and causing bruising your shoulders and painful back muscles.  When usually on a trail the surface underfoot varies, the road is relentless!  Also really nasty is the constant intrusive and loud traffic as it rushes past you, swerving at the last minute.

But that's not all.....

One of the more quiet roads outside of Auckland but still Tarmac

Next is the pure boredom factor!  I don't mind road walking too much when you are on a quiet, country road, looking out over the rolling hills or ocean or at all the new born spring animals with nobbly knees and ears too big for their head but road walking in the Auckland suburbs, which can I say are endless, was a little tough on the eye.  I think it was a motivational issue more than the actual job in hand as you get the feeling you really are just walking from A to B with B being the goal, instead of all the little bits in between being part of it too, and because of that, you can never quite get there fast enough.  Having to walk along in a built up area for 8 hours each day for 3 days before we felt like we were even nearly out of the Auckland area was hard to get out of tent for, even with the promise of oatmeal and powdered milk.

So there we would be, walking along the dark, grey, tarmac.  If we were lucky, we'd have a pavement or a wide verge but often we'd have to dive into ditches, praying that the crazy driver coming towards us had seen us hobbling along.  Sometimes, on slightly busier roads we'd walk along the verge for a while giving us that sensation of having one leg longer than the other as the small verge sloped to a steep gutter.  I think you are getting the picture, but just in case you're not...... Our breaks were spent mostly in people's driveways looking out over that lovely asphalt and if we were ever bored of looking at the road and traffic, there was plenty of litter and of course, roadkill.  The roadkill came in different shapes and sizes and stages of decay and sometimes you would even smell it before you saw it.  However, luck was looking up and just south of Auckland we were taken off road and onto a grassy trail..  It passed through a really great campsite with some farm animals and out the other side down a track with some ickle bunnies hopping around and just when we were starting to enjoy the off road experience it guided us through to a water treatment site and onto a landfill area.  Great!

Notice the two small signs either side of me pointing at each other

All this aside we still managed to have a giggle and when walking along one day we came across two Te Araroa signs pointing towards each other in the middle of the road and we knew we were in for a treat in this new area.  The Te Araroa Trust has been building this trail with assistance from local councils so the signs and trail standards have been a little inconsistent, which is actually great and makes life a little more interesting but the Manakau area was special.  The next sign we saw pointed us down a road and we had written instructions from the Te Araroa website in case of no signs.  Well, we followed this track further and further looking in all directions for a sign or orange arrow or something and after sitting down and having some lunch having realised that even the instructions were of no use, we retraced our footsteps, only to join back on the (yep you guessed it) road.  Having walked 8Kms and wasted nearly 2 hours we were feeling pretty poo.  That day we finally reached our goal which was Totara Park where we set up camp for the day, having walked 38 kms and felt suitably exhausted!  The good news is, we still had the crossword book.  Shalane and I were not feeling like enough of a married couple, sharing a tent (even though we are topsy tailed), spending every waking moment, discussing bowel movements and future plans and all those other intimate details, our "relationship" just wasn't complete.  So, with the purchase of a crossword book in Auckland we settled down that night to an ice cream and a good old mind puzzle.

When we arrived in Clevedon and found a pretty camp spot in a scenic reserve, we finally felt like we'd left the big smoke behind us.  We decided on a rest day as the next section consisted of a new trail which our maps were too old show and with the non-existent signs we'd recently experienced, it was better to face what the Hanua Ranges had to throw at us having had a day of putting our feet up.

First Climb of the Hanua Ranges

The following day was really great.  It began with more road walking which was just as boring and shite as I remembered but the road soon turned to gravel and the gravel road soon got smaller and smaller until it was a narrow footpath.  The footpath was the Wairoa River track and it really was beautiful.  The lush green trail followed the river as it meandered along through woodland and fields.  Goodbye ruddy road and hello terrific trail and swanky signs!  I didn't realise how much I had missed those orange arrows.  We were on cloud 9 and actually skipped along like kids who had just received their weekly intake of E numbers. 

Our perfect campspot

After a while we were lead into the Hanua Ranges and although there was a trail heading south which is where we were heading, the Te Araroa sign lead us north and east and all sorts before we had no clue where we were but with our trust back in the signage and the adrenaline from having a good overdue sweat from the mountains we happily flew along the trail and it felt amazing!  Even our campsite that night was perfect, with a small stream running nearby so we could soak our feet and top up water (not in that order) after a long but very enjoyable day.

The next day was just as good and had some interesting parts where our navigational skills sure were put to the test.  Towards the end of the Hanura ranges all orange arrows disappeared and in their place were pink dots of paint!  We followed the dots, not sure at all if we were meant to and our doubts were confirmed when we were lead to our near death down a vertical mountain edge.  We had to slide down on our bums at times because standing over a 10 meter drop with 20 kgs on your back and nothing to help you but a couple of poles and the odd tree just wasn't going to work.  We were completely surprised but delighted to find the Te Araroa sign at the bottom confirming that we were actually in the correct place.  To top off another brilliant day of hard climbing, hard sweating and good fun, we found another perfect camp spot.  After having an icey bath in the river and as we laid in the sun, with a river flowing next to us and our gorgeous little tent sitting on a flat, unlumpy patch up sheltered grass we looked at each other and said "this is what it's all about".

After a morning of land slides, strange cows and electric fences it was back to the road and I immediately went into a daze of dullness.  When we came around the corner in Mercer and saw the Golden Arches it was a sliding door moment and sucked in by the temptation, Shalane and I had a big bad Maccy Ds. The first one for as long as I can remember and that afternoon became a right off.  I was not happy with myself!

Riverside lunch stop

We slept that night on the top of a hill with the sound of State Highway 1 loud below us and it was a sound that we would be hearing for the next couple of days.  As we walked from Mercer to Rangariri to Huntly we were often off road, following the stopline of the Wikato River which was beatufil and allowed us to find more riverside camp spots.  However, the highlight of this section has to be the nice ice truck driver.  As we road walked some more from Huntly West to the Hakarimata Mountain Ranges, just south of the town, with the afternoon sun pounding down on us and cars rushing past us, a lovely man driving an ice truck pulled in to the layby and handed us both an ice cold bottle of orange and passionfruit juice, shouting "you look a bit hot" before speeding off, barely giving me time to thank him.  The guy was a genious!  Wherever you are in the world and whatever you are doing now Mr Truck Driver, thank you!

Our view from the Hakarimata Ranges

The Hakarimata ranges were my kind of forest trail. Although it began a little touristy, with the forest bed replaced with a gravel path, it soon turned into a windy forest path, complete with roots and vines to avoid tripping over and branches to limbo under.  It followed the ridgeline of the ranges so was asending and decending slightly along the way so working up a good sweat and we completed the 8 hour track in 4 hours feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. We walked into Hamilton along SH1 was confirmation that we were ready for the bush.  The highway was very busy, the afternoon heat was at a max and after a trail of roads to walk on and roads to listen too, I realised that what I need is a good, isolated bush and I have a feeling that this next section will be just what I am looking for.

We'll spend our rest day tomorrow in Raglan, by the beach before setting off for what looks like a very interesting part of Te Araroa and I really can't wait!