Author Archives: Kiwihobos

Ended up sleeping okay in the hut, it felt quite big and also quite dirty. The toiled is a composting one which is good. We headed down the track to the rocky beach and it was definitely longer than the other track. We found the spring and filled up our water bottles. On the beach it was really nice lots of nice spots to relax. Rowan and I eyed up few campsites for the tent. We are booked another night in the hut but decide to grab our gear and tent and stay down here. I found some agates in amongst the stones, so we start fossicking the beach. Rowan is waiting for the tides to jump in and do some swimming. Finally in the afternoon he gets in and finds some kina. Unfortunately it was too hard to find any crayfish. About 10 kina filled the bag he had. For dinner we had pasta with the kina in it. It was really nice, not too fishy, nutty and buttery. Our muscles are tired and my blisters need a bit of time so we decide we will spend another day at Peach Cove. We watched the sun set on a beautiful day.

My phone was dead, didn’t bother charging it as I wanted to save our battery pack for the books. Second day was spent similar to the first, lots of reading and enjoying the location. I got up at 6am and watched the sunrise. A very important part of this trip which I forgot to put in at first. The kiwis! You can hear the noisy buggers all night, it is amazing. Apparently there were 80 now the population has grown to over 1100. That is 20 years of trapping and no dogs in the area. Pretty cool to experience.

Steps, steps, steep steps & more steps

Heading off just as the day begins we have a bit of a hike today. We follow the coast for the most part, a lot of it is marine reserve. Watching boats speed past out to open waters. We turn inland for a part of it and climb a steep road, there is this colourful property on our left as we head up and it is some sort of monastery or shrine. I didn’t take photos just in case it was disrespectful. We pass Mt Mania, I look up and think glad I don’t have to climb that (it’s only 25m taller then where we are going lol). There was a natural wharf along our walk which was pretty cool to see.

Wasn’t expecting so much up and down for the Reotahi coastal track but eventually made it to Urquhart Bay and the start of the Bream Head Track. There is a man about to start a hike through Smugglers Bay who tells us some useful information about Peach Cove. There are two beaches one is sandy one is rocky. The rocky one has a natural spring nearby where the water is clean and fresh. We then walked a little bit up we sat for a spot of lunch while looking out at the beautiful views.

I had been warned that the Mt Lion Summit needs fitness as there is a lot of stairs. Well this chunker and the other chunker slowly made our way up. Somebody conveniently marked every 100 steps. At step 200 I was already sore and tired. At step 600 I thought I have another bloody 600 to go! At step 900 I though we need a holiday. When we got to 1200 we were exhausted! I was also very sweaty. Finally at the top, 395m of pretty much straight up. We took a good rest before carrying on.

Much to my demise there were more steps along the ridgeline. Finally we got to the Peach Cove turn off and had a 800m track of steep down which believe it or not had steps, 814 of them to be exact. At this point I was glad to be having a rest day at the bottom. At the DOC hut, we have the whole place to ourselves. Setting up camp and Rowan convinces me to walk down the the beach. We start on the track that gets you to the rocky beach and I tell him no way, I am not doing it. So we turn around and head to the other beach which track is very easy, but doesn’t feel like it after all those steps. After checking out the beach we head back for a wash. I feel like I have been following an 80s VCR workout for the past 5 hours and need a good scrub. We make the most of the end of day light, have dinner and hop into bed. First sleep in a DOC hut!

Not a bad start to the day! Look at that awesome sunrise. We set off around 8am and headed to Ruakaka township. We had some pills to pick up at the pharmacy, while we waited we had breakfast/brunch at the local cafe. I ended up sitting outside with the bags while Rowan shopped at the butchery and supermarket. We had a goal to be at the Wharf at Marsden Point by 3pm. Easily making the time, having a few book breaks along the way. Once we got to the wharf there were some guys fishing. They caught a Kingfish while we waited for our taxi. Blair takes Te Araroa walkers over the water, he was great I didn’t even get wet feet. We have camped up and we thought we had the place to ourselves, as only TA walkers and self contained vehicles are allowed here. But we have had a few cars show up and I think it will become a busy camping spot haha. Us South islanders don’t like sharing as we are so spoilt with not needing too. While getting lunch and dinner sorted we came across this fella

First time I have seen a frog in the wild in NZ not including the frogs we saw every year at Runamuck. We are heading into back country doc site tomorrow and may be put of reception for a few days.

Rowan ate a fly for dessert

Most of the walk was on a cycle/walk track which was quite good. We headed to Waipu Village where we got to go to three op shops and we had really good Sushi. It was a fairly early lunch but we needed the energy as it was an 18km day. In the town we bumped into three people, a guy from the Waipu campsite and a couple who were riding their bikes. From Waipu village to the beach took us an hour which means we got up to a huge 4km an hour haha. On our way one of the ladies we meet before Mangawhai on horse drove past and stopped. We had a great chat to her again. The beach walking was good, we got a break at the Uretiti Doc Campsite. Carrying on to the Ruakaka campsite which is south of the main town. Another bump and we saw the couple on their bikes again, we seem to be making friends with all the retirees who now live in campers. We got front row campsite with an awesome view. Rowan was happy to not have to cook dinner and we went down to a local food truck. Now we are cosy in our tent with our books. Rowan got a nice fly in his mouth for dessert yummy!

We had a great day relaxing. I really should allow my blisters to heal up properly but I am just going to try nurse my feet through. We sat down at the beach having some fish and chips for lunch. Rowan had a chance to do a few edits to his walking stick and add a washing line into our tent inner. I got lots of reading done and relaxed my feet as much as possible. At this campground you get unlimited showers which is a nice change from paying for them. We cooked dinner in the kitchens and made breakfast sandwiches for the next day.

Waipu, because you need too!

What a day! Headed off to the beach from camp and bumped into a couple we chatted to at the op shop yesterday. We ended up walking the whole beach with them until the track came up. We made this mistake of not eating before we set off so by the time we stopped at the top of the coastal track we had worn out all our energy.

We eventually turned off the track to go onto the Bream track through farmland, towards the end of the track we had a very muddy path and I got stuck and had a wee meltdown. Continuing on until we reached Cove Road, we followed all the way down to Langs Beach. On the beach we met an Irish man who we chatted to for a good 15min. We finally found some shade and cooked up some lunch.

After lunch we headed over to Dings Bay then up onto the Waipu coastal track. The track was really beautiful and very interesting. There really wasn’t a fast pace. I really started flaking and started hurting myself. I slipped in the mud and hurt my knee then a few steps later a tree came out of nowhere and hit me on the head (tree was always there). The last 3km was horrid for me. But was also really lovely scenery which kept me moving.

It was a 15km day, tomorrow I plan to do nearly nothing. We really need to wash our clothes and I am hoping to sort my blisters out!

We didn’t go far today. We left all our gear at the trail angels house and headed into the village to check out a couple of Saturday markets. We had a chance to go to the local butchers. Then we headed back to pick up our gear and bring down the tent (we left it out to dry). It is only a 6km walk to the campground and we just took our time. Really easy road walking for the most part. We found Oasis bar & eatery for lunch, it was average. Then we headed to the four square and got some more food supplies. We happened to cross paths with an op shop that we had a good nosy around. Finally on to the campground. We are the only tent in the North side of the camp because they won’t allow cars through here as it is wet. The bathrooms are all new and play music when you walk in. There was a great spit for the kitchen that has a large deck with great views. A couple of the permanent caravans are here other than that we have the area to ourselves. After dinner I got to have some cake as a treat, we will eat the rest for breakfast. All in all we did about 8km of walking.

100km milestone!

We made out 100km milestone today wahoo! Let’s hope the next 100km is easier!What a day, we also did our longest day so far 22km. We left at 8am and got here just past 4pm. We didn’t have a proper break just 10min here and there. I had real trouble with keeping the stamina and body moving especially towards the end. I have a blister under a blister now ouchy. The day had off and on again showers which kept us moist. The first part of the walk I did in sandals and Rowan did barefoot. That was until we did a couple of river crossings then we put our shoes on. At the end of the beach walking at Te Arai we had some lovely horse riders offer us a lift (last 7km). Both sorely tempted but we were determined to make it on foot. We also came across a guy on a motorbike who stopped to chat about the walk as he plans to start in November from Bluff. As we got into Mangawhai village a car pulled up. It was the teacher from the hiking group they had made it over Mt Tamahunga in time for the bus. So we had a chat to him for a few minutes. Absolutely exhausted by this point we only had a few hundred metres to the trail angels house. Trail angels are people willing to let you put a tent in their yard for the night. This trail angel is actually part of the Te Araroa Trust and they have quite a good set up. We eventually made camp and showered. I wanted to go to the tavern for dinner but my feet were so sore I couldn’t make the 10min walk. In the end we had a few beers and some tasty fish and chips. I am now ready to sleep!

The weather forecast was foul so we decided to stay two nights at the campground. I went out like a light and felt refreshed in the morning. We got some eggs from the camp shop and promptly scrambled them up. The Cambridge School kids didn’t eat all of their bacon and hashbrowns and offered us their left overs. Which we gratefully ate. We had a leisurely day and took a small walk to the beach. It was a much needed rest day. About 5.30pm a heap of school kids, 2 teachers and ranger showed up. They were walking from Waipu as part of a school trip. It was great to hear about their journey quite a few had pulled out along the way. One even convinced their mum to make an 1.5hr return trip to give them some 50c coins for a hot shower. So just remember family I may call upon you for assistance 😉

No, nah, naha, nope

An early start, we packed up and headed off just before 7am. We have made a conscience decision to get up early in the morning. We would rather relax and waste time in the afternoons. The sunrise was really stunning and there was this low fog hugging the hills. There was a 3km road walk to the start of the track which takes you through a gully.

This was really good to get the body warmed up. On the track I had my first lot of bum shuffles, the track was so steep and muddy it was the only way to get down safely. As we crossed the bridge we had some raro and muesli bar. The next few kilometres was up. We finally got onto a better formed track for Mt Tamahunga, about 9.30am we had some breakfast and a small break. We made it to the helipad at 11.30am and had lunch

Here is where mentally I went wrong. I thought we had done the hardest part and that is was mostly a steep decent but the track should be okay. Well how wrong we were! Along the walk we met a DOC worker who was clearing and resetting traps, we told him there is a few stoats caught. He warned us that cows had been through the track and it was rather muddy. Well he forgot to mention I would also me die trying to get up such a slippy muddy slope! Still in ignorant bliss we had a couple of spots where I needed to use my caboose and one even had a rope to help.

Then we came to muddy saddle and it was bad! I had a cry half way through and joked to get a helicopter to get me out. It was pretty crazy, we took our time and Rowan stayed a couple steps ahead to help me through it. Rowan actually reminded me why I keep him today he was helpful through the whole day 😉 lol

We finally made it to solid ground and could see amazing views of the coastline. We decided we will make it to the holiday park so we called up to book a campsite. Worried that the check in would be closed, the lovely lady put a few dollars worth of 50c coins in an envelope so we could have a hot shower. It was a fairly deep decent down through farmland to Pakari, but at least the mud wasn’t too bad. Finally on the road with 2.5km to go to the campground. We stopped for a few minutes to get some more energy in and made our way to the beach. About halfway Rowan wanted a break, we had only just sat down and he realised we had time before the camp shop shut if we hurried. Honestly I know he loves food but he took off leaving me in his dust. I couldn’t keep up at the pace and length those legs took him. Finally we reached our destination just before 5pm it was a long hard day.

We got the tent all set up and I had a well deserved ice cream! Taking off my boots felt amazing. By the time we showered and ate dinner it was about 7.30pm. There is a group of school kids on a trip (about 20) with two teachers who told us to tell them if they are being to noisy. Well they were noisy but absolutely fine. Tomorrow we will stay in Pakari, have a walk on the beach but not leave the area.