They day began with a committee meeting for my grandparents anniversary plans.  My mother and her sisters are getting the last items organised.  I hid in the downstairs flat and had a video chat with my little sister and cute we niece.  This also gave me a chance to organise our gear in the room. I came up for a coffee at one point and my mum tried to rope me into the connversation, oh hell no, I thought.  I don’t think they need another persons opinion.  By the time the meeting was over I had a quick typing job from them, which I was happy to do.

That afternoon mum and I headed off to my sisters house in Sandringham.  I roped mum into helping me alter my dress, for the wedding.  We arrive at Emma’s and get to work, I am lucky my mum is clever as I had no clue.  Then a little monkey arrived home and we got to playing with farm blocks, do you see a pattern?  Then unfortunate news reached me, Rowan’s grandad had passed away this morning.  It sounds like he just got a chance to see him before he went.  I am glad we got him on a plane yesterday.  Feeling very useless I can’t really help in anyway.  The night carries on and my dress is now at a length I won’t trip on.

Friday morning, mum has a lunch time flight, I get the use of her car until I fly out on Monday.  We get little Ellery ready, then she strips herself off to have a “bath” this is a pretend bath on the couch.  Which I happily do while Emma gets ready.  Once they’re out the the door mum and I get to work doing the sleeves of the dress.  When I say “we,” I mean mum, I just try it on so the right length is achieved.  However I get a chance to clean up some toys while we get the job done.  Then it is off to the airport.  As I am driving into the international area I realise that we are early, let’s have a coffee!  we kill some time and I drop her off. 

I then head east Auckland to my dads house in Beachlands for lunch.  I get a really nice surprise as my littlest sister (step) Alice is there.  Big hugs! Later I tell them about poor Rowan and his families loss.  We have a nice lunch, I probably stay longer than I should (TRAFFIC) but that is fine.  By the time I get over the Harbour Bridge and past Takapuna I have just hit five o’clock.  I make the decision to go to Albany rather than continue with the traffic.  Now Google maps can only guide you so much, the axiety of driving is bad.  It really isn’t too bad if you know where your going and all the lanes you should stay in to make life easier. I end up in the wrong lane in the wrong direction and it is a couple of kilometres before I can get off and turn around. At one point I also don’t realise I should be in that lane and the traffic is built back so far by the time Google tells me, you need to merge in and push in like a dick.  Little off topic, any hoo I get to Hallensteins and I have a load of messages from Rowan and a few don’t make any sense.  A back and forth for 20min he realises the texts from his mum phone were not coming through.  As I write this it still feels other worldly.  Rowan went to give his uncle (mum’s brother) a coffee in the morning and found him blue and unresponsive.  Joanne started CPR straight away and Rowan called for an ambulance.  Rowan’s uncle Grahame sadly passes away. As he is telling me I am in shock. Understandably he doesn’t want to chat on the phone.  A very surreal moment, as I am writing this days after and still in shock.  Rowan was quick thinking and kept his grandma out of the room so she couldn’t see what was going on.  Joanne (Rowans mum) of course is very upset. 

I get into Hallenstein just before they shut for the suit. I am not really paying attention to what is going on, but I some how complete all my errands in Albany.  It is about 6.30pm when I get going on the road back to Whangaparaoa.  I am glad ghe errands took so long and I have to concentrate to drive back.

I woke up to a grim text from Joanne (Rowan’s mum), his grandad is in hospital and she will keep us updated. We spent Tuesday running around Albany picking up gear and returning faulty gear. There is a need for a suit with a pink bow tie! Hallenstiens has cheap $199 suits which will work. We have needed to get a different size in from another store and wait for it to arrive. Over the road to the mall we go to the pharmacy for a special request from Australia of hand cream. The lady was most unhelpful so I ordered it online, hopefully it arrives before we jet off. Heading to Kmart for some more bottles but alas there is none on the shelf. I wanted to go to Specsavers to adjust my glasses and Rowan’s name gets called out. Who on earth would know Rowan? Well here we are again third time bumping into the lovely Mark from Mangawhai. Hilarious we keep bumping into him. I head in the wrong direction but eventually get to specsavers where I am told to wait for an unreasonable amount of time so we leave. We continue our jobs in Silverdale, then kill some time op shopping until the car goes in for a warrant. Back at the Woolf’s I get a chance to tackle a pile of mess in the flat. Rowan’s mum is wanting Rowan to pop over early to Australia so will see if we can get him on a flight.

It takes all day to organise Rowan’s flight to Australia. Getting through on the phone was impossible so we jump into the car and go to the store. The lady tells us it will take some time and to go home and wait for a phone call. We get back to my Grandparents and we get a phone call so we turn around and go back. We decide not to leave until it is sorted. Flight centre said the airline needed a letter from his Grandads GP to say it was a medical emergency. Joanne Rowan’s mum was on her own flight and we waited for her to land, told her what we need. Luckily the thought to go to his GP rather than attemp a doctor at the hospital. Around 1pm it was finally sorted. We had about 45min to get back to Tindalls Bay, pack his bags. Then rushed off to the airport to get his flight. If anything is forgotten I can bring it on Monday.

First day back and I am making a mess of the downstairs flat. Our clothes & gear are in desperate need of washing. I get a chance to scrub our boots so I can freshen up the leather once dry. There is a fair amount of gear in Wellsford I need to pick up. I start organising clothes, and cooking gear. Rowan purchased a cheap mat to cut up and experiment with our sleeping system. He didn’t want to cut up our costly Nemo mats. He’s been able to half the weight with some clever edits. I got a chance to finish my book, last one in the series and start a new book. The love birds went out for lunch leaving us to have a party. Unfortunately it was a bit late notice so no one showed.

Monday morning we headed to Wellsford for babysitting duties. Skylar had a sore ear and we got to spend the day playing with lego and painting nails. I especially loved the lego! I pick up all our gear and meet Clare at her work. In the end I forget my camera! Doh

Thumbs up!

Lorraine (our camp neighbour) was incredibly kind and dropped us off at the Kerikeri market. Which was a great collection of different stalls, much more diversity than the Mangawhai markets. We got some goodies from the French patisserie then headed off to the round about to put the thumb out. We tried to find a spot that was easy to see and heaps of room to pull over. I had my thumb out and I smiled and waved at every car that passed. There were a few grouchy faces but most people smiled at us and waved back. It didn’t take long and a lovely fella named Casey pulled over. He had just had a swim and was heading to Whangarei. Heaps of room in the ute we hopped in. Absolutely lovely guy, talked about all sorts of stuff, most of his whanau are in Australia and spent his childhood in Sydney. He was a good driver, with a reggae soundtrack which made me feel at ease. Casey gave us a couple of drop off options. One just after Bunnings which is a fairly good spot to hitch next or all the way down to Ruakaka area as he lives at One Tree Point, but we need to shop at Bunnings first. Not a problem for us we head to Bunnings for some quickcrete. Lucky we have our powerpass card on our phones, we save him 28c on his bill. I tell him I bet you are glad you picked us up now lol. We get to his turn off ans he takes us past his exit so we are on the right side of the road and cars are heading in the right direction. Such a awesome guy, we offer some money but he refuses.

Thumb goes out again, this time I get bored pretty easy and my left arm is hurting faster. These cars appear to be a lot less pleasant and I get less waves than I did in Kerikeri. I pull out the dance moves and do a thumb dance. Well that perks the grumpy bastards up and I get a lot of laughs. It also makes me smile and feel better about waiting for a ride. Again not long and we get a small hatchback pull over. Thanks to our awesome neighbours in chch I know we can fit in one of those. Mark is heading to the airport and is more than happy to drop us at Orewa. Time flies by with chatty Mark and we learn all about him. I think his wife left him alone too long as he did have a lot to say. Before we knew it we were in Orewa around 1pm. The most disheartening thing about this is how long it took us to walk the small amount it takes in a car! We get some kai then head to catch a bus. Before we know it we are walking up into the De Luen Inn and trying not to wake the hosts. I tried my best not to creep up on Nana when I heard her wake up, luckily I didn’t give her a fright. It is really nice being back at the grandies and getting a chance to catch up again. We have a to do list before we get on the plane in a week, I will endeavour to be entertaining and leave out the boring parts.

A much needed break!

A bit passed our best before date, we decide Waitangi Campground is so peaceful that we stay 4 nights and 3 days. We take a small walk each day to keep the body moving but other than that we lazed about, talked to neighbours, read our books and enjoyed the scenery

Back and forth we debated going a bit further to Kerikeri, in the end we decided to not go any further. Our neighbour offered a ride for tomorrow to Kerikeri so we can hitch back to Whangaparaoa easily. Rowan’s school friend is getting married, we need to head to Australia so he can be a bridesmaid. The following weekend my grandparents are having their 70th Wedding Anniversary which has been delayed several times. So we are pausing our walk for celebrations

With a short day ahead we left rather late and headed to Russell. Lucky for us there is a small trail which meant we didn’t have to be on the road. Along the road two bikers gave us a toot, we recognised them straight away as the bikers at the farm and waved back. Once we got into Russell we saw them at the wharf and had a chat. There was an op shop we had a sniff around in too while we waited for the next ferry.

The ferry comes every 30min which makes it a very fast wait.

Once in Paihia we went to get some lunch at a rib shack place. Food was good but not great. A couple of beers later and a chat to our waiter we found that the local backpackers owner was in having lunch too. He said we could make our way over and stay the night in the campground bit. So we slowly walked there, mostly because I have a brand new blister on my sole. Finally we get there and the place is pretty grotty and it felt dodge as. We decide to go back to our original plan and stay at the Waitangi campground, so we head back the way we came. Finally at the campground we bump into our first Te Araroa hiker. Dirk the German is heading south. We chat and swap notes about where and where not to go. Heading for a rest day tomorrow, can’t wait!

Our longest day yet!

We got 23.5km today, I am now pretty pooped! We headed off around 8.30am and headed down the road. We found quite a few escaped moos along the way. We carried on Russell Road which turned into dirt road. It is a beautiful walk through Kauri forest, there was literally no one on the road. We only saw one lady and her dog Muffin at the very end of the gravel road.

About 12km of our day was done when we hit tarmac again. About 4km after that I started getting pretty worn out as we tried to up the pace. Well we slowed back down and took our time. Throughout the day we took plenty of breaks and I am glad we did. We got offered a ride 500m from the campground so I said thank you but no thank you. Typical I would have said yes if I it was earlier. We arrived at Orongo Bay at 5.30pm there is a food truck as we walk into camp, lucky for us they close at 7pm. Quickly pitch camp, shower and go to eat! Rata’s kitchen has Asian fusion food and it was delicious. We went back for seconds as it was so good.

Did I even have a rest day?

Man I am exhausted! Today was harder than it should be. I feel like my body is screaming for me to give it a break for a few days not just one day. Mentally I started out all good around 15km to walk and fairly easy road walking. But quickly it got harder and harder. I had to take a few breaks in order to get my body to our destination. When I finally saw the signs for the farm I was very happy. Finally we made it. The Farm is a little like a hippy comune. There are 25 full time people living here, and a bunch of transient stayers and of course campers. 1000 acres of land that has mostly dairy cows, anyone is welcome to stay.

I am trying to get my head around getting up towards Russell tomorrow, it is quite a few km walk ahead so here is hoping my bod is up for it

We decided to take a rest day. Alex & Dave are heading into Whangarei for a boat part and we decide to tag along. We get a chance to do a small shop at the supermarket and some McDonald’s for breakfast. We got back around lunchtime had a cuppa and walked down to Helena Bay. The walk was lovely, Toto & Kowhai ran and ran fetching sticks. We wore them out, once we got home the went fast asleep. In the estuary there are hundreds of eels. Apparently locals have been feeding them for years and some are 50 years old. It was a nice chill day Dave cooked a roast for dinner, we did apple pie for dessert. Feeling a bit more fresh.

The day begins great, Mark & Kerry offer us a lift to bypass all of the road section. Part of me wanted to say no, but we say yes. We had already made the decision that we are not allowed to put a thumb out but we can say yes to lifts if they are offered. This now means we don’t need to walk the purple alternative road route, we start at the 314km mark. This is 20km taken off our day already. I was tempted to have a rest day in Whananaki because we need one but this was worth another day. We knew we would need to break the hike up into two if we did all of it.

I feel a bit car sick once we finally reach the drop off point. We picked up another Te Araroa Trustee who is helping and doing a car shuffle with them. He automatically recognises us as his friend Patrick told him all about us. We met Patrick on Ocean Beach, he had the Ebike I was envious over. We get a photo with him for Patrick and we head off down the road. It is about a kilometre before we hop onto the farmers track. Eventually we reach a style which gets us into the bush, I see how muddy it is and we get our gaiters on.

We find a spot where the farmer (Rowan) has a small tank of drinkable water and a area for hikers to camp for the night. This is where we would have needed to stay to break up the walk. Further along we slowly climb up the ridge until we meet some cows. Which follow us in hope for some food. They are not happy when they realise we have none and moo very loudly.

We are now back on farm track for a while, until we get back into the bush. Once on the official Helena Bay Ridge Track we have a break. We need a lot of breaks today, mentally doing fine but our bodies are so tired. Rowan is trying to work out if our bodies are in need of something like protein. One of our biggest issues with todays track is we were told it is all down hill. Well it’s technically down, but there sure is a lot of down then back ups. My knees hurt going down and my thighs and legs burn going up. It takes us some time to walk down into Helena Bay

Dave a trail Angel comes and picks us up. I am very thankful as I am well worn out. He doesn’t live far off the track but I was done. Alex & Dave have a cool off grid set up. There is a caravan for us to sleep in, a flushing toilet and a hot shower. Dave & Alex Cook us up some Kai while we have a shower and a drink. Alex is an artist, it is really cool to see her studio. We eat and drink into the night, however we don’t last long. In bed by 8pm absolutely knackered, they say we can stay another night if we are needing a rest. Which I think is what we will do.