Russell Onwards

Ricky Morton gave us a lift into Auckland in the morning with no complications, like pile-ups etc! After walking around to try and find a few last minute things, we had a kebab and headed down to catch the bus to Paihia. The Naked bus arrived! Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you see it, no one was naked. 3 and a half hours later we were in Paihia waiting for the ferry to arrive. Our personal shuttle (no one else was there) to Russell arrived and we paid $21 (~£10 pounds) to cross. An awesome sunset and moon lit our way across the water where we were met by Jane and Jeff Hindle. Back at their awesome house (complete with half built yacht in the yard) we were given free reign of the downstairs guest house. After a delicious dinner of sausages and potato salad, we all crashed out on the floor (beds were available but we thought we’d try and get used to the sleeping on the ground).

The next day we milled around in the morning, mainly doing website things and building beer can stoves out of cans of Speights (Anders’ new favorite beer!). After breakfast we thought we’d give our legs a stretch on a short walk. We walked down into Russell to get some food for the day then continued on to Long Beach. We ate our lunch on some rocks, in the audience of 20 or so really annoying seagulls and then attempted to fish for whatever we could catch. After not catching anything we went exploring. All the way along Long Beach, around the headland, over more rocks, along another small beach and finally up some small track at the back of the beach. We didn’t really know where it would take us but the sun was up and the weather looked good, so we didn’t fear. And BEHOLD what it provided!

After an early start on the 23^rd, if by early you mean 8am, we wandered down to the wharf where a Tall ship was waiting. If you don’t know what a tall ship is, it’s a pirate ship. 

This particular Tall ship is called the R. Tucker Thompson and it is run under a charitable trust, taking tourists out for day sails to pay for berthing costs and in the winter months running week-long leadership and teambuilding cruises for less fortunate children. Greeting us was Tom (the first mate) a legend hailing from Canada who fell in love with Tall ships after climbing around on the rigging a couple of years back. Skipper Beast, destined to be a farmer turned to boat building and then discovered that he could get paid for sailing Tall ships, a lifestyle choice that is serving him well. Both awesome guys that handle the ship well and gave us a great day out, jumping from the rigging, swimming to shore and handling the ropes. Gotta say that this is a wicked thing to do if you’re around Russell, we just had the best day!

Jane became even more awesome by driving us all the way… to Kaitaia, which definitely had a Pak-N-Save. Tank I need food, lots of food. After shopping we were introduced to Jane’s friend Bronwyn Hunt (a regional counselor for Northland) which was cool. Re-structuring our backpacks to handle so much taste took a while and just as we finished Abe Witana pulled in. We threw our backpacks in the trunk said thank you to Jane and Abe drove us Northward. We were all pretty excited to talk to Abe because he was the first Maori that we had the time to get to know and from what we heard he knew. Abe has an amazing knowledge of bushcraft and tucker, of which we absorbed as much as we could. Saying bye to Abe at the Cape was pretty crazy, we were now ‘unsupported’ – everything is carried by us. Lucky we are more prepared than some kitted out with great gear from our sponsors which up until this point we haven’t really used.

A quick chicken later and we walked down to the Lighthouse. It was getting late and as we walked down it began to hit home that we were walking 1800 miles and are packs are HEAVY. (Landey) "I think we took way too much food but Anders insisted on butter etc. needless!" An inaccurate estimation put our packs at around 25kgs. Lots of spiritual-ness on the Cape which we paid more attention to this time, which has nothing to do with our walk but was awesome to learn a bit about Maori’s religious beliefs (the Cape is protected land because that is where the Maori dead enter the afterlife, there is also a Pohutukawa tree that never blooms). Anyway got a picture of the Signpost and we took off towards Bluff… TASTY TREK GO!

Kia Ora!

First off we apologize for not writing in ages, but we've been so busy that there has been no time to write. 
Secondly let me tell you the purpose of this blog. We have re-thought our ideas for the website, and this blog is going to have shorter, day-based, entries whilst the interactive map will have more points designed to pin point points of interest and longer, track based posts. Having said that I think we'll just write whatever and see what happens (i think we all are starting to feel that loads of videos and pictures are a better way to tell our stories). 


Soooo. Auckland.
Oh and I forgot to say that we are going to try and write our blogs as close to how we would say it as possible, in an effort to make it less dull. So there will be bits of our slang mixed in, but we have done our best to remove any swearing or potentially offensive words (if taken the wrong way).

What has happened? Saxon Tint and Caia Dominicus drove Anders and I to the airport where we got on a ridiculously long flight. 25 hours flying and we are in Auckland. Chilled on the grass in the parking lot for 5 hours and met up with DM, who flew from Dubai via Singapore. Unfortunately he had a gruelling 14 hour wait in the airport before continuing onto Auckland.

Ricky Morton (old friend of the Fords) showed up and drove us to his house in Castor Bay, which is sickness. Quick trip to the supermarket and we were eating some choice cuts and let me tell you, Stephan (an adventurous, traveller) and Dave (Ricky's brother) know how to cook a steak, super taste.

Day 2 and we cruized into Auckland to spend money and take it all in, still kinda jaded bout being in NZ. Spent a load of money but got most of the shiz we needed. 

Day 3 and we headed back into Auckland to get the DOC hutpasses setting us back $92 dollars each (better be worth it!). Then, back in Castor Bay, Dave drove us to a volcanic lake which the locals use for cliff diving. Totally sweet. havent lept off a rock in some time and that was the business. cliff jumping video

Motivation to get stuff done kicked in on the 20th and we packed a little and headed with Ricky on a trip to Piha beach. One car crash later... no seriously we were in a 6-car pileup. Ricky though, has the skills and avoided the crash only to have some guy slam into the back of us. Unfortunately he's gunna have to have the back bumper and maybe door replaced but thankfully no one was hurt, at all. Carried on to Piha beach which was taste. 


It was low tide so we could walk out to Lion Rock - a massive rock which was a local hangout for spiritual Maori's, or something... there was a Pou (wooden totem, a guardian) and some  plaques and stuff. Should've probably learnt a little more about the significance of it but there was some sweet volcanics and rock pools to pay attention to. On the scenic drive back we managed to miss our turn by 50 miles or so... still the vegetation (lots of ferns and palms and huge trees (still cant wait to see a Kauri tree though) here makes drives that much more fun. Back at home we had a sick party and...well, you know...

In between all that stuff happening we've been getting the tents prepped for some serious rain (which actually came on Saturday night) by 'sealing' the seams with a silicone paste mixed with petrol, smells pretty terrible but now the tents are fully watertight and have grippy bases (thicker silicone).

Everyone here is pretty awesome. Massive huge thank you to Helen, Ricky and Dave Morton for putting us up for 4 days!

On the bus now to Paihia to catch the ferry to Russell and stay with Jane Hindle (an old friend of Anders and DM's mum) for a day or two, where we will pack up some food and water before finally starting the TASTYTREK! 

- Landey