Auckland to Hamilton

Can't believe week 6 has past already! The days seem to be merging together as we continue to have more and more amazing experiances, like watching the sun set ... on top of a volcano! But don't you worry we will have even more incredible travel stories as the trek goes on. We start the next part of the journey down New Zealand from Hamilton towards Tongariro. Lets take a quick look back at what we have just done.


Day 41 - With lots to do we repacked and restocked our bags and supplies, prepared everything that needed to posted, and finally figured out where to buy a vodaphone vodem. Knowing that we would be back on the trail, we made a decisions to eat as much as we could as it was back to couscous with soup for dinner.
Sadly we said goodbye and thank you to The Mortons, and then Ricky (Anders old school friend) drove us into Milford to deposit our mail and pass by the vodaphone store; however the post office was closed. Ricky generously said he would post them for us the next day. We were however successful at Vodaphone, although it did take us until Hamilton to get wirelessly connected! Ricky dropped us off on Mill Rd outside Papatoetoe. Back on the road. Back to the bush. Back to the beautiful country. To be honest it doesn't really feel like we left. From Mill Rd we head roughly South East on the roads most of the day, zig-zagging on the roads until we got to McNicol Rd just south of Clevedon. The road slowly got smaller and turned into a pleasant walking track following the Wairoa River. Not too far along the walking track we made camp right next to the flowing water.

Day 42 - Breakfast was so delicious, the best porridge, with some Apricot, Honey and Vanilla Dried Yoghurt Powder, a dash of cinammon and brown sugar. Down the Wairoa River Track it was an easy start. River on your right and wild mint at your feet with only a little goarse!
The track just kinda ended without any warning (we didn't check our progress because the trail was so well trodden and marked) and we walked on road to the Cossey Dam! pretty cool but it's a earth barrier dam so it's not really that impressive, just looks like a hill with water behind it.
We headed up the Wairoa Cosseys Track which was steep plus the humidity and heat, which meant we finished our water. After a great lunch, we carried on to the Suspension Bridge Track. We walked UP the Moumoukai Road. It was hot, and we were out of water and IT WOULDNT STOP GOING UP. But we are simply that tough! A cool guy who suggested alternative routes gave us the rest of his water.
We walked along a bike tack downhill to the Upper Mangatawhiri Dam Campsite to restock water. At the campsite, we had a swim and tried out our Backcountry Cuisine Freeze Dried meal to compare to our normal dinners. We had a photo shoot - a questionable one (to others in the campsite) trying to get a good photo of us using KnottyBoy all-purpose soaps.

Day 43 - We all had very disrupted sleeps, as there was a group of guys in the camp site who got fairly smashed and didn't stop partying until about 4:00 am. Its cool if you have a good time but no one wants to hear banging trance music blasted until 3:00 am!. We set off along the Mangatawhiri track to the next camp site - Lower Mangatawhiri Dam camp site. If we had known how amazing this camp site was we would have tried to have stayed there as there was no drunk, loud guys and there was a rope swing into a lush, fresh river! We had an early break and a quick drip.
It was a really steep walk into the forest and went up to 445 metres which was thick with vines. Exhausted, we finaly got to the top and we were so happy! We had an early lunch because the meths in Landey's bag leaked everywhere! Apart from this it is still really cool to be chilling in a sub tropical rainforest!
We battled the vines and twisting roots which slowed us considerably and our water was running low with no re-fill spots! Thankfully the forest cleared into a pine forest.
The descent out the forest was really fun because it was really steep so it made it interesting when trying to climb down. It was nice to be out of the forest and the next stage of the walk was along a river through some pasture. We re-filled our water bottles in the river however it tasted abit 'Earthy'.
Anders got in contact with a friend of his from school (Sarah Sanderson) who lived in Te Kauwhata and she kindly agreed to pick us up at the end of Lyons road and give us a place to stay for the night!

Being chilled in the Waikato River

Day 44 - We got up at 5am to get a really early start for our longest day so far! Although our sleep was short, we were made an amazing bacon and egg breakfast before being dropped off at the of intersection Koheroa Road and State Highway 2 by Sarah and Jill (Sarah's mother) on their way to work. It was a very pleasant cool morning, perfect for walking towards Meremere, so pleasant infact that We actually overshot our turning and found ourselves in Mercer. Our mistake turned out to be a good one, as we got excellent bacon rolls here at Pokeno Bacon. We also got free multi- award winning cheese from Mercer Cheese (a small local cheese shop). Seriously...this cheese is really really good so we highly recommend it on anyones way through.
The next 4 miles were a very boring along State Highway 1. The track after a while diverts down to the Waikato River through farmland, casually avoiding sheep and cattle, and over pretty swampland. It was a freaking hot day and were drinking so much water, we had been warned that the Waikato was not that good to take water from, it's was pretty murky so we had to start limiting our water intake, not perfect on such a hot day! At lunch we hopped a fence to sit next to the river. All of a sudden DM goes berserk...there are some MASSIVE carp in the river! Anders and Landey had a short power snooze whilst DM climbed some trees. Rested and fed we were back on to the farm track up and down hills along the banks of the Waikato until finally reaching a road. Before starting our final few miles on the road we had a quick dip in the river to cool off...a lot of people dont recommend this but you only live once! We finished the day on a lonesome road into Rangiri where we were picked up by Sarah again and were driven back to Te Kauwhata where we stayed the night again.

Tasty cheese at Mercer Cheese....yes, that is a massive cheese knife

Day 45 - After another early start we were feeling great and the temperature was cool in the shade of the clouds. We were raging, burning rubber down the straight road. Just before Huntly we encountered a massive coal fired powerstation which, had an amazing Maori carving opposite. By elevensies we had covered 11 miles! just under 3 miles an hour which is pretty good going. Not much to look at this day and we spent most of our time talking and listening to Rage Against the Machine, The White Stripes and In Flames.
For lunch we found a little shade from the burning sun underneath a massive eucalyptus tree before finishing off the day with 4 more miles. Another successful day!

Stretch. An old but cool looking barn along the Waikato River

Day 46 - A nice lie in as it was the weekend and Jill and Sarah didn't have to get up at 05:00 to go to work. It was well needed! Sarah cooked us amazing bacon and eggs with home made 'halloumi' in the morning (We really miss this... Thanks Sarah!) We were driven to just outside Turangawaewoe Marae (the largest Marae in NZ and also the King of the Mauri's Marae). We said our good byes to Jill and Sarah and were just about to start walking when Dm realised he forgot his i-pod at the house! They Generously agreed to drop the i-pod off once we were in Hamilton.

Left to Right: Anders, Sarah, Jill, Landey and Damien outside the Turangawaewoe Marae 

Unfortunately our packs weighed 20kg each which was a bit of an annoyance as our packs had been lighter. As it happened we walked 3.5 miles in the first hour which meant we were alrady half way to Hamilton! Anders played some White Stripes as we walked and talked so the next hour went quickly. At the Waikato river we followed a path through a park beside the river. It turned out to be a really random day... First, we found a public toilet which had an auto-sliding door and the toilet played lounge music when the door shut! You didn't even have to flush as it was automated. Second, We walked into a wedding ceremony next to the river and said congrats to the Bride. Third, when we were walking past the golf course, 2 golf balls came flying into the forest and came very close to our heads! ... luck was on our side and we survived the golf ball encouter with another funny memory for tasty trek. We walked to a bentch by the river to have lunch. Penut butter and jelly on corn crackers was on the menu with some of Jills delicious x-mas cake. After resting and taking in the sun by the river, randomly 2 nice women who lived in the house behind the bench generously offered us some tea! An offer we couldnt refuse. Instead of tea we actually ended up having rum and a bit of banana cake. The two women are called Marama and Saffron. Marama works for the trade union and Saffron works for greenpeace. We ended up talking for a while as they both have interesting histories. It got late and Marama said it would be fine for us to camp on their lawn for the night. This was better for us because we needed to go into Hamilton to get a Vodem the next day. Marama's friend Louis came over and we had a small party by beating mushrooms and playing scrabble.
So a very random day with epic memories and new friends for tasty trek.

Louis, Marama and Anders hangin on the rocks

Auckland summary

Reaching Auckland was a very significant thing for us, it took 6 hours to get up to Cape Reinga and took 31 days to get back! However it really doesn't seem long ago that we were back here all fresh faced and anxious to start our Te Araroa adventure.

Whilst in Auckland we stayed with a good old friend of Anders' in Castor Bay on the North Shore. We had quite a few rest days here in between nights of celebration: Christmas Eve/Day, Ricky's Birthday and New Years Eve/Day.  Taking this many rest days, although pleasant, seems to be quite dangerous, it's very easy to fall back into the house living life...complete with soft beds, hot showers and all sorts of comforts. Because of this we are keen to get back onto the trail again, otherwise we're afraid we'll never leave.

For the time we were in Auckland we obviously continued to walk the trail, but every evening we would bus it back to Castor Bay. This was helpful as it meant we always had a place to stay and it meant that we could leave our big packs at home and just take a single day pack for our city excursions.

Day 32 (25/12/10) - Merry Christmas from TastyTrek! Today we had an invite to Waiheke Island to have Christmas lunch with some family friends. The ferry to Waiheke leaves from Devonport, incidentally on our trail, so we thought we take two birds out with one stone and walk from Castor Bay to Devonport then catch the ferry to Waiheke. The walk from Castor Bay, through Milford Beach and down Takapuna Beach is very very nice, the tide was out so we hopped across the rocks and walked along the beach the whole way...along with all the other people taking it easy on Xmas day. At the south end of Takapuna beach we figured we'd miss our ferry if we stuck to the coast, so we opted to take Lake Road into Devonport where we then caught the ferry to Waiheke Island.  The rest of the day we spent drinking, eating and being merry on this very excellent Christmas Day.

Day 33 (26/12/10) - Obviously the day after Christmas is an obligatory rest day. We indeed rested hard. When we felt we had enough energy for the day we drove into town to hit the Boxing Day Sales hard and buy a few bits and pieces that we needed. We also stopped off in Papatoetoe where we met with Don Campbell from The Bone Art Place, he showed us some of the literally stunning works of art he had around the house and we chatted for a while, he gave on tips and info on how to carve our own bone and other materials. Here we also picked up our 30 donated bone carvings, that we will be giving out to our most generous charity donors. On the way back home we stopped off at Burgerfuel, an awesome Kiwi burger chain. If you're in Auckland or anywhere that has it, GO THERE AND GET A BURGER!

Day 34  (27/12/10) - Sadly Anders and i received news late the night before that our grandad passed away. This came as a shock to the both of us and so there was a grey haze over the beauty of New Zealand and our adventure. However we have now decided to finish the walk in memory of our grandad, Frank Ford, loved by all. Although we are in mourning, it is his life we are going to celebrate by completing the Te Araroa. In our memories grandad lives on. Later in the day we were kindly dropped off at Long bay by Dave Morton. We walked along the coast at low tide around the head lands and bays. It was a really cool walk as you have to climb over rocks and jump down on to slippery wave cut platforms. There are some amazing geological features, faults, folds, stacks, and intrusions to list a few. There was two rope swings in one bay so we had to stop for a swing, unfortunately it was low tied so we couldnt let go and fall into the water; but we did try run along the sea wall! It was an easy and pleasant walk with beautiful views of the coastline.

Day 35 (28/12/10) - It was Ricky's Birthdays today, unbeknown to us. He kept it very quiet. Thus we had another day of rest and relaxation. And by rest and relaxation i mean we spent forever creating the most delicious quadruple chocolate cake ever. Picture this: (from bottom upwards) Chocolate brownie with chocolate drops, sliced banana with chocolate icing, moist chocolate devils cake all covered with a different chocolate icing. Sooooooo delicious. That night we partied.

Day 36 (29/12/10) - Today, not an intended rest day, was in fact another rest day. The heaviness of yesterdays party had set in.  We blobbed out around the house and wrote some blogs in between cleaning up the house. Later in the evening we all went canoeing in the bay, just to get out the house and do something with the day. Whilst DM snorkeled, Anders and Landey attempted to fish at some nearby rocks...with some success ultimately. Landey caught a mackerel and Anders, a small bream...both however managed to flip flop their way out of the plastic bag and back into sea. Later we made tortillas and burritos for dinner.

Day 37 (30/12/10) - After taking an incredibly indirect route on the bus from Castor Bay to Midtown, we started walking through Auckland. A quick stop in a couple of shops to collect some much needed things and we carried on up the hill. Honestly it's not that exciting walking through just another city. However Auckland has amazing hills such as Mt Eden and One Tree Hill which offer spectacular views of the city. Walking up and down the hills was much more pleasant without carrying our packs and all that weight, a simple day pack with some water and some money works just fine through Auckland. Ambling through the city streets we finally climbed our first volcano of the day, Mt Eden. From here you can see all of Auckland, very nice. It's a pleasant 2 miles though, through suburbs and schools and a park before climbing up to the point, One Tree Hill. The park at One Tree Hill is awesome! There are loads of cool trees to climb on and I bet it's an incredibly nice place to relax for a while. But we strolled on to the top, to the obelisk - a monument erected in admiration of the Maori people. Again there are stunning views from the top of this cinder cone and we could see our next destination - Mangere Bridge. We were starving by the time we reached the bottom of the hill and went in search of a place to eat. After an hour or so of slowly wandering (in the right direction) in search of food, we stumbled upon a Pak n Save! hurray! a cheap awesome lunch. Then more suburbs and a little industry we hit the bridge and had a nice coastal walk to Ambry Park, thankfully there was a lot of nice grass where we could sit and chill until Dave came to pick us up (Thanks Again!) The end of another great day.

Day 38 (31/12/10) - The plan for today was to kayak from Castor Bay out to Rangitoto, climb it and kayak back home again. We wanted to do this because we figured the walk around the airport wouldn't be very exciting. If we could get those miles doing something else (more exciting, like climbing a volcano) then we could skip out the airport walk and begin from Papatoetoe next time. Great plan we thought. Didn't pan out that way though. There were 3 of us and all we had were 2 pretty old single person kayaks with the oar missing from one of them. There were also quite strong southerlies that didnt help the situation. After paddling HARD for 15 mins and getting nowhere we accepted defeat and decided going to Rangitoto was a foolish idea. So we went fishing and snorkeling again in the bay. Tonight being New Years Eve meant we had an almighty party at the house. Before we all got too carried away witt he party, Anders did his best to give Landey a mohawk. Now he looks totally badass. I think we partied hard till about 04.00 and then crashed out on the sofa.

Day 39 (01/01/11) - Today failed sooo hard. Most of us didnt really start moving until about 16.00 and slow moving at most. Not much could be done today, a few blogs were written but that's all.

Day 40 (02/01/11) - Things needed to get done today, we had to restock and resupply and repack our bags in preparation for starting back on the trail unsupported again. We drove to Pak-n-Save to get the food we needed that we divided up and packed up. Lots of little jobs were finished, like finishing blogs, writing letters, cleaning the house among other small things. We are now ready to get going tomorrow, back onto the Te Araroa trail.

Auckland was A LOT of fun, it would be nice to stay longer and just hangout, but we have a mission to do. To finish the trail. We're very excited to be back on the road again and greatly looking forward to things ahead. Things we're looking forward to most are the Tongariro Crossing and canoeing down the Whanganui River. Bring it on Te Araroa!

Gifts to charity donors

In our efforts to try to maximise the amount of money we can raise for charity, TastyTrek have teamed up.  Don Campbell of the The Bone Art Place has gifted TastyTrek with 30 assorted bone and mother of pearl carvings that we intend to give out to our most generous charity donors. We will be gifting these carvings to donors at the end of our trek as a thank you for helping us reach our charity goal. 

    

The carvings themselves are heavily derived from Maori culture and symbolism and are all handmade by local kiwi artists. They truly are works of art in themselves and must be seen and felt to be truly appreciated.

After meeting with Don, seeing the carvings and learning more about their significance and the pressures put on the industry through cheap, machine made bone stamps (often with designs ripped off these artists) we are very proud to be supported by and to be supporting The Bone Art Place.

TastyTrek with Don Campbell

Whangarei to Auckland

FINALLY! We made it to Auckland! And 5 days ahead of schedule! We tore ass across New Zealand to get here in time for Christmas. We are really excited to be in Auckland for a bit of rest and relaxsation. We have successfully completed the forth leg of our epic trip, our feet are sore and it's nice to sleep past 7.00am and not have to get up and eat porridge. In addition we are very excited about what the trail has to offer next.

Day 26- We left at 11.00 because we knew a river crossing was coming up on the beach and low tide is 11.30ish. After saying goodbye, Robyn drove us to the beach. It was a quick walk to the river and it was only knee deep, so we crossed it with ease. It didnt take long to get to Waipu where we went staight away to find the Waipu Wanderers BBH Backpackers. The hostel is owned by Steve and Elain a very nice and welcoming couple who moved to New Zealand 15 years ago from the UK. We wanted to help out and collectivly we wash down the grime from the side of the house.  Dinner was amazing! Add a little wine, a bit of herbs du provence and a block of budget cheese and you have a gormet cheese fondue! Using an old fondue pot we found in the house, we ate this with lots of toast and lamb and rosemary sausages! For dessert we had citrus fruit salad containing oranges, sweet lemons, sour lemons (the danger lemons) and grapefruit. Delicious!                        

FONDUE! 

Day 27-  In the morning we weighed our packs and decided we should lighten them in Auckland. A whole day of road walking, because the Brynderwyn Walkway and the Bream Trail Head were dangerous in the rain or after rain. Apon arriving in Mangawhai village we found out Mangawhai Head was 7km further. At Mangawhai Village we stayed with Sherrill and Murray. Cool little story - Landey got an email from his dad (in Ecuador) who met a nice Kiwi who happened to have parents who lived in Mangawhai Village who were happy to put us up, and it just so happened that we were heading that way today! Sherrill and Murray were incredibly nice and gave us a place to sleep, a shower and an amazing home-cooked meal. Good thing too, we were exhausted!

Tasty Trek with Murray

Day 28- Murray  gave us a lift back to where we detoured and we began walking along a dirt road (black swamp rd) to the beach. Nice onshore breezes and we could see where we were going so progress was fast. We climbed Eyers Head which offered awesome views of the beaches. The decent however was steep, and slippy; but so fun! Back on the second stretch of beach we found a couple of logs and stuck them straight up in the sand - Dm informed us that this is called ephemeral art (art with a lifespan) so we took a couple pictures to imortalize them! Later we came to the Pakiri Beach Campsite were we waded through the river to the campsite. A short day. After setting the tents we took off for the beach for a swim in the Pacific. When returning to the camp site we found an enormous 9 foot log we stuck upright in the sand and made it look awesome. See the pictures, it looked like a skeleton hand punching through the ground.

Eyers Head

Day 29- Nice views of the mountains as we walk along the road. But the walk up the mountain  is steep, 15 minutes in we were exhausted, sweaty and tired in the middle of the cow field. One bonus is that it offers spectacular views of the coast, kinda cool that you could see where you came from the previous day. Up we climbed to the Te Hikoi O Te Kiri track opened by Sir Edmund Hillary in 2001. This track was not too steep, awesome views, jungle, farmland and a little bit of scrambling, a little slippery in places as well. The track opened up onto the Tamahunga with a little helipad and a trig point. Perfect weather! The walk down was fine but the walk to Matakana along the raod was very dodgy! Once in Matakana we decided ti stay there in a park reserve ontop of a table. At least it was out the way!

Day 30- Sleeping on the kauri table on the pier in Matakana was suprisingly comfortable. A BIG day, about 19.5 miles, so we set off sharpishly after refilling water bottles at the Matakana Toilets. A short 5miles to Warkworth. In Warkworth we refilled some supplies at a handy wholesalers before chilling out with some peanut butter and jam sandwiches. We stopped for lunch on the side of the Moirs Hill track on a little patch of grass and we rested. Already we had come 10 miles! Refreshed and recharged we pushed on upto Moir Hill. The top of Moir Hill gave some beautiful views back northwards. The next rough track from here was only short and we finished up on Ahuroa Road which we followed all the way into Puhoi. In Puhoi we went straight to Puhoi Pub where we sat in the pleasant evening sun, drank some beers and ate chips.We stapled a TastyTrek card to the inside of the pub. It was then that the pub owner approached us and told us of a gentleman sitting outside who regularly took in backpackers. We chatted to the man who turned out to be Campbell the vetinarian. After chatting for a while we all pilled into Campbell's truck and drove to his. His house is awesome  (complete with views of rising and setting suns) he made us a delicious dinner with plenty of beer and we chatted for a long time before settling into our beds for the night.

Day 31-  We got a lift with Campbell back into Puhoi. He dropped us next to the church and we said our goodbyes. We had planned to canoe down the Puhoi River to Wenderholm Regional Park. However at $50 per person, this was out of our budget. So instead we were left with 4 miles of State Highway 1 and 17. It didn't take us long before we were in Waiwera, we took a break hear and bought some ice creams next to the bay at a huge wooden table. It was at this point Anders' world changed! The Cornetto Caramel Cookie Crumble ice cream is litterally the greatest ice cream ever mass produced at a reasonable price! At least thats what Anders thought...seriously he wouldn't stop going on about it! The rest of the coastal walk from Waiwera to the southern end of Orewa beach was lovely and chilled out and very pretty too. Pohutukawas were in full bloom and the sea was a brilliant blue. We stopped for lunch at Orewa beach. The next obstacle in our way for the day was the crossing of the Karepiro Bay. Te Araroa provided phone numbers for two sailing clubs and a Te Araroa supporter who were located in Whangaparaoa that may be able to ferry us across; however due to christmas being the day after no one was answering the phones, this meant we had to divert our route and skip out the Whangaparaoa Peninsula altogether and condemn ourselves to State Highway 17 again. A few hours later and we left the highway to take the East Coast Road. Our plan for the day was to get as close to Castor Bay as possible and by the time we got Redvale we decided we had had enough. Although we were only about 8 miles from Castor Bay it was now 16.00 and we had already done 16.5 miles. We were picked up by Dave Morton who drove us to Castor Bay where we will predominately stay until after New Years.


What have we learned since last time?
1. Most Kiwis we have met along the way have agreed that New Zealand has a drinking problem especially in the form of drink driving. So what does that mean for us and other trampers? It means stay clear of the roads at night and do not think of walking on them, especially out in the countryside.

2. You will need gaiters or something that will keep your feet from getting wet after it's rained. I know, very basic, but we neglected them because we were sure we could do without them...but 3 days of wet feet does hell for them. Blisters galore!

3. Human kindness should be apprechiated a whole lot more. We have met so many people along the way that have gone above and beyond to help us, either giving us shelter, food, water or advice. In our experience almost all Kiwis (except the angry lady on the beach) we have met have been very willing to help us. Our advice to other trampers: Don't be afraid to ask for help, it is more than likely they will be very excited to hear about what you are doing and help you in some way.

Kerikeri to Whangarei

The third leg for us was manly spent on the pretty coastline unfortunately 


Day 18 - The day started with iced coffee instead of milk with CEREAL! taste! feeling good, and its a baking hot day. So we started walking again. In anticipation of making it to Russell, the place we left 18 days ago, the place that took around 3 hours to drive to Cape Reinga from. We decided to take a little shortcut along a side road to get back to the official trail and as we were walking along a car pulled up with the Argentinians that we met on 90 Mile Beach! epic! and the funny thing is, they took a wrong turn too! how awesome is that. Hopefully we will see them again. Just before Paihia we stopped at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, the site where the Waitangi Treaty was signed between the Maori and British peoples on February 6th 1840. Unfortunately we had a ferry to catch so we pushed on into town, beautiful place though. Some Speights and some fish and chips go a long way after a full day of hiking, and although it didn't feel that far we were actually pretty tired, as per usual. Nice to have a roof over our heads again (Thanks Geoff and Jane), slept well not surprisingly.

 Day 19 - We aimed to walk 18 miles today, the furthest yet. It transpired though that no one took the initiative to motivate everyone to leave and we took another rest day. We did a lot though, spent most of the time uploading blogs and adding bits to the website etc. Landey also spent some time on excel making a budget table which will help us keep track of our money to make sure we dont spend too much, and the same thing goes for the miles walked - We've walked 8.43 miles per day since we left and we need to walk 11.25 so we are a little behind but dont worry about that... we arent! 
For dinner we treated ourselves, and Geoff and Jane, to dinner at the Duke or Marlborough. As Jane mentioned this really is a place that needs to be visited if you are in Russell. Not just because it is the oldest pub in New Zealand or that it's under new management and has been totally refurbished but because the food is delicious and it offers amazing beach front views. It's also a hotel if you need somewhere to stay. Needless to say it was a totally awesome night.


Day 20 - After saying our goodbyes to Jane and Geoff we left Russell swiftly. We had a slow walking start, probably due to our two days of rest, but we had no aches or pains. As we came from Russell we skipped the Paihia-Opua coastal walkway and met the trail again over the further up from Okiato. The road walk was pretty mundane, passing mangroves and oyster farms along the way but we finally started making good speed. In fact Landey was so in the zone (listening to some In Flames on his Ipod no doubt) he blazed right past the gravel road turn off of the Russell-Whakapara Rd. We even managed to walk 13 miles before 1pm which in our books so far is awesome! Damn we're good! haha.

The forest however is more difficult and it killed our pace and our stamina upon reaching the summit of Te Ranga sooo steep and soooo humid. The triangulation point was cool though, huge views (you could see Russell!) until the clouds moved in and, AND, Anders spotted a Geocache (the treasure hunt game played by GPS users worldwide). Unfortunately, the kids who found it last didn't leave us any presents. But we aren't ones to spoil the fun (and we are all having fun, a lot) so we left Landey's harmonica. Hopefully someone will be overjoyed to find a musical instrument for them in the Russell Forest! (it should be in working order too - we double bagged it to make sure!). Anyway, the still air in the forest and the 100% humidity meant that we were getting really hot and I (Landey) couldn't see. So we stopped whilst I dug around for my contacts and put away my glasses (such a pain in the forest). Got to our stop for the night though (the hut at the Papakauri stream) 18 miles YEEEHAA. Then it started raining again.

Day 21 - We tried something different for breakfast this time, Porridge with cinnamon and sugar - WAY WAY BETTER! We will be using this from now on. It was raining again so after a quick look at the maps (the next section is really steep and Nicky, Cookie and the girls mentioned that there were landslides (we think)) we decided to turn around and take the road - better safe than sorry. The road to Oakura was fast, made good time but we were getting sore. The dairy were we were meant to be eating lunch turned out to be a little further than the turn off which angered us, but after eating a bit more couscous on the side of the road we were ok again. Anders and DM napped and Landey did some more doodleing. Started raining hard after lunch on our way into Helena Bay (our scheduled stop) so our Eagle Creek raincovers went on for the first time (pretty quick and snazzy - they pull out from the bottom in a hidden pouch) and we were waterproof!

NO CAMPING - what is this?! apparently you can't camp at these coastal scenic reserves... we aren't used to this - it seemed that in NZ you can camp anywhere. After a group meeting - "should we ask someone or carry on." "carry on." "I think we should carry on." "Ok lets carry on." "Just to the next bay." "Cool beans." we carried on to Teal Bay which offered amazing views of the turquoise water next to the scenic reserve which had NO CAMPING. Dammit. Landey asked some people who said that it should be ok considering it was raining and there are 8 full-time residents! Set up our tent under a Pohutukawa tree and went for a swim. Awesome. Everything is wet though.


Day 22 - Northland Finished! AND 10 days to Christmas. sweet. Rained all night though so everything was wet making it very hard to get out of our tents. The sun came out and burnt off the clouds though so we could walk in comfort to the top of the hill before heading back down to the beach. Pretty uneventful dirt roads, maybe a few cows wandering around on the road but mostly boring until we got to the Mimiwhangata Coastal Walk. Getting onto the beach was uplifting, thankfully it is completely different to 90 Mile Beach - it's more like a stereotypical Caribbean beach. A pleasure to walk on needless to say. So nice in fact that we took an extra long lunch break - 1.5 hrs. We climbed around onto a rock headland and then swam back to our base through a sheltered inlet. After lunch we got back to walking following Cookie's alternate route along the beach until we came to a small track up a hill. A small, old woman was sitting on her porch. As we approached Landey said Hi to which she replied "you know you aren't on DOC land." We weren't  too prepared for this kind of response but we eventually turned back to the beach which anyone can be on. From the beach we decided what to do. If we were forced to walk back it would make for a really long day - a 16 miles detour. So we werent about to do that and we didnt want to chance running past the lady in case she had a gun or something. So we walked around the headland, but with the tide coming in it was becoming more and more dangerous. No problem though. On the other side we met an awesome guy who let us walk up his drive to the road. Moods lifted again as we had beaten the mean lady we made good time uneventfully to Motutara Farm Campsite. This campsite is incredible. Helen Barron was really nice and even gifted us a block of cheese since the Whananaki store was shut. We had loads of space to pitch our tents and an amazing view of the sea. In fact we were essentially right on the beach but with nice green grass without sand flies or spiky things! Anyway this was probably the best campsite we've been to so far. Relaxed and recharged we were ready for day 23!


Day 23 - Super happy to get up early knowing we were going to see an awesome sunrise. No dice Jim Rice. It was overcast but we were up and ready to go in record time. We figured we could get loads of miles behind us before lunch so we started at pace. But then the rain started and we were soaked through. Due to the rain we couldn't wade the estuary and we had to cross the longest footbridge in the southern hemisphere - the Whananaki footbridge. Oh joy! can't wait. Seriously though we want to do it but just as we got there it started pouring and well it's just a long wooden bridge, I guess it's a lot cooler in the sun. Anyway the disappointment continued as we got lost. The markers just disappeared as we walked through long grass in the rain after the turn off from the road. Climbing up and down through the soaking wet grass got our boots filled with water but eventually we found the track. Happy to be going the right way again but pissed that we are soaking wet again we actually made good time to Sandy Bay and on to Matapouri where we finally stopped for lunch outside the town store. Best lunch yet - sat in the parking lot under the concrete shade and ate chilli beans with bread and cheese! with afgan cookies for desert. More damn road. All the way through Tutukaka and on to Ngunguru. We dried out a little on our way down with the break in the clouds and found our selves in this awesome little town searching for the kayak guy Cookie had mentioned in his map. Then our story got awesome! I won't tell the whole story but basically there aren't any campsites in Ngunguru any more and we were at a loss to find a place we could pitch our tent when Roger Jones came to the rescue. One of the most generous people we've met so far Roger went out of his way to help us find a place to sleep, and then, invited us to dinner! and he is a well decorated chef from the UK! AMAZING. Thanks so much Roger and Amanda, and thank you to Miela and Ross for letting us camp in their field.


Day 24 - We cheated again, a little. Roger said that the road around the estuary is boring and dangerous and he offered us a lift to the start of the next track. Thanks again! So we started at the Mackerel Forest track which began with so much promise. There was a wide track which started quickly until we got lost again! Dammit. When you cross the river don't follow the track. Turn left instead of right along the unkemptPatua where we stayed at Treasure Island Campsite. Arrived early and we set up in their TV room to dry out our stuff. Then the rain got heavy - thankfully we were inside so not getting soaked tonight! although our tents are keeping us dry most of the time. On top of that we had bacon! YES! 

Day 25 - When we woke up it was pouring with rain. There was thunder and lightning, in fact so much thunder that the roof was shaking. We had another group meeting and mutually decided that it was too dangerous to start walking at least until it cleared up! hurray! Luckily though it cleared up and we could start walking. We also rerouted our path along roads to Parua Bay skipping out the coastline which wouldn't be that exciting with all the rain. Walking to Parua Bay would mean that we could meet up with Robyn and Judith East - Anders and Damien's second cousins. The road again was boring but quick and we made good time even in the rain. Easily into Parua but Parua is NOT the same as Parua Bay! ARGH 3 more miles over a hill when you think that you've reached your destination is hard. At Parua Bay we ate some chips from the Springtides Cafe Whangarei - awesome! and then beer! what a great day. Robyn drove us into Whangarei so Anders could get new boots! DM and I bought gaiters as well so now we have more gear to carry! Back in Onerahi we finished out 3rd section of the walk with a home cooked roast dinner! thank you so much Robyn and Judith!

This section is pretty populated and full of little townships so you needn't carry too much food, as for water, it is bountiful so don't stress too much about it