90 Mile Beach Summary

We all set out with high hopes and spirits ready to tackle arguably one of the most difficult sections of the trail. No long distance hiking experience, unfit from summer deskjobs and heavy packs... couldn't wait. After Abe Witana dropped us off at Cape Reinga we walked down to the Lighthouse. Signposted along the way were tid bits of Maori religious beliefs and customs, which we had already read about, however being there hightens its significance. The coolest thing, in my honest opinion, was the lone Pahutakauwi tree that grows out of the hillside at the point. This tree, unlike all the other Pahutakauwis, doesnt bloom in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Quite poinent no?

Back to walking. Day one. Pumped up on excitement of things to come, went pretty quickly to begin with then Herangi Hill. In retrospect, not that big but considering we over estimated the food allowance are bags weighed around 25kgs which is a bit too much, anyway the hill tired us out mostly because walking on soft sand is, ironically, very hard. Camp 1 was awesome and we slept well.

Day two. Realized we used too much water on Day 1 (5 of 8 ltrs). Ate some taste porridge and walked on to Te Paki to refill our water bottles. More beach. Still excited though. Dinner was awesome. Tuatua (shellfish) are delicious and Anders nearly blew himself up with methylated spirits (if by blew himself up you mean singed the hair on his arm). Our amazing TarpTent fell down (pegs don't hold well in the sand) and our 2C hats lit up the ground to put it back up. Getting sore and a couple of blisters but so far so good.

Day three. The beach is boring. Very hard walking now, quite sore, feet hurt, nothing to look at. Busted on the ipods and walked super fast (3+ mph) and ended up at The Bluff (not Bluff!) super exhausted. Nice Oriental guy brought us BEER! and FISH! YES. moods lifted and we made camp and slept amazingly well.

Day four. Packs are light as a feather after that sleep. Kudos to the LuxuryLite sleeping bags for being sooo comfy. Ran out of water pretty quickly though and the aches and pains returned along with the crushing weight of the backpacks (the EagleCreek Truist 65ltr packs have soo many features, still trying to get a good handle on customizing it to our backs for maximum comfort but getting there, also super easy to pack each morning). Nice oriental guy gave us some apples and crisps to have for lunch so that was a good pick-me-up. Met some Argentinian guys and a French girl at lunch and chatted to them for a bit. They were walking with flipflops or barefoot and had no blisters! We thought we would try it... but thats when the problems began for Landey. After walking an hour or so without boots his Achillies tendon started to feel sore and we were becoming weary from the lack of water. We ended up stopping short of Utea Park campsite which we knew had water.

Day five. Short, hard, walk to Utea Park. Getting there though was amazing! lots of water, comfy sofas and lots of nice grass to pitch our tents. Just an awesome place! Paul and Tania (the owners) are really awesome as well. They run the whole campsite by Koha (donation) and have operated the site for nearly a year now. Truely a godsend after that brutal stretch of partched beach. Days are starting to run together.

Day six. 11 mile walk seems daunting, dont want to get out of bed. Talked about all sorts on the beach and before we knew it we were at Waipapakauri in a deserted campsite. Not too fond of this campsite. Nothing here, and a little bit expensive considering what it is. But there is water! and internet and television, wasnt really expecting that. Feeling very very sore now. Lots of blisters and walking is tough.

Day seven. 9.5 miles to Ahipara. Late start. Boring walk. Went quickly in the morning and slowly in the afternoon, this seems to be the trend.
That's week one done and the first track under our belt, feeling stronger for it and ready to take on the forest, after a rest day though!



90 Mile Beach is hard, not much water, better to come prepared and ready to do it in 4 or 5 days, a week was too long, but considering our experience a good warm up and baptism by fire. Note: From Te Paki to Utea Park there is little to no drinkable water.

We carried 20.48 kgs of food and used ~15kgs of drinking water over this section. (we are going to put up a spreadsheet of the food we use on the planning page soon). This was too much food to carry for this first bit, we had about 4.5 kilos left over food (mainly cous cous and porridge) so we would suggest taking less. A 1.5kg bag of porridge will probably last 10 days...and that's coming from 3 strapping hungry men! In terms of water we each carried about 3 litres. This is probably not enough. Although carrying more is heavy, it will probably be worth it. Also some of the streams on 90 Mile Beach in summer time ARE dried up or are pretty manky, we would also recommend using purification tablets and/or boiling the water should you need to get water from said manky streams.

Herekino Forest here we come!