Day 9 - After a very late start at the Ahipara YHA with our fully restocked backpacks we set off toward Ahipara center and toward the Herekino Forest. We found restocking in Ahipara was satisfactory for the next leg to Kerikeri. The store has many assorted dried items and methylated spirits can be bought from BIDZ (takeaway/store/fish and tackle). The road walk to the beginnning of the Herikino Forest is a little boring but nessesary. Being in the forest is refreshing and fun...the first 15 minutes in the Herekino, however, is neither. It is steep and ehausting. Having left late we didnt get far before setting up a cozy little camp, complete with dead leaf cushioned flooring :) It's exciting being in the forest, eerily quite, that is until it gets really dark, then it just seems to come alive! We lay there that night just listening.
Day 10 - Had a lot of fun walking the rst of the way through the Herekino Forest. The forest has some really awesome kauri trees (well we thought so anyway...possibly because we had spent the last week on a beach where the trees are non-existant or small). It wasn't long before we had finished the forest and were onto the next track of the day, the Takahue Connection track. This was a pleasant track that took us through some nice forestry sections, apparently owned by The Crown. Upon reaching the road again a man, a car and his dog were noisily trying to guide some escapee cows back home. We chatted to him for a bit and he bid us farewell on our way towards Takahue. The road section was quite boring but it wasn't very long till we reached Takahue Hall, the end of the Takahue Connection. There is not a lot in Takahue. A man called Timothy (a hippy, possum catcher and sustainable builder) with Jah the dog, pulled up and offered us a place to camp for the night, only 5km down the road and incidentaly along the track we needed to take tomorrow. He was a little excentric but very nice, he shared what he could and was a great story teller. We learnt a lt aboput possums that night...but not before shooting some arrows with his composite bow and drinking some nice bourbon & colas. Best thing to hapen that day: Timothy gifted us a mini crossbow to help us with our own possum catching! AWESOME!
Day 11 - We left lateish that morning accompanied with Timothy, his rifle and Jah. He wanted to come part of the way to catch some rabbit for us (he was was a nice guy). After missing a few rabbits we finally parted ways. Him back home and us into the Raetea Forest. This is when it got HARD. Along with it being very steep for the first few miles it is also very very dense. The floor is a mat of tripping roots, there are choking vines hanging everywhere and it's very very muddy. This was one of the low points of our journey so far. Even when we finally reached its peak (and peak exhaustion) our only views were totally obscured by cloud. Wonderful. On top of that the weather started to worsen so we quickly decided to make camp on the trail (because nowhere else is clear or flat enough!). We ended the day in sour moods.
Day 12 - As soon as we could we broke camp and hot footed it out of the Raetea Forest ('See ya...hope i see you never!'). The walk out was thankfully quite tame and it wasn't long before reaching Mangamuka Gorge Rd. Along this road there is the Mangamuka Gorge Picnic Area, this is a place that anyone on the Te Araroa should either goto or even camp at. It is really really nice! We rested, made lunch here, washed and played in the stream(s) and tested out our new toy (the crossbow!). 3 hours went by much too quickly and we finished the rest of the mundane walk to Mangamuka Bridge. First things first: a cold Speights at the pub. Second things second: three more than delicious burgers and chips at the Mangamuka Bridge Store (this is my second recomondation to anyone on the Te Araroa. Go get a burger here. It will brighten ANY day). Some people have said that this is a poor resupply point, but we found it satisfactory, at least enough to get to Kerikeri (3 days away). It was getting dark and we ad no where to stay yet. We walked up a hill and ended up camping in a road margin hidden by some trees.
Day 13 - We woke up early and left our camp before having breakfast just in case we hadn't actually been allowed to camp where we did. Further along the road we stopped for breakfast. Recharged and full of porridge we blazed a trail of dust and rubble as we made record pace along the road. What a great day! That is until we sat down for a water break, broke out the good ol' GPS and 'What do you mean we're NOT ON THE MAP?!' That's right, we burned rubber 5 miles down the wrong road and off our map. Worst day ever! Only thing to do was to go back. It turns out that we had actually missed the road we needed (Omahuta Forest Rd) th night before when looking for a campsite. After not scoring a hitch we were back in Mangamuka Bridge, severely demoralised. We need more burgers. So back to Mangamuka Bridge Store we went and more delicious burgers we did eat. At least we felt a little bit better. We chatted to the owner (Tye) and told him our story. He found it quite amusing but then offered us a lift to where we would have been, had we taken the right road (i dont think that's cheating...do you?). He drove us into the Omahuta Forest and dropped us just before the Kauri Sactuary. The day had been saved and we were back on track. After having done a 10 mile detour we didn't walk for much longer before stopping at the Apple Dam campsite. A nice campsite with a small lake and nice clean water but also the scariest toilets.
Day 14 - After a relaxed start we continued along the track that took us into the Omahuta Forest. The trail soon started thickening with tall cutting grasses (that hurt like hell!) until we came to a logging skid, this is where we lost the trail. It's very very dense here and there aren't any orange markers to help you. We HIGHLY recommend having a GPS for this section, you will use it often, it is very easy to stray from the track. After busting out our GPS, finding where we were and checking which direction the Mangapukahukaha Stream was in, we were off...straight down the face of the gorge. For 30 mins we hacked and pushed and fell down the gorge towards the stream but we did finally get there. The track then followed down stream until we came to Waipapa River. The river being quite wide and deep left us only one option, to swim. We took our packs off and bagged all our belongings to make them as waterproof as possible then waded in. A little chilly but very fun. And the packs do actually float very well. On the othe side we lit a small fire to dry ourselves and eat snacks then continued on the trail along the Waipapa River Track. This track is a lot of fun but actually quite challenging with a steep left hand slant the whole way. Shortly we stopped for the day on a pebbled stream. Before bed we lit a fire andsmothered it with pebbles to make a hot rock bed, we used this to dry some of our clothes and boots over night.
Day 15 - Worst morning ever! Woke up to find that our hot rock clothes/boots drying bed had infact singed a bunch of our clothes and infact burned a huge hole in the side of Anders' walking boots (he is so so angry :D), he will have to buy some in Kerikeri. The rest of the day was spent finishing the Puketi Forest along the Pukatea Ridge Route that dropped us off at the Puketi Forest DOC Hut. A short detour was made enroute a short distance along the unmaintained Takapau track to see a huge 40m tall Kauri simply called 'Takapau No.2'. At the hut we were geeted by a school trip load of children (really the last thing you want at the end of a long day). To finish the day we each carved some wood and ate a very very bland dinner.
Day 16 - To date today was our longest day, 15 miles (I know not a huge distance...but hey! were still training!). We left Puketi Hut earlyish and made super-fast-pace toward Kerikeri at about 4mph! and had covered about 8 miles before having lunch. Lunch was forced on us more than anything else due to us coming across a sign reading "Chicken and Duck eggs for sale" we stopped and bought 15 eggs for $4.50! from a nice old lady and went straight to eating lunch. You better believe we ate those eggs. We mixed them in with some noodles and boiled some others, whatever we didnt eat we saved for breakfast the next day. For the rest of the day we followed the very pleasant Kerikeri River track (although quite short and not challenging at all it is actually one of our favourite tracks...it was just very calming and a joy to walk). Before reaching Kerikeri we took a short but awesome detour under the Rainbow Waterfall. Recomended, but beware it's very slippery, we took our shoes off. In town we stayed at Aranga Backpackers before storming the town for some dinner. To our good fortune we found the 'Asian & Kiwi Buffet' ($17 ALL YOU CAN EAT!) If you are in Kerikeri and are hungry...GO HERE!
Day 17 - Today was our long awaited rest day where at camp we washed clothes, blogged, hung out, emailed, phone called and such. Later on we went into Kerikeri. Here we got some business cards made (which we're very excited about (designed by Damienmarc)), re-supplied at the supermarket. Verdict: Kerikeri is a very excellent re-supply point. We also bought some bolts for the crossbow and enquired about new boots for Anders. He decided not to get any in the end and wait till Auckland. Back to the camp again and we spent the rest of the nice sunny day hanging around on the grass and swinging on the rope swing over the river. Again this is campsite that we definately recommend.
So after our second leg, what did we learn?
1.You NEED a GPS to do the Te Araroa. You will use it more often than you think. And check your map often to avoid 10 mile detours in the wrong direction :)
2. If you get lost and can't find the next trail marker. Go back to the last one and double check which direction it is pointing. If you DO get seriously lost in the bush up here. Don't worry! Walk in one direction and you will eventually reach a road or a village. This piece of info was given to us by a local in the area. I tend to believe him.
3. Carry quite a bit of cash with you on this section. There aren't any cash machines and many shops won't take cards.
4. Try your hand at collecting bush food. There is soo much to get from the NZ bush. Big grubs in decaying logs, eels from most streams and lots of wild animals like possums and pigs. Ask any locals about hunting in the bush and he/she will usually be very keen on divulging information.
For this section we used with 15.3kg of food between the 3 of us (including what we had leftover from 90 Mile Beach and including the few things extra we bought in Mangamuka Bridge) and we had completely ran out by the time we reached Kerikeri. Perfect. In terms of water, there is plenty along this route, so there is no great need to carry lots with you.
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