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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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 |
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 |
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 |
So a very random day with epic memories and new friends for tasty trek.
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| Louis, Marama and Anders hangin on the rocks |
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