Day 27 | Hampton Downs
9 November 2022 | 22°C
Despite camping very close to the highway, I sleep very well with my earplugs. Just been awake once happily realizing that my phone is charging again. Water got into the connector during the rain and iPhone kept telling me all afternoon yesterday that charging is suspended until dried out again.
I have an early start today at 6:45 in order to get some miles in before the rain kicks in again. Once I get to Pokeno, the next little village, I walk through some residential area and a nice walkway along a little creek until I get to the café for breakfast. I enjoy a real good flat white together with a smashed apple danish danish I got from the supermarket yesterday. Yum! Once I start walking again, it’s only 10 AM. Still a full day ahead and already 8 km done. Love it!
I take a bad decision then though. I see a big detour of around 7 km on the map and wonder if there isn’t any shorter option. Quickly googling I find a pathway that is only 2 1/2 hours instead of 3 1/2. Sweet. After walking on a semi-busy road and a very quiet gravel road road for roughly 1 1/2 hours I see a sign “private property”. Still hoping that I will only walk through farmland I move on.
Backtracking does not seem to be an option now. After another half hour a house comes into sight and four angry dogs start barking at me. I don’t really wanna mess with them and finally decide to turn around. A few minutes later a lady on a small buggy comes driving along. I apologize for walking in their property. She’s very friendly and says that occasionally people on bikes or cars find this route on google. She offers me to take me back to the main road. I don’t dare asking if she could just drive me further along to the other side of her property.
Once back in the main road I hitch to back to Pokeno and from there to Mercer; something I should have done in the first place. The whole “experiment” cost 3 hrs. Oh well!
Happy though that it hasn’t rained I cruise along.
Rain kicks in around 3pm but legs feel strong and I continue walking until 6pm. The area close to the river is covered with wet grass … not a good campground. Looking out for some trees, I find a good campsite by a small forest up a hill a little bit off trail.
Learning of the day: Never trust people in cars when they tell you sth about distances (a police officer asking me where I would walk to today indicated that it was 10km to Rangiriri … it was 20km along the tail in the end .. not the first time this happened … )
Day 28 | Huntly
9 November 2022 | 22°C | 30km
Unspectacular day today: walking along the river in the morning and mostly on grassy stop banks in the afternoon. I am trying to entertain myself talking to cows and sheep. Also becoming an expert in “tackling” (rolling under) electric fences that separate the different paddocks the trail is crossing.
I get a bit angry at the “trail architects” when it come to walking around the Huntly golf course. Bushwhacking at its best that totally ruins my legs. Why not just take the road instead? At one point I decide to walk on the golf field itself and meet two friendly golfers who say it’s totally ok. I give them a golf ball I found in the high grass and head on.
Looks like a lot of rain and stormy winds tmrw so I decide to advance my zero day that I had initially planned once I get to Hamilton.
Days 29/30 | Te Aroha (off trail)
10 November 2022 | 21°C | 0KM
2 days that feel like a holiday from the „walking work life“: sleeping in, swimming in the pool, relaxing in the hot spa, watching television, cuddling the cat, hanging out in the garden.
Day 32 | Whatawhata
14 November 2022 | 24°C | 15km
Kinda hard to get going today after my rest days at Phil’s place. I take it easy though, have my morning coffee in the sun on the porch and finally catch up with my trail journal. Yeah! Not looking forward to carrying 4 days of food again after being “spoiled” with supermarkets in almost every city I passed through during the past week.
It is 3pm already when I start walking from the city center of Hamilton. Its pretty hot and I don’t expect an interesting walk to Whatawhata, my next stop in roughly 15km.
Halfway there Robin and 3 other young German guys catch up with me. Happy to have some distraction and Someone to talk to I follow them. They are pretty fast walkers but I manage to keep up with them and time is flying.
Once we get to the backyard of the pub in Whatawhata I see some familiar und also quite a few new faces. As the space for tents is mostly occupied already, I simply cowboy camp on the porch.
We are 15 hikers and as per the super friendly lady from the bar the biggest numbers of hikers so far this year.
Learning it the day: There are many other creative variations of mailboxes :)
Day 33 | Mt Pirongia 935m
15 November 2022 | 19°C | 33km
The Karamu track is a lovely stretch of trail across slightly hilly farmland.
I walk and talk with Josefine, who also worked as a product manager recently, about the challenges of agile product development. We are so into the conversation that we get off trail a couple of times. I realize that have not thought about work a single day since my arrival in NZ.
At lunchtime I make up my mind to walk all the way up to the summit of Mount Pirongia at 959m and sleep at Pahautea Hut at the top. If I am determined I can do it.
The first part of the ascent is a pretty easy walk continuously moving up on a nice forest track until it gets steep and rocky. The last 4km are terribly slow due to the difficult terrain. No views really from the summit as the clouds are hanging low today but I happily and hungry reach the hut at 7.30 pm.
Day 34 | Omaru Scenic Reserve
16 November 2022 | 20°C
It’s a lot of downhill from Mt Pirongia today!
What sounds like an easy walk will be a slippery walk navigating around roots and clinging onto tree branches to no slip and fall. I try to take a video at one point, needless to say that my phone ended in the mud with that attempt. It’s still an enjoyable walk though and though it starts out misty the sun would come out eventually allowing some good views of the surroundings. Once the forest spits me out again, it’s only 10am. After getting some water, my walk continues on forest and concrete roads, not very exciting but this time a welcome change after the difficult downhill walk.
I meet Charlotte, Connor and Julian at lunch who are planning to either stay at some trail angels closeby or continue to a tent space by an airstrip in approx 17km. The latter seems like a good idea to me. The afternoon is a nice walk over sheep paddocks and it’s the first time I do a little power nap on the trail. Very refreshing after a partly sleepless night in a hut dorm with 20 others. I think I can make it to the tent space at an airstrip until I make good progress until I get into the bush again. It’s a nice, narrow trail in the beginning but gets really messy at some point. The trail is becoming almost invisible, a lot of bushwhacking traces everywhere indicate that others have been lost as well. Following the official trail app doesn’t really help either as the GPS tracks seem to be completely off. I decide following a different track on the map leading to the same junction eventually. A bit of bushwhacking is required but I get to a well trotten trail finally leading me out of the bush. Before this nerv-wrecking, energy-wasting experience, I thought I would make it to the tent space at the airstrip. Now I am bit too exhausted (mentally) and decide to pitch my tent 2km earlier close to a reserve. Another lady hiker I meet for the first time is already there but there’s still enough space for at least another tent. We talk and do some stretches together. Once I have set up my tent and start cooking go dinner, it starts raining heavily. Puuuurfect timing!
