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!
Day 35 | Waitomo
17 November 2022 | 22°C | 15km
It’s almost 8am as I wake up. I feel fresh and energized (as fresh as you can feel as a sticky hiker :) and much better than after last night in the hut. A few drops are still falling on my tent but it sounds as that’s rather drops coming from the trees than actual rain. Seems like the heavy rain during the night stopped.
The girl who camped with me is long gone. She planned a big day all the way to Te Kuiti in 35km. I am not sure how far to go today. Waitomo in only 15km seems too short but then there is heavy rain expected sometime during the day. Let’s see.
When trying out the time lapse functionality on my phone with some fancy clouds movement, someone comes up the hill at high speed. It’s an Aussie hiker I have never seen before. We walk together for some time talking about trails and gear until I stop for a short break. Guess I will never see him again with his speed.
The heavy rain kicks in at around 1pm. I first think that I could wait for the heavy downpour to pass buy below a tree but it won’t stop. Still 7km to go to Waitomo the next town. I catch up with Connor and Charlotte at some point fortunately and time passes quite fast.
Once in „town“ we bump into Jasper and Margot with whom we eventually find a cabin to share with. Finding accommodation in this small town was harder than expected due to its glowworm cave that seems to one of the major tourist attractions. Relief on the day: A long hot shower after being soaking wet and cold
Day 37 | Lake Taupo (off trail)
19 November 2022 | 19°C | 0km
A little bit of van life after being saved from the rain … shopping in Taupo, lots of food, a glass of wine, a visit to the hot pools and a lovely camp by the lake.
Days 38-40 | Timber Trail & Taumarunui
20 November 2022 | 12C° | 18 km
It’s always hard to get going after a nice zero day, but it is what it is.
Back home today’s weather would be called „April weather“, a day where there’s a constant change of sunny, rainy or cloudy. At some point, there even is some thunder rolling in the distance. It’s a roadwalk from the point I hop off Phil’s van to the so-called Timber Trail. Strangely, I enjoy walking on solid nconcrete after several days in the muddy bushes and over several wet grassy paddocks. I reach the trailhead at 1.15pm.
Turns out it is a very curated and wide path. Good for doing big hiking days probably? The sun is coming out but unfortunately I’m in the forest now. There’s the option to bike this part of the trail but I was just too lazy to book something ahead. Also not quite sure what will be less annoying: walking or biking in the rain? Let’s see if I can still make it to the first hut in 20 km with an elevation of some 900m inbetween!
Eventually, I decide to camp by a small shelter with a little space for pitching 2-3 tents. It’s only 3.30pm but as the summit is still ahead, the terrain less maintained, rain ahead and uncertain if there is still space in the next hut, I decide to stay and ideally get an early sleep.
As I prepare my dinner in the shelter, it gets windier and a heavy downpour starts rolling in. The upcoming days will not be much better … I need a better protection from the rain! Without further ado, I tailor a poncho from my waterproof groudsheet. Once I finish my masterpiece the heavy rain kicks in again. Tired of that rainy sound I put in my earplugs, crawl into my sleeping bag and fall asleep.
21 November 2022 | 18°C | 30km
I wake up, and I hear: nothing but bird sounds. No rain! I quickly pack my stuff and bring it over to the shelter to have breakfast. I start walking at around 7:30 AM wondering when the first bikers will pass by. It’s a quiet and chilly morning. I reckon that I will get warm once I climb up the hill, but the elevation is hardly noticeable when walking on the bike track.
First time I put on my puffy jacket while hiking. (I only realize that there is a footpath to the summit once I reach the highest point of the bike trail. Doesn’t matter that I missed it as it’s misty and no views anyways). I would only meet one other female hiker all morning. After 15 or so kilometers I find a perfect spot for lunch by a little shelter. I fully occupy it with my stuff and hang my sleeping bag to dry when the first wave of bikers arrives.
Unfortunately, it starts raining as well so I quickly pack all my stuff again to make room for them. Once the first heavy shower ceases, we all head out again. While the bikers most probably make it to any of the campsites around km marker 40 before the next rain shower kicks in, I have to do another “rain walk” for the last 5km. Everybody still passing by by bike friendly shouts “almost there” but walking the last kilometer seems endless. The arrival the “Camp Epic” is very cheerful though: nice people, a hot tea and an endlessly long shower are already waiting for me :)
22 November 2022 | 22°C | 65km by bike
Seeing some bikers sprinkled with mud and racing down the hill with their mountain bikes made me a bit envious the previous day. It looked like so much fun.
Though I had planned to walk the whole Timber Trail, I spontaneously ask the owner of the campground who is also renting out bikes if there of a chance I could bike the second part of the trail. He says he did not have a bike here for me and would need to get one which meant I would not be able to bike before 9h15. I reply that I would think about it but instantly decide against it putting my mind back to walking.
When I talkig about it with fellow hiker during breakfast a girl comes up to me saying that she would switch to an electric bike so that I could maybe take hers. Yay! The whole ride was so much fun as the trail was much narrower and less curated than the day before with a lot of rather steep downhills.
Needless to say that I am very happy to switch to biking for that day. Asking the owners of the bike rental they even would let me drive into Tamaranui, another 25km ahead. It’s a sunny lovely day until exactly the moment when I return my bike at 3pm when a heavy rain shower (lasting till the late evening) would unroll. Thank you Mother Nature for that favor!!
Bad news of the day: No canoeing hiring st Wanganui river until Wed next week, 42 Traverse impassible likely until at least after the weekend and Tongariro crossing closed. It's time to put my plan into action: jump ahead to the South Island now and finish the North Island later.