Day 13 | Helena Bay
26 October 2022 | 19°C | 23km
Once again the day starts with happy birds greeting the day, however, my mind is still with that possum I heard somewhere outside last night. Alarmed by its weird sound, I peeped out of my tent but couldn’t see anything. Probably still up in the trees. Couldn’t be bothered to get out of my cosy sleeping bag. It’s a late start today and after 6 km, we get to “The Farm” a nice place for hikers to pitch the a tent. We meet Rene while who is cooling his feet in a big bucket. He will be having a rest day waiting for his trial family who is a day behind. Most of my own trail family is probably 10 km ahead.
When walking on the road again during the afternoon, a car stops. An older gentleman named gets out and asks if we have a place to stay at Helena Bay, the next town, and offers us to camp in his garden with access shower and bathroom. I take down his address and phone number. Helens Bay is beautiful in town with a big beautiful big and empty beach. I stop for quite a while to listen to the waves. What a peaceful place! It looks like there is no tourism at all. Just a few houses and people living here.
When getting to the address Peter indicated, there is no door bell (like in many other houses as well and sometimes people don’t even seem to lock their doors). He opens after knocking at the front door and shows us a nice area in this backyard to camp. We chat quite a while. He is going to head out again later to feed the wild pigs by the forest up the hill … feeding them now to shoot them once they are bigger … oh well :(
Day 15 | Ngunguru
28 October 2022 | 21°C | 22Km
Yummy start into the day with a cappuccino from the beach store, followed by a walk over the “longest footbridge in the southern hemisphere” to Wananaki South. The morning is a stunning walk along the coast with lots of sandy bays and beautiful houses along the coast.
A lovely walk. Unfortunately, we are back to road by lunchtime. I really get angry and wonder why we have not walked further along the coast. It would most probably also have been a road walk, but at least with more enjoyable views than in the back country. I swear that I would make my own trail from now on. My mood lightens up once we break for lunch with a coffee and big bread of Nutella. Even more happier when I find out when looking at Google maps that there is a shortcut to Ngunguru, our destination for today.
Another mood booster in the afternoon is when we meet two ladies on mountain bikes who confirm that there will be burgers and beers at the Ngunguru store from where we would take the boat to the other side of the river. We arrive there by 4h30pm have some burgers and beers and text the boat guy to take us over. Though we had spoken with him earlier, he does not answer so we decide to go to the backpackers campground in town. Just as we are about to finish setting up our tents, James, the boat driver, calls to suggest to take us over. We quickly pack up to have a “night ride” to the other side of the river.
Day 16 | Parua Bay
29 October 2022 | 23°C
It is only 5 AM when I wake when some hiker is leaving the shared dorm. It’s the day of the Horahora river crossing that has to be done during low tide. While the owner of the campsite recommends to leave at 6am Björn, Phil and myself decide to leave at around 6:30 to avoid the hiker bubble. The walk to the crossing is an easy one. It takes us some time to find the right spot but it’s an easy crossing to the other side without getting any underwear wet. It is a tricky timing today as another bigger river crossing is coming up, which means either having a short day or wait for low tide again in the afternoon.
Once we get to the turn off where we have to take the decision, we decide to not do the second crossing, but do a detour heading towards Parua Bay. We would need to wait for 4hrs for low tide and. And as the weather forecast predicts heavy rain for the next day, it would probably not be worth to do the beach stretch at Breamhead with bad views. We book an Airbnb at Parua Bay that looks really nice. It says in the description that you need a car to get there. At that point, we don’t understand yet what that would mean. After the obligatory stop at the local tavern for a beer and burger, we head to our accommodation.
It seems like a nice walk, but what Google does not tell us is that there’s a very steep climb towards the end. Once we get up there though, it’s totally worth the effort, beautiful views over the bay with all the sailing boats. Paul and Lisa are our lovely hosts in their beautiful spacious house overlooking the bay with even a spa in the garden. What a lovely place for a zero day!
Day 17 | Parua Bay & Whangarei
30 October 2022 | 20°C | 0 KM
Rainy day as expected. Hitching to Whangarei for resupply, laundry and a yummy lunch.
Highlight of the day: A guy gives us a ride back to Parua Bay and once we get off the car, he says a prayer for us so we are protected for our onward journey. Nice!
