Te Araroa (or New Zealands trail) runs from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island. I have placed it chronological order for easier reading.
Up at dawn again, pack up and then off. The dunes look like massive bluffs in the distance that slowly shrink as you get closer until they are only ten or so meters tall. It feels like it goes on forever, the walking that is. Without the island to give me a reference point I …
I managed to get up slightly before dawn thanks to a great sleep at Utea Park, had a brief conversation with the owner and got underway. Perfect walking weather! Light in the morning, slightly overcast once the sun rose a bit, tail wind, the whole caboose really. Things began to go downhill from there. I …
Left Ahipara at 7:00am and headed for the Herikino track. Arrived at the start super early as I accepted a lift up the hill from a young guy going to his first day of work on a farm. There goes my walking NZ credibility. In my defence, I had already been accosted by three dogs …
Up at dawn again as we all knew we had a big day ahead of us. We just didn’t know how big. We walked down through Takahue and then up a long metal roads up a hill to the start of Ratea track. Very steep. The first summit was Ratea at 744m and then bog …
Everything looks better in the morning. Getting out of where we were wasn’t easy but at least we could see now and weren’t so tired. There were a lot of dogs at the farm house. About 10 of them. Luckily the owner was home. After that we walked down Makene Road until we got to …