Day 26 - paddle and scramble

Puhoi —> Stillwater motor camp

6km kayak + 15km walk + 10km Uber

Any opportunity to take another mode of transport other than feet, we jump at. A 6km kayak down the river vs a 7km walk down a major highway - easy decision. The paddle is best done on an outgoing tide so we waited until 10.30am to set off, that meant a lazy morning with a bacon and egg sandwich!

We meandered down to the kayak hire and after a cuddle with the local puppies we were on the Puhoi river.

It wasn’t as scenic as the bay of islands, the water certainly not as inviting, but it was calm and after we got past the bustle of the state highway it was wonderfully relaxing. I felt comforted to be off my feet for a few hours.

We paddled into Wenderholm regional park, handed our kayaks back and set off on foot once more. What we thought would be a pleasant cruisey walk through the park…

…turned out to be a slippery disaster of a few hours. As well as a giant hill to climb up (semi decent view across the foggy harbour), the track had totally slipped away in parts where it zig zagged back down the hill. As it was so wet underfoot, Josh agonisingly slipped (ironically on the slip) and landed on his bad shoulder leaving him trapped in position in the mud for a good few minutes before he could move again. The last time he fell it was appropriate to take a photo but this time it felt more serious, I could tell it really hurt.

We took it slow for the rest of the way down; Milton was also walking in his Tevas due to his poor feet/ankle; cursing ourselves for not taking the easy road walk around the park.

After the park we walked over the sea bridge to the small community of Waiwera - once a bustling tourist town but now an almost abandoned ruin, a large spa hotel and campsite sat on the edge of the water in tatters, it was the kind of place you felt you needed to move quickly through.

The trail now skirted along the coast for 4km or so. The notes said to reach where we currently were around half an hour before low tide, where it would be “an easy walk and rock hop around to Hatfields beach.” We were three hours before low tide… hmmmm.

I read some comments online and people had done it leaving two hours before but couldn’t find anything more than that. Looking along the coast we could see the first headland would be passable with a bit of rock scrambling if we were up for it. Beyond that… guess we’d find out!

The first couple of km were fairly easy rock hopping with stretches of beautiful beach in between. The sun was shining, Josh’s fall has been long forgotten, it was glorious!

Then the fun really started ;) we reached a headland where the water was washing right up against the rocks. From a quick scout I could see the beach on the other side so we just needed to time it to avoid the waves and climb around - I was in my element!

So far, somehow we’d managed to avoid getting our shoes wet. At the next few headlands it seems our good luck was coming to an end. With the water leaving no flat rock to walk across we were into proper rock scrambling territory!

As we hit the final beach around 4.30pm we looked back at where we’d come from, it was now about half an hour before low tide… when we should have started! It had been one of my favourite sections so far - who wanted a walk boring along the sand and a hop across the rocks?!

Of course the rain and wind started up again as we headed into Orewa. We felt pretty grateful that it hadn’t been blowing whilst we were on the rocks. I’d felt pretty safe the whole time, but had rain been in that equation and I might have thought twice about venturing out so early before low tide.

We still had a fair amount of ground we needed to cover to get to our campsite for the night in Stillwater, we powered along the coastal pathways of Orewa and Red Beach and got into Silverdale about 6.30pm. The notes advise to hitch the road into Stillwater as it’s a fast local road with no real verge to walk on. We realised however that we were now so close to Auckland we were in Uber range. Rather than stand on the pavement for a while smiling sweetly and then making small talk talk we were more than happy to pay $25 to sit in the back of an Uber in silence for 15 minutes!

We rocked up at Stillwater in the drizzle, set up our tent near Wyatt who had already been there for a few hours and ate a noodle dinner in the tent.