Day 17 - mangroves
Tutukaka —> Ocean Beach 36km
We had a big day ahead of us, probably the biggest we’d attempted so far, so we needed to start early.
The Ngunguru river crossing was booked with James at Nikau Camp - he wanted us at the pick up in Ngunguru at 7.30am. That was 4km away from our camp, so we needed to be on the road by 6.30am, we were up an hour before that. Fairly leisurely without a full tent pack down!
We made it in good time and met the others at the boat ramp. James soon whizzed us across the estuary to be greeted by his wife Wendy and our two new best friends doggo #1 and doggo #2.
James was our guiding light for the next section of the trail. He armed us with a heap of info on the day’s walk; important info on the Māori Land as well as timings on when and when not to cross the next few rivers. They could all be crossed on foot if we got there in time…
We realised we were probably patting our new friends for too long if we wanted to make the river crossings so we set off out of James’ place to walk the next 6km or so to the first river crossing - the Horahora.
We’d been shown photos of exactly where to cross no less than 90 minutes ago but we were goldfish. Neither of us could remember, and neither of us had taken proper photos of what James had shown us - I blame the dogs. We took our shoes off and hoped for the best… it was warm enough but in sections came up over my hips - very thankful I’d hitched my bag all the way up my back! We got to the other side just as Milton, Steph and Leanne arrived to walk across - height not on their side, some were carrying their bags above their heads…
We cleaned our feet, rebandaged our toes and set off again. Pointless. No more than 50m round the corner was more mud than we’d ever come across. We would have been better leaving our feet bare as we were thigh deep within minutes… We then paced it through the beautiful Pataua (note to self - come back and stay here) and got to the banks of the Taiharuru just after low tide. Perfect.
Josh and I have different tactics when it comes to wading through water - he very much likes to keep his shoes on (crocs, not runners) and I very much like to feel the mud between my toes. With this crossing, my tactic proved the better of the two - Josh’s crocs were like suction cups on the riverbed. Every step was like pulling a cupping cup off someone’s back, every squelch accompanied by a large groan. The first km of river was by far the deepest; almost coming up to chest height and we were now walking into the wind making it even harder. The wind/water/croc combo pushed Josh to his limits and he tumbled over as he was coming out of the first section, right into a pile on mangrove seedlings.
After a little tantrum, “we” calmed down… The second and third kms were much shallower and it was actually quite enjoyable now Josh had taken his crocs off. We waded through the water quickly, grateful the water was warmer than the air. The start of the next trail began in the fields overlooking the river - which meant we had to climb the riverbank to get up to it. It was here the mangroves came back to haunt us as we squelched through oily black mud, not sure whether to shoe up or not as we attempted to avoid the prickles. I didn’t think anything could out-stink our own hiker stench - but mangrove mud sure tried.
We sat in the field above the river for a good half an hour cleaning off in the long grass and tending to Josh’s wounds. We’d kept checking behind us for signs of the others but it became apparent they’d either not got to the crossing in time or they’d decided against it. We started walking when we got a message saying they were about a km ahead of us! They’d got a hitch along the road instead and had been chilling in a nearby field for a few hours. We all set off together, up Kauri Mountain Road and the mountain of steps that accompanied it.
Before long we were facing our arch nemesis again. Sand. English doesn’t contain descriptive enough words to accurstely depict how much I now hate walking along the beach. We had 7km left to go until we could put our packs down, so with a high tide lapping at our feet and a wind blowing into us we powered along.
With a km to go, we saw a couple of people clambering down the cliff face coming towards us - what other mentalists would want to walk along the beach in these conditions?! As they got closer we saw it was Phillipa & Jason - Steph’s sister & brother in law! They’d brought us all ice cold drinks and pineapple lumps (English folks, they’re like fruit salad bars covered in chocolate YUM)! For the second day in a row, I almost cried. Have I mentioned that kiwi people are the greatest?!
Our camp for the night was at Wendy & Rupert’s - trail angels who lived right next to the beach (thank god). Thinking we were rolling up to a house we were surprised to find a proper hiker station built on the grounds of their property. A wooden dining cabin with huge table, and a proper hot shower and toilet. They’d set this up especially for TA walkers, and boy were we grateful! Perfectly sheltered from the wind, we ate, we showered, we slept. Would we ever do anything else in the evening?!
