Day 33 - stairs
Rangiriri —-> Ngāruawāhia 34km
I was up and walking by 7.30am again this morning, determined to have a better day than yesterday. I planned to walk to Huntly and then across the Hakarimata walkway into Ngāruawāhia tomorrow.
Like yesterday, the trail to Huntly was supposed to pass through the fields, but seeing as the road was just alongside, I didn’t fancy grubbing myself up for no reason. The road had the same view as the fields; a whole lot of not that much.
By 11am, I was 16km down and already in Huntly. Without the faff of the grass and bogs, I’d sped along. I grabbed a Fanta from the dairy and sat in the shade for a little while pondering what to do: stay in Huntly or push on another 18km to do the walkway this afternoon. Cathy, my host last night told me that the Hakarimata walkway had about 1200 steps going up… and 1600 coming down - The All Blacks used it as a training ground…!
After a break, I decided I’d be wasting a day to stop here, so I messaged a couple of people about accomodation in Ngāruawāhia and pushed on, my legs were feeling good so I had confidence I’d be able to keep up with the All Blacks should they be out and about 😜.
The view out of Huntly became more scenic as the flat land started to bump up in the distance. An hour or so later I was sat at the base of the walkway eating some lunch before I tackled the mountain of steps above me.
As I packed up, two guys jumped out a car, did some quick stretches and proceeded to run up the steps - they very much looked like rugby players…!
After the first set of steps I detoured away from the steepest steps and followed a slightly more forgiving path through a kauri nursery before reconnecting with the main steps and up to the lookout, peering back over Huntly, the Waikato river and the farmlands beyond.
The lovely paved pathway then disappeared and the trail continued through the trees along a significantly less maintained track. No more evenly spaced steps, tree roots were now the only way to climb.
It got pretty muddy in places, but I was having such a good time bouncing through the trees and over obstacles that it didn’t bother me. It was the fittest I’d felt in a long time! By the time I got to the summit of the walkway, I’d already done a 10 hour day, and still had an hour to go. I was tired, sure, but I wasn’t on the floor.
The summit of the Hakarimata walkway was on a platform to make the most of the view, and as I arrived, streams of people kept arriving from the other direction. The stairs were a popular fitness regime for the town, but people
were confused when I told them I’d come from the other direction, they didn’t even know the track continued on.
I took a moment at the summit and then started my descent. Running was absolutely still my best tactic to minimise knee strain - luckily I fit right in with the other mentalists who were choosing to run up these 1600 stairs and back down again. I was just maybe slightly more mental doing it with a backpack.
I reached the bottom just before 7pm, I didn’t have far to go for my accomodation that evening - 5 minutes from the end of the walkway was trail angel Richelle who lived with her partner and daughter Jess. They’d wonderfully said I could sleep in their spare bedroom which felt like an absolute dream. After a wonderful home cooked veggie lasagne, which I ate sitting at a real dining room table with metal cutlery, I retired to bed feeling pretty proud of my achievements that day. Very glad I’d pushed on, one of my biggest km day yet with some pretty gnarly track too. Starting to feel like I could actually do this whole thing…
