Day 40 - sharp things

Te Kuiti —-> Ngaherenga Campsite, Pureora

27km + 34km hitch + 2km

I’d been trailing a few days behind Steph since we parted ways on the north shore of Auckland and I’d been trying to catch her ever since. I’d well and truely had enough of walking on my own and was very much looking forward to having a hiker friend again! We’d made a plan to cycle the timber trail together starting tomorrow so I had a big day ahead of me to get to Pureora where i’d meet her at the campsite - she’d wonderfully waited there for the day so I could catch her up.

The trail today would follow the Mangaokewa river out of Te Kuiti, through bush and then farmland. Steph’s notes on this section were “Gnarly. Some really pretty bits but overall, least favourite day on trail yet.” Gulp. Steph and I often had differing opinions on what we found enjoyable to walk so whilst a little anxious, I wasn’t entirely dreading it. I set off in a pretty good mood early doors, walking through the town centre of Te Kuiti before passing behind a sawmill to reach the river and start of the track.

The track first started above the river and followed an old mining path through a kinda spooky abandoned quarry.

It then headed down, into the trees beside the river. This was my kind of forest track; one bedded with leaves not tree roots!

By my morning snack break, I’d done 10km and couldn’t see anything yet that Steph would have found reason to call her “worst day on trail”. Either, the track had significantly improved in the two days since she’d walked it (ha) or I was about to walk into a hellhole.

Obviously it was the latter. Made up of:

A track so thin, on a hill so steep that I had to shuffle sideways along it.

Bogs bogs bogs.

Blackberries, which were absolutely not worth walking through the gauntlet of brambles.

A goat track that required being an actual goat to get up and across (thank you Steph for providing step by step instructions on how to get navigate it).

And endless endless gorse.

By lunchtime, my legs were so slashed to pieces that I was smothering them in savlon. Despite this, I was actually having quite a good time! The river was beautiful, the sun was shining and I could sit with my feet in the water to cool / wash off.

I followed the river again for an hour after lunch through the gorsey farmland until I reached an actual farm 4WD track. The benefit being no more gorse, the downside being cows. I reached a gate and a hoard of the biggest bulkiest cows I’d encountered were standing staring right at me.

I only needed to pass through one gate to the other, maybe 40 metres, but I decided trying to move them out of the way would be too tricksy, so instead I climbed over the fence and skirted alongside their paddock, through the scrub. This was an excellent idea and I was feeling very happy with myself until the scrub disappeared, leaving a large hole down to the stream below.

No worries I thought, I can jump across this, easy! Well I could definitely jump across it without my backpack on… I threw my poles across the gap and they landed safely on the other side. I took my pack off and did three big swings before launching it across. My upper body strength had clearly deteriorated tremendously as my bag barely reached the other side, bouncing off the bank and tumbling down into the stream below. I had no choice but to jump down into the stream and grab it before it sunk or floated off. I had no idea how deep the water would be but thankfully it was only up to my hips. I pushed my bag up the bank and clambered out, sitting in the scrub laughing at my absolutely feeble hammer throw effort. I prayed I’d got to my bag before any real water damage was done and paced it along the rest of the farm track and finally a quiet country road before reaching the highway.

The final section for the day was a hitch 34km along state highway 30. I could have walked it as it wasn’t very busy but I’d heard it was pretty sketchy in parts and someone had actually died a few days earlier after being hit by a car… (not a walker, it was in the middle of the night, but still, not something I wanted to risk). I was picked up after about 20 minutes by a couple from Sydney, they had passed me five minutes before and wonderfully turned around to get me. They dropped me edge of the Pureora forest and I walked the remaining 2km into camp to find Steph standing with a wine glass in hand on the steps of a motorhome. Of course Steph had already made friends at the campsite!

I set up camp and was also invited to have a glass of vino and snacks with Steph’s new pals Ron and Carol before retiring to bed, excited about giving my feet a rest for the next couple of days and putting my mountain bike skills to the test.