I had decided to use a tour to get up to Cape Reinga. The tour first went to a small town for a cafe/toilet stop and then we continued to 90 mile beach and the bus drove along it until we got to a stream and then it went up the stream and stopped at some sand dunes. We climbed up one of them a little way and then tobogganed down on these boogie board type things. It was good fun. Then it was off to the Cape and while the others went down to the lighthouse, I had my lunch. I was feeling great, just glad to be starting and that it wasn’t pouring rain despite the overcast skies. I got a lot of good wishes as I went down to the end of the Cape since most of the tour group were coming back to the bus as I left. I had the requisite photo with the mileage sign at Cape Reinga and while it says 1452 km to Bluff, it will take me just over 3000 to get there.

I turned down the track to Te Werahi beach and soon left the tourist crowds behind. It was 12 km to the campsite and I took my time enjoying the sounds, smells and views. The walking along the beach was fairly easy, but there was a big climb over some headlands to the next beach, Twilight beach, that was a good workout. It would have been killer if it wasn’t overcast since there wasn’t much shade. It was a quick jaunt along Twilight beach to the first campsite and my first introduction to my fellow TA hikers. We seem to be about 10 starting out today although not everyone seems to be doing the entire trail.

Day 2 started with a climb over a headland and then down onto Ninety mile beach. The beach is actually 55 miles, but they originally thought it was longer because it took 3 days to go down it on horseback and the usual distance a horse can do in a day is 30 miles. However, they forgot to factor in that the sand slowed them down. I had expected this part to be somewhat monotonous and it’s certainly that. Despite the beauty of the beach, it just goes on and on and on.

I walked part of the day with other hikers and partly on my own. There are about a dozen of us together at the moment. I finished the 28 kms to the campsite at around 3 pm. As I arrived, I was absolutely swarmed by sandflies. I had about a hundred all over the bare part of my legs. I quickly put on some bug repellent, but not before I got at least 50 bites. At least they’re not itchy, for now. I was also pleased not to find any blisters although I think there are a few spots I should protect tomorrow. My feet were wet all day, first from the dew and then from the many streams that crossed the beach. I think it might be true that having a day with dry feet will be pretty rare out here.

Day 3 started off really well and the first 20 or some kms went by quickly, mostly sharing the company of a few other hikers.

After lunch, the wind picked up even more and was relentless blowing into our faces. It was exhausting and my feet started to hurt, but it was only when I turned up the gravel road to the campsite that I realised how sore they were. They were so sensitive that it was hard to put weight on them, but it was also painful to stop weight bearing on them. In the end, the woman’s who runs the campground gave me a foot bath with Epsom salts that seemed to help a bit. It’s a lovely spot with some wild horses and hot showers!

There was a new foal the next morning, already standing and nursing. So cute!

My feet were still a bit sore this morning so I decided to opt for a 17 km day for day 4, while some were going 31 km to the town of Ahipara. I started off at about 11 am since I had ordered a pie and it only showed up around 10 since the cleaner picks them up on her way to work.

I had planned to bring an extra day’s worth of food in case I did decide to break the last day in two, but somehow in my jet-lagged fog, I didn’t bring an extra breakfast.

My feet didn’t bother too much as I started off down the beach and after a few hours, I had a long break before doing the 5-6 kms into Waipapakauri. The nice thing today was that there were some hills on the horizon and you could see your progress as they got closer and closer. I also had a heron keep me company for a few kms as it kept on flying ahead as I approached.

I’m staying in a Holiday Park tonight, which is a type of private campground. There’s hot showers and a kitchen and even an indoor area with a tv. I had my first opportunity to throw out my trash and was happy that it amounted to two paper bags, the end of a carrot and of a zucchini and two granola bar wrappers (I had brought them from home since they were about to expire but will try to avoid bars going forward). Our group is divided in two now as some went on and others stopped here. It felt a bit strange saying goodbye to people already, but hopefully I’ll see them later on the trail.

My last day on Ninety mile beach, day 5! I got off just around high tide and was a bit disconcerted to see wave marks right up the sand dunes and barely a strip of beach to walk on, but it got a better a few hundred meters in and I managed to keep my feet dry. I met another hiker who had wild camped the previous night (not allowed in this section) and we did the end of the beach together. We passed the 100km mark just before leaving the beach, but I didn’t realize until we’d already passed it and I didn’t want to go back to it for the requisite photo. So, I tried writing 100km in the sand with my trekking pole where we were, but the sand wasn’t hard packed enough and the wind blew out the numbers as soon as I wrote them. Just like that the longest beach ever was done.

The fish and chip place in Ahipara that I had been hoping to stop for lunch at turned out to closed today, thank heavens there was a cafe just next door that was open and so I did get to eat lunch after all, some delicious shrimp tacos. I hemmed and hawed about stopping or continuing. The next bit was a 15 km road walk into the town of Kaitaia, that most were hitching. I eventually decided to go for it and booked myself a room in a hostel there and headed off on foot. The shoulder was quite small and it was 100 km/hr speed limit so I donned my high viz bib (thanks Gill, it worked great) and tried to do my best to walk as far over from the white line as I could. It was pleasant to have a change of scenery, a lot of farm land, houses and even a couple of vineyards.

I also had the excitement of seeing some helicopters flying back and forth from a water pond to collect water to dump on someone’s out-of-control bonfire. They had it put out when I got there, but were still dumping water to make sure it wasn’t smoldering. The rest of the walk into Kaitaia was uneventful and I found some familiar faces at the hostel. Two of the hikers make a pasta dinner with crepes for dessert to share with everyone, which was lovely since it had started to rain in the evening so the idea of going out to look for food wasn’t appealing. The trail camaraderie is a new experience for me and certainly is nice.