I was planning to resupply before heading off today and because the bulk food store opens at 9:30 I had a bit of a leisurely morning talking to my family back home and then having a breakfast of poached eggs and avocado at a cafe. The avocado here is delicious and locally grown. After saying bye to Caroline and Cecile, I headed to the bulk food store arriving at 9:36, only to find it closed. There was a ‘back in 10 minutes’ sign so I decided to wait, but gave up after 10 minutes and no one showing up. The bulk section of the New World would have to do, but it meant that I would have to buy a jar of peanut butter and that I wouldn’t be getting any olive oil. I also got myself a bar of Whittaker’s dark chocolate, which is quite fruity and really lovely. After putting all my new food into my food bag in the car park, it was back to the trail. I had a few last kms to do along the Kerikeri river, which was in a pleasantly shaded forest with the sound of occasional waterfalls, very enjoyable.

Then it was through some suburbs on sidewalks before taking to the road shoulder for the last few kms to the forestry road through the Waitangi forest. The forest is logged and the road was quite exposed so quite hot. I met a couple of Kiwi trampers that I hadn’t seen before, the only other hikers that I saw today. There’s a plaque towards the end of the forestry road that commemorates the opening of the the TA.

The forest road ends in Waitangi, on the eastern coast, so I finished my first west to east crossing of the country.

Waitangi has historical significance as the place that the first treaty between the English and the Maori was signed, giving England governance over New Zealand while protecting the Maori ‘s rights to their way of life, although this isn’t quite what happened. I wanted to take a look and ended up visiting the museum and would have like to have seen more of the site, but ran out of time. It left me feeling pensive as I continued into Waitangi. I opted to camp at the Holiday Park there and seem to be the only TA Walker here as most go an extra 2km into Paihia.

I planned a Nero for day 13, a quite short hiking day in other words. I had a 2 km walk into Paihia, where I grabbed a flat white and then took a ferry across the bay to Russell, the old capital of NZ.

There are a lot of historic sites there and I spent the rest of the morning doing a self-guided walking tour.

I hiked up a hill to a flagpole that was chopped down four times by Maori to protest the British flag being raised instead of the one representing the Maori tribes. On my way down, I can across a stick-like bug that was enormous and either eating or copulating with another smaller stick bug.

After a nice pizza lunch, I had about 4 kms of road walking to get to the Orongo Bay Holiday Park. I had booked a room and was given an upgrade to one with a private bathroom, a kitchenette and a view of the Bay.

There are apparently Kiwis in the forest at the back of the Holiday Park so I went to go take a look after sunset since they’re nocturnal, bit didn’t have any luck.