Day14: Orongo Bay Holiday Park to Tammy’s Place

I had a pretty decent sleep in my room but there was a mosquito buzzing in my ear off and on, which made it hard to fall back asleep a couple of times. The first part of the day was along a paved road. I was feeling good and the kms flew by. It was misting rain, not enough to even think of putting on a jacket, but just enough to be refreshing. Before I knew it, I was at the junction to the gravel road that we take through the forest. It started with a long and steady climb and there were a couple of small views. I stopped just before km 275 because there had been posts on the TA Facebook group of people being attacked by dogs at km 275 and I didn’t want to go through that area alone.

Tony, a Kiwi living in Australia, eventually came by and we continued together with no issues. We did see one dog a few kms later, but it wasn’t interested in us at all. The gravel road ended at another paved road, which I followed for the last 8 or so kms to Tammy’s place.

Tammy lets TA walkers camp for $15 on her property and has hot showers and offered us fresh eggs, as well as produce from her garden. She has a hoard of children and French bull dogs and it sounded like mayhem when they were all swimming in the river that goes through her property. As I was stretching, Celecile and Caroline showed up, so we’re reunited again!

Day 15: Tammy’s Place to Whananaki

I continued down the road this morning to Helena Bay, where the Helena Bay ridge track starts. It was raining lightly on and off.

After cleaning my shoes at the cleaning station and going over the style, I started the track that went through some farmland and into the forest.

I didn’t take many photos of the trail since it started pouring and I had to focus on staying upright since the climbs were very steep on slick mud and the trail climbed! I’ve never relied quite so much on my poles to haul my body up the hills. It was beautiful forest and a lot of fun despite the rain, which eased off as we emerged from the forest onto some farmland. We got a a nice view from there as a reward for all that climbing.

After wandering across and around some fields, we were back into the forest for a short bit before coming to a campsite that the property owner has set up in a small clearing with a picnic table and a water tank.

After lunch, there was one more steep climb and then it was back out of the forest and onto a more farmland before heading down a gravel road for about 8 km.

The gravel road was pleasant walking, but where it ended, the trail turns down a paved road for about 15km into Whananaki, where there’s a Holiday park and a shop with a famous fish and chips take away. Most were hitching this section but I started down the road although I knew that I likely wouldn’t walk the whole thing since that would make for a 42km day. At 4 pm, I called it quits and stuck out my thumb with the encouragement of a Kiwi couple. We figured we had just about enough to get to the shop to order food before the last call at 4:30. The first car that came by pulled over and took all three of us. Our driver was on his way to go fishing after work and dropped us off at the Holiday park in the nick of time to get our orders in. The fish and chips were excellent, certainly a nice change from my quinoa and lentils.

I should mention that I passed the official 300km mark today, although with the detours, I probably passed the real 300 km already, so 10% done!