Day 30: botanical gardens to Bombay

I slept surprisingly well until about 2 am, when I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep because the music nextdoor was still playing. I’m not sure that this part of Auckland actually ever sleeps since I could hear music in the morning as well. Jeremy proposed to drive me to the botanical gardens and that he’d bring Levi, his son, and that they’d walk me back to the trail, since they often walk there. Levi, 6 years old, was excited to feed the ducks and we first hit up the duck pond with some bird feed and then walked on through the magnolia walk to the trail. It was a great way to start the day!

After a short section along the Puhinui stream and then through Totara park, with everyone out walking their dog, it was onto the road for the rest of the day. I stopped off in Takinini to go the the Bin Inn to get some dinner and breakfast items. I also found a few fresh things in a nearby fruit and veg shop. I met Maureen on the road, a woman from Switzerland, also heading to Bombay and we walked into Drury together.

She left me at the Drury Lane cafe, where I stopped for lunch, a chicken cranberry tart thing with salad. The walk through Drury was not overly inspiring since we crossed over state highway 1 twice and there seemed to be a lot of transport type companies around and not much else apart from a sports field where some kids were planning cricket. The rest of the afternoon was a lot of road walking with a great hill to climb right at the end into Bombay. The view from the top was nice though and I could see back to Auckland and the Sky tower.

The rain started as I arrived at my destination, a hobby farm with alpacas, sheep, ducks, chickens and four little dogs. It’s the retirement project of Kerryl (away for the night) and Tom (our host). He made us very welcome with some produce from their garden and even a bit of steak since he had too much (his friend cancelled on him for dinner), which Maureen and I had as an appetizer for our dinners. I also sampled some of his homemade gin and limoncello. He seems to be an anti-vaccer and conspiracy theorist and doesn’t have anything good to say about Justin Trudeau or their own PM, but I’m grateful that he’s sharing his little paradisiacal corner of New Zealand and admire his goal of being self-sufficient.

Day 31: Bombay to Rangiriri

Tom made us fresh scrambled eggs with avocado toast for breakfast and Kerryl had left homemade date and orange muffins for us to take. After leaving their place, we had a climb up Mt William for some lovely views and even a glimpse of the Waikato river. It was Sunday and quite a few day hikers out.

The end of the walkway was through a nice little forest and then some fields. After a few kms on a dirt road, we reached the SH2, which the official trail follows for 5.7 km before turning down a track along the Mangatawhiri river, using a bridge to cross the river. Since the shoulder of the SH2 is practically non-existent in places and it’s a major highway, a lot of people cut through a farm to the Mangatawhiri river, which has to be crossed on foot to get to the trail. Maureen and I opted for the latter and turned off the SH2 as soon as we could and used a dirt road to get to some fields, which we crossed to the river. It was a bit strange to hop fences without permission, but apparently the farmer encourages people to cross his land. The river was no small affair and we knew that we would likely have to swim so we blew up our air mattresses and put our packs on them and started across. It was a wade at first but there was a section that had to be swim and that was full of plants, making it harder to move forward. I was grateful that there was no real current and that I wasn’t on my own for this adventure.

We dried off over some lunch and then walked along the stopbank for a bit.

The trail came out on a road that we followed for a while back towards SH1. The trail went under the highway and then goes along a forested bit of land between the highway and the Waikato. It was lovely at first but then the track was flooded and we were forced to walk along the highways, albeit on the river side of a small barrier.

We took the shoulder all the way to Mercer, which is a highway rest area more than anything. Maureen was hitching from here to Huntly, while I went on to the Whangamarino Redoubt track. It was a bit of a slog up some steepish but short hills and then down through a marshy section where I had to wade up to my knees before coming out on Oram road.

I had thought I would try to hitch to Rangiriri from there but it was dead since it’s a short dead-end road so I ended up walking along SH1, at least the grassy verge, into Meremere, which was also quiet. I didn’t see any cars for the first 15 minutes I tried hitching and was start to think about plan b, when a car pulled out of a nearby driveway and stopped. The nice man offered me a ride even though Rangiriri was in the opposite direction to where he was going! He was a Chilean, whose been here for a few years and seemed to have a hard time wrapping his mind around why anyone would choose to walk the length of New Zealand. He dropped me off and I went looking for Kathy, the pie lady and my host for the night. She makes award winning pies and hosts TA hikers in her yard. She offers a huge, delicious pie, and camping for $25. I had a veggie pie and thought it was excellent apart from the beetroot in it. I have four new campmates tonight, 3 Kiwis and an Aussie.

Day 32: Rangiriri to somewhere along the Hakarimata walkway

Last night, as I was going to put down my eReader and sleep, I realized that I had a mozzie in my tent. I got my headlamp on and to my surprise there were about 10 of them since I hadn’t properly zipped up my mesh. I had fun exterminating them and then called it a night. I had a slow morning the next day with some calls home and an incident of spilling my water in my tent. The cafe was closed since it was Monday, so there were no treats for me this morning. The trail follows a stopbank for the Waikato between Rangiriri to close to Huntly.

It was easy walking, but I did have to contend with cows on a few occasions, keeping things interesting. I could see the Huntly power station in the distance, the largest in the country, providing about 15% of the country’s electricity.

I arrived in Huntly about mid day and bought a banana in the local store, which was covered in graffiti. Kathy from Rangiriri had said that the side of Huntly that the trail passes through has the highest rate of gangs in the country and that a lot of lawyers and judges and other richer folk live the other side of the river. I didn’t see any gangs, but it certainly didn’t feel like the most welcoming place. I did find a picnic table to have lunch at with a view of the Waikato and bridge over to better off side of town. The trail follows a road along the Waikato a few kms around Huntly and then turns inland and picks up the Hakarimata walkway through the Hakarimata range. It starts off up a gravel path with lots of stairs and there’s a loop to go see some Kauris.

The locals use this part of the walkway a lot for exercise and I saw a few of them out despite it being a Monday. The trail then turns into a tramping track (aka rooty, rocky, steep and muddy), which We follow for about 8-9 km.

I stopped at a clearing about 4km past the gravel path for my first wild camping experience.

I was alone at first, but then a German couple I haven’t met before showed up. I had been looking forward to camping on my own, but it’s nice to have some company too.