Day 33: Harikamata walkway to Pukete

There were definitely some animal noises in the forest during the night, not sure what animal, but it’s comforting to know there’s nothing dangerous here. In any case, it was a warm morning as the wind had died down overnight. I got going shortly after 8 am and this time managed not to spill anything in my tent. The first 3-4 km were up and down over roots and mud, more mud than yesterday, until coming out at a lookout over Ngaruawahia and Hamilton.

I crossed paths with the Kiwi couple and Aussie from Rangiriri, who had taken a bus from Huntly to Ngaruawahia and were slack-packing (just carrying a light bag) back to Huntly today. Apparently the woman who runs the campground in Huntly encourages hikers to do this and therefore spend two nights with her. I also met a lot of Hamiltonians doing there exercise up the 1500+ steps up to the lookout.

My knees were glad when that decent was over. The end of the trail follows a stream and has a few waterfalls, the first that I’ve seen up close.

I stopped off at a café in Ngaruawahia and had a cookie and a flat white for my mid morning snack. I also stopped in at the New World to get an apple for lunchtime and also bought some avocados and some chocolate. Then it was back to the trail, which follows Te Awa, a pedestrian/cycle path along the Waikato that goes 20km into Hamilton.

It started to get quite sunny and with little wind or shade, I was hot. I had messaged a trail angel in Hamilton and she agreed to have me stay, but was actually in Pukete, a suburb about 7km North of the city centre. Glad my walk would be shorter than I thought, I gladly accepted and was soon at Erin’s place. She also let me into her house while she was out before even meeting me and let me use the shower and kitchen. I’m the only one here, but when she got home, we chatted a bit and she gave me some fresh veggies, even cherry tomatoes off her plant. Erin even offered to take me to Raglan, a famous surf town nearby, tomorrow if I wanted a day off. It’s hard to believe how generous people are. I didn’t take her up on her offer, but will add Raglan to the list of possible places to visit at the end. I also decided not to visit Hobbiton, which is close to Hamilton. It’s not all that appealing to me, although the 2nd breakfast tour, did have some appeal. I treated myself to a dinner of lamb and potatoes with peas at the local pub before calling it a night.

Day 34: Pukete to Whatawhata

After breakfast, I left Erin’s and went back to the Te Awa riverside path. I already felt hungry an hour in and since I was still in Hamilton suburbs managed to find a nearby café to have a muffin. Then ist was on into the center of Hamilton, where I stopped at the local outdoors shop, Trek and Travel, to buy camp stove gas. I found the gas within seconds but spent over an hour looking at backpacks, especially the Aarnpacks, with a front section to balance you better. I’m not used to the front bags though and you can remove them but then there are no hip belt pockets to stash things like a phone or snacks in a handy spot and without them the total volume is tight since there’s nowhere obvious to attach the tent in the exterior like I do now. I didn’t pull the trigger since none of them seemed quite right.

It was then along some road, a bike path and then more road for 6km to Dinsdale where I stopped for lunch and then went to a Bin Inn to get food for the next few days. I also went to the grocery store next door for cookies and crackers. My bag was even more uncomfortable after adding all the food. Shortly after leaving Dinsdale, the trail turned off onto a park that had a nice view of the next mountain we tackle, Mt Pirongia.

After leaving the park, I saw this sign next to someone’s driveway.

It was along a quiet road to an arboretum, which was lovely to walk through. I met a TA alum from last year there, he walks out from Hamilton daily to rehab a broken leg. He told me that the tall trees with bark that sort of molts are gum trees, not native to NZ, an import from Australia. The trail leaves the arboretum on a quite road that eventually leads to some farm fields that we cross going over countless stiles. There were no loose cows on the trail today but some did some right up to the fence as I approached and almost seemed to want to join me on my walk. After more road and short stint along a state highway, I arrived in Whatawhata and the Backyard bar, my home for the night since they allow camping in their yard. There are a bunch of us here, mostly all new to me, including a couple from Montreal. I was led through a back passage to a shower, that was in this random room with a lot of junk. It was sketchy to say the least, but had amazing pressure, one of the best showers I’ve had on trail if I looked passed the creepy feeling of the room it was in. The bar does food, so it was a burger and beer for dinner.