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Cape reinga to kaitaia

Te Araroa days 1 to 5

By Nature Is Calling

November 26^th, 2019

Day 1 - to twilight beach

Start: 9:06 @ km 0
Backpack weights: Leah 12.5 kg, Mathias 15.6 kg
End: 13:11 @ km 12.5
Hiked: 12.5 km

Before leaving Utea Park we sorted out some food that we did not need yet and could leave there to later pick up on the way down. After this Paul weighted our packs. Leah had 12.5 kg, Mathias had 15.6 kg. Not ultralight, but also not ultra heavy. The maximum Paul ever saw someone carry was above 30 kg...

On the way up to the cape we were joined by Maria and Lil who would start with us and walk parts of the TA. Lil just three days, Maria around two weeks. While in the car, we passed 2 packs of wild horses and Tania explained that there are thousands of wild horses in this area.

When we arrived at the Cape, we said our goodbyes to Tania and off we went. The sky was blue and beautiful. The wind was intense. We felt like we could blow off the cliff. Seeing the light house let us know this es real: we were starting on our journey! We had one more look at the point where the Tasmanian Sea and Pacific Ocean meet, took the classic starting point photo with the sign pointing to Bluff and then set off.

We were surprised by the diversity in landscapes; beach, moon/Mars-esque, lots of green plant life. It was beautiful.

We were the first to arrive at the campsite and chose a spot in the open middle patch to pitch our tent (we had heard about opossums eating through someone’s tent and thought it best to stay away from the trees and bushes).

Mathias quickly laid down for a nap and Leah finished her book (Binti- part 2) and then did some yoga.

As time went by, others arrived and we met the group would we would remember as our starting crew: Kim and Chris (the Canadians), 2 German girls, Hans (German), Lil and Maria (South Africans), and Johno From NZ.

We watched to sunset and went to bed before 9pm.

Day 2 - to the bluff

Start: 7:40 @ km 12.5
End: 15:30 @ km 40.5
Hiked: 28 km

Excited to start the day we woke up at 6am (without an alarm). We tried the breakfast that we had planned for the next 5 days: oatmeal, dried coconut milk powder, and trail mix for the win. We were second to leave camp, following behind Hans who left at 4am. The trail started with crossing a little hill and many stairs down to 90 Miles Beach.

We agreed on taking breaks every 1.5 hours; stretch, drink, eat, apply sunscreen. We are finding that New Zealand has some tasty snacks. Big shout out to OSM bars and Tom and Luke snackballs.

We were thankful to have minimal wind today, still the breeze from the ocean made us wear relatively warm clothes for around 20 degrees Celsius.

There were not many landmarks at the beach, so we aimed at the one visible: a little island. But it seemed we could walk hours towards it, without it getting any closer. As frustrating as that was, finally reaching it felt victorious. Later we would hear from others, about their experiences with the “moving island”.

We spend the final kilometers walking with Hans who shared some of his interesting life stories with us.

The campsite at the bluff treated us well; flushing toilets, a guy offering to take our garbage, and a herd of wild horses repeatedly roaming through the campground.

Mini statistics: everyone sore except for the German girls, Mathias 1 blister, Leah 1 blister.

Day 3 - to utea park

Start: 8:07 @ km 40.5
End: 15:15 @ km 69.5
Hiked: 29.5 km

We had decided to not start too early because the tides would make walking on the beach more challenging in the morning. High tide was at 8:33. So when we woke up all the tents were gone except for two others: the Canadians and Johno. The weather was quite misty and everything felt damp. We had breakfast in the covered area and had a nice chat with Johno.

Once we got started we had to walk in the soft sand for a while as the tide was still high. Over time the beach and sand got better. We extended the walking between breaks to two hours. We had our struggles today. Mathias fighting with a blister under his foot and Leah with her back hurting from the weight of her backpack. Leah was about to lose it (thinking there were 11+km to go) when Mathias announced there were only three... woo woo!

We saw the bright green flag of Utea park flying up above and pushed ourselves to complete the final kilometers. Upon our arrival, Tania gave us a deliciously juicy orange and 2 perfectly ripe avocados 🥑!!! YUMMY!

We enjoyed hot showers, had a yoga session on the lawn (led by Leah) with other trampers, ate a yummy meal, popped a blister (Mathias), enjoyed another sunset, and went to sleep in a little cabin called Ruru.

mini drama: we had ordered a PLB to Utea (hoping it would be there when we arrived) and got a message saying ‘attempted delivery’. Will we be able to sort this out before we leave tomorrow?? (What a cliffhanger...)

Day 4 - to ahipara

Start: 9:05 @ km 69.5
Backpack weights: Leah 13.9 kg, Mathias 16.4 kg
End: 17:20 @ km 101
Hiked: 31.5 km

We had a nice sleep in until 7:00... wooo woo! The day started off in our favor: blueberry smoothies from Tania, a quick ride into town to get our PLB (success!), and headed out back to the beach just before high tide. We weighed our bags (with additional food, water and PLB) with new weights (see above).

The sand was not as bad (soft) as yesterday, but we were looking forward for the tide to go back out. Again, the beach seemed long and today a friendly bird helped us to set mini goals moving forward. We met up with Hans along the way and had a short break together.

It was a hot day, and Leah questioned whether she should have dumped that third liter of water back at Utea Park to minimize her pack’s weight.

We passed a different German couple (who apparently started the same day as us, but who we hadn’t seen yet). We saw locals gathering Tua Tua (shellfish) in the sea. And, we made it to 100km!

The last few kilometers of the day created some challenges: we walked through two flooded areas, and the walk to the YHA campground just couldn’t have come soon enough. However, it was all worth it! The YHA was a little piece of paradise: hot showers, common area, pretty landscape and cold beer. We met up with everyone over dinner and had good chats. Everyone is walking funny (limping mostly due to blisters and overall bone and muscle pain). What will tomorrow bring?

Day 5 - to Kaitaia

Start: 9:20 @ km 101
End: 13:30 @ km 115.5
Hiked: 14.5 km

Leah awoke to the jungle birds singing at 5:45am. Guess we’ll get up. Had breakfast, the German girls (Sarah and Julia) shared some of their coffee with us (thanks ❤️), said ‘see ya later’ to Hans and Maria and headed off for the day. Today was a road walking day and turned out not to be as bad as we’d expected, but it was hot as! The sunscreen reapplication is a regular routine. We passed a variety of homes: some run-down and some with a beautiful views from on top of the hills. We we’re so thankful when a local man (who was coming to collect his mail) invited us onto his property and picked us some fresh oranges from his orchard.

We ended our road walking day at Beachcombers backpackers early afternoon and used the rest of the day for our first restocking for the next days. The ‘lawn area’ of the backpacker was ridiculously small... in fact, we think they just freestyled and said ‘sure, we have a space for you all to pitch your tents’. It was in the middle of a bunch of dorm rooms. Luckily our 3 tents all fit. It was a loud night filled with people on a much different schedule than us TA walkers... Pretty sure they didn’t enjoy our 6am wake up either.