Attempt Two...Made it to Paihia

4th Nov 18 - 12th Nov 18

Days 1-7 resting in Mangonui

Day 8: 15km Puketi Outskirts to Kerikeri

Day 9: 19km to Paihia

Total walking days: 6
Total 252km out of 3000km

Picturesque Mangonui

After our disastrous start last week, we ended up hanging out at Glens parents for about a week. The first thing we did after we got back was to completely re-jig our packs. The weight was definitely part of the cause of my issues, so everything non-essential was out! Glen was quite strict and we managed to drop about 4kg of gear between us!  We also re-looked at our food choices and changed everything that wasn't super light and minimised it all. My original pack start weight was around 18kg and is now around 15kg! That's including food and water. Glen's is also down a couple of kgs, so much better for the second attempt at the Trail.

My lovely blisters after a few healing days

The second task was to drive into Kerikeri and investigate some other options/ideas for my feet. We ended up grabbing some liner socks to help reduce any friction on my foot pads and help with moisture wicking. This, combined with limiting our days to 20-25km max (30km is just too much for us at this stage) should prevent anymore blisters. My blisters actually healed very well and quite quickly, with some epsom salt baths and staying off them for a bit. But unfortunately my hip pain hung around a while longer. We were all set to go on the Friday 9th, but with a short walk around the block on the Thursday, that's when my hip decided to feel extra twingy again! I ended up visiting a physio just to make sure I had the right techniques to heal it and then prevent hurting it again and pushed our start date another couple of days.

Glen walking the farmland just outside of Kerikeri

With some advice and a nice massage, we were finally ready to go. Glen's mum dropped us off just outside the Puketi forest and we started with the 15km stroll into Kerikeri. Partly because of my hip and blisters, but also as 2 of the 3 Northland Forests were closed to hikers, we planned our second section from the other side of this area. An easier start, with some slightly shorter days than the massive 90 Mile Beach, would get us used to living as true thru-hikers.

The walk to Kerikeri was very enjoyable, through some farmland (including a bunch of bulls) and then following along Kerikeri river all the way into the city. The day was hot, but cloudy and we were pretty happy all day. We ended up at the Kerikeri campground for the night where we met a couple more TA trailers (also with injuries), had a cheat pizza for dinner and were kept up by some young tourists till about midnight.

With minor muscle fatigue we got up early and treated ourselves to McDonalds on our way out of Kerikeri as it would be the last mcmuffin for some time! Again, we were feeling good and ready to be back on the trail.

We had a few kms along a country road, so we made sure we had our hi-vis attached to our packs. This climbed up into Waitangi forest and onto a forestry road made of gravel, but covered in soft pine needles. We followed this for almost 15km straight before trouble came again....my hip...I had been feeling so good, climbing up and down all the forest ridges, feeling strong and happy to be carrying on, then suddenly my hip cramped. I may have cried again a tiny bit (due to the pain and the worry as to how I would get out of the forest and the rest of the way to Paihia!), but we stopped, ate some food, had a helping of magnesium and then when I carried on very slowly and steadily it didn't reoccur. Phew! Arrived at the Bounty Inn for our 2 night stay around 3pm which gave us plenty of feet elevating and muscle resting time.

Airing our socks during our breaks

Fricking glad and proud we did it, 2 full days of walking and no issues other than that one episode. Glens shoulders are killing him and both of us are walking like we are 80 years of age, but we feel stronger already and soon we will be able to go further and faster.