Christmas Holidays

9th Dec 18 - Present

Day 1-4: Zero days in Hamilton City

Day 5: Bus to Whatawhata then 9km to Kapua Valley

Day 6: Back to Hamilton for a bus to Palmerston North, and then to Carterton
Day 7-Present: Staying with my parents over Christmas


Total days on the trail: 33
Total 782km out of 3000km

Just a quick update on our progress, or rather, lack of...We have made it to Wellington! Unfortunately we didn't quite walk here and are off trail just very slightly. Hmmm let me go back to where I left off...we were in Hamilton City ready for a couple of days off to "fix" my health. We stayed in a nice motel, but each day came and I still didn't feel better. We went for easy walks around the city, but I just kept getting dizzy, so we kept extending our stay. Glen started coughing a bit at this point too, but it didnt seem to want to develop into anything. We tried to relax in the many gardens available, went to a movie and spent some time reading at the library. We also ate as much iron-rich food as we could, and finally after 4 days we decided I was good enough to carry on.

Lake Rotoroa

The plan was to do a simple and short trip to the lodge where we were going to camp that night, then it would be another 2 days to the summit of Mt. Pirongia. We caught a bus to Whatawhata where we had a delicious lunch and a chat with some hikers who were stopped there for a couple of days.  They were the first people we met who really did seem to be on our wavelength and were hiking for enjoyment and exploration. They were also taking their time and doing the good bits over the parts that maybe didnt appeal as much. I was looking forward to shadowing them along the trail for a few days.

After fueling up we were off. It felt so good actually to be back on the trail. I was ready, I was better, it was going to be grand. We walked along a road for a short time before cutting around the back of some houses and along the banks of a river. This slightly boggy track came out into a few empty paddocks for a good hour or so. The trail annoyingly points you around the edges of each paddock, but actually walking across the middle would be a lot faster! It was also walking through these fields when I experienced shortness of breath again and a very slight fuzziness around my vision. My body was still strong and I wanted so much to be better, but I obviously wasn't. I kept at it and got more and more dizzy. It was very humid and the next section was just along the road, so that didn't help either. By the time we reached our accommodation for the night, I was tired, sweaty and needed to sit down.

The owner of the lodge, Hugh, came out with glasses of cold water and showed us where we could put our tent. For a bit extra we had access to their facilities and luckily we were the only ones there. It seemed an awesome spot and we were excited about being in the tent again after so long. Glen and I talked about our options while we made dinner. I was super nervous about climbing the mountain in the state I was in, as I had found today a bit hard and it was flat and only 9km! I had pretty much decided I would go back to Hamilton and bus to Te Kuiti and wait there for Glen while he conquered the summit, when my mum called. I spoke with her and my stepdad John and they suggested we pause the walk and get ourselves to Carterton where they live, for a few days. As we had already spent a few days in Hamilton, which was slightly over budget and as I obviously needed more time to take iron pills we decided to do exactly that.

After we made this quite difficult decision, it was time for bed. What was meant to be a calm, enjoyable night in the tent turned into a bit of a nightmare very quickly. I was just about asleep when what sounded like 4 different possums decided to cackle feet away from us, fight each other, and run around in a generally noisy way! We tried scaring them off, but they just sat in their trees staring at us like we were idiots, so we left them to it. Earplugs in and trying not to imagine them crawling under the tent fly, I went to sleep. Not very long after that I felt Glen moving around and thinking the possums were getting a bit close or something, I asked what was wrong. He didn't want to show me, but on the outside of the tent, but inside the fly, was the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life! And it was carrying an egg sack....urgh! All Glen could do was flick it off the tent and hope it crawled away, not into his pack.

Another very broken sleep, but we were heading off trail anyway today. Hugh kindly drove us back to Whatawhata, where we jumped on the bus back to Hamilton after a coffee and a scone. At the transport centre there was a bus to Palmerston North leaving just after 11am so we hopped straight on. This was actually quite a good ride down, the weather that had been threatening for so long finally broke as we drove through all the towns we should have been walking past. We arrived in Palmerston North around 7pm and my parents were there ready to take us the rest of the way home. It was so good to see them and know that for a week or two we would be truly looked after and able to rest. 30 years old, but still so good to come home to your parents when you're not well.

Stanley and Daisy, my parent's dogs

The plan is to rest here until after Christmas, as there's no point leaving before Christmas now I'm here! I'm still taking my pills and eating iron-rich food. Glen has managed to get a cold, all that coughing he was doing while we were in Hamilton finally turned into something. So both of us invalids made the best decision we could to pause the walk and get healthy properly. Once Christmas has been, we will go back up to the area just south of Hamilton, almost back to where we stopped, and will continue from there. We both still don't want to give up on hiking the Te Araroa Trail yet, but we know if we had just kept going, it would have been so unenjoyable and such a struggle, I wouldn't have wanted to finish it at all. We still feel we have more to achieve and will get back to it soon enough. We both hope you all enjoy your Christmas holidays as we will enjoy our break here and the next blog update will be in 2019! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Birthdays and Illnesses

4th Dec 18 - 8th Dec 18

Day 1: Zero day in Auckland city

Day 2: 15km to Onehunga, train to Pukekohe, then another 2km to our friends place. 17km total.

Day 3: Zero day in Pukekohe for my 30th
Day 4: 16 km from Rangiriri to Huntly
Day 5: Bus to Hamilton City


Total days on the trail: 32
Total 758km out of 3000km

Cornwall Park 

So I turned 30 this week. Big event made bigger by the fact that we are currently walking the length of the Country. Pretty cool life story though. The timing of it was quite perfect as we have had a great week filled with familiar friendly faces and of course more food as we came through our hometown. We slept amazingly in our hotel room in Auckland City and the next morning was nice and lazy. I showered and even combed my hair as I was popping into my old workplace to visit for a couple of hours. That was awesome to see everyone and be able to talk about the trail with people who were actually interested! Loads of questions and encouragement later, I had lunch with my bestie Candice (just like old times) and then reconnected with Glen to do some planning for the afternoon. He had also managed to meet up with his old work mates for the morning too. Perfect little morale boost thanks guys!

The next day was mostly enjoyable. We walked the Coast to Coast Walkway which takes you right through the city of Auckland out to Onehunga. Its very cool walking through parts of Auckland we have only ever driven through before. Plenty of interesting people around too. The only negative was a moment in the domain where I had a weird shortness of breath attack. I had had this a couple of times last week in the Mangawhai to Dome Valley section and had put that down to my fitness climbing mountains, but this was on the flat! And I have been walking consistently for a month so my fitness should be good! I left it, wondering whether I could have asthma or whether it was some kind of panic attack...Once at Onehunga we had a quick lunch then had an adventure catching the train from there through to Pukekohe. There is something very wrong with the train system as we had to change trains twice just to get to Pukekohe, which is really not very efficient. From Pukekohe we had another couple of kms to walk to our friends house where we were staying the night.

Once our friends Ben and Glen (or Bean and Coxie) showed up, my Glen announced we were going out to dinner for my birthday eve. Awesome surprise! We drove down to the restaurant and ate our little hearts out. There was even going to be a cake, except Bean managed to forget this part of the plan....he made up for it though by suggesting we get Ben & Jerry's ice-cream instead. That stuff is pretty amazing! After dinner we had a tour of the Christmas lights on their street and then it was off to sleep.

The next day, being my actual birthday, we decided to keep it chill. Our other good friends Mike and Stacey agreed to take us home from work with them in the afternoon to save us walking from Mercer to theirs. That meant we had the whole day to relax at Beans and Coxies. The first half of the day was good, but then when I was having a phone catch up with my parents, they got a bit concerned about the weird breathing i had and suggested I see a doctor. As we were in a town with access to one, we ended up going in to the emergency clinic. The doctor was concerned too and suggested I get a blood test to see what my iron levels were like. It was either that or I have adult onset asthma induced by pollen! Would have to wait to find out for sure. So after walking on my day off, getting a blood test on my birthday and taking home my first inhaler, I was feeling like I turned 30 and literally fell apart. Is this what it's like to get old?!

We got back to Bean and Coxies just as the sky opened up again (phew managed to miss us once again) and did more chilling until Mike finished work and could pick us up. A short drive later we were pulling into their driveway, unloading our packs and being pounced on by two little white fluffs. We had met Winston before and he was still a little unsure of us, but Lulu is the latest bichon addition to the family and she was happy to have cuddles with us! Stacey toiled all evening cooking me nachos for birthday dinner. As I had missed out in the Dome Valley, I was super excited about this! And it was delicious of course! Then just as we were about to head to bed after such a good day, Stacey put the icing on the cake...literally...she got me a cake! Candles and everything! Best. Day. Ever.

Unfortunately we had to continue on our adventure the next morning. We said goodbye and managed to walk the section from Rangiriri to Huntly with no issues. I had to wait another day or two before my blood results would come back, so I spent a lot of the day trying to work out what, if anything, was wrong with me. The walk was good, not so far we couldn't handle it and it was all flat through the farmland next to the Waikato river. Stopbank, stile, cows, stopbank, stile, cows, was pretty much how it went. This time the cows were mostly friendly and some even started following us as they were interested in us!

Crossing the bridge over the Waikato

We arrived in Huntly relatively early and got a room at the Essex Arms. It was as good as it sounds...just as we were getting a second lunch from the bakery the doctor called. Turns out my iron levels are below 6! Normal levels are between 12-15. This is almost anaemic and rather worrying....ooops...this explains my shortness of breath and the level of fatigue I have been feeling amongst quite a few other symptoms. All of which I had put down to me just not being very good at hiking! Seems that's not it yay! Literally in 3 weeks of hiking, the exercise increase and diet change caused this much of a drop. I started on the iron tablets he prescribed straight away and we got giant, bloody steaks for dinner. We will also spend time in the next few days looking at other food options/supplements we can take to fix this.

The calves we walked through

We slept surprisingly well and for about 10 hours...but I woke up feeling awful. I was sweating when doing nothing, shaking and felt dizzy. I have had this a bit in the last week and now I know what's causing these symptoms, but it still doesn't help me feel better. We were about to start our walk to Ngaruwahia, but decided to bus to Hamilton instead. We will take 2 days there to eat as much meat as we can and give the tablets a few days to build up in my system. Glen has been just as tired as me each day, which is why we just thought we were bad at hiking, but he will take a dose of the iron tablets too as I am pretty sure he will be low as well.

Another rest section after barely walking the last few days anyway brings on quite a strong feeling of guilt. But health comes first and I would rather not continue hiking feeling the way I have been if i dont need to. Hopefully after this little hiccup it will be straight into the wilderness again, climbing mountains and fording rivers and feeling healthy and strong! Bring it on!

Home Run to Auckland

28th Nov 18 - 3rd Dec 18

Day 1: 16km Mangawhai to Pakiri Beach

Day 2: 11.5km to Matakana Valley Road

Day 3: 18km to a campsite near Dome Valley
Day 4: 7.5km to Nanakoti Homestay near Puhoi
Day 5: 18km to Puhoi Village and a drive to Orewa
Day 6: 4.5km to Silverdale then bus to Auckland City

Total days on the trail: 27
Total 580km out of 3000km

Aunty Karen kindly took us through Mangawhai to the start of the beach walk to Pakiri. We had a fantastic rest day with her and Glens Uncle and were ready to go again. The weather was iffy, but that actually made walking the beach a bit easier. We didnt go very far before we reached Te Arai point. Plenty of surfers out, but only 1 other hiker, an older French man. We stopped for a quick chat with him then carried on up and over the point through some forest and down onto the beach again. Then it was about 12km to the end.

After about 5km we hit a stream crossing, which, unfortunately for us was right on high tide. We thought we still had an hour or so, but actually it was in as much as it was going to be. The waves were flowing in and the estuary part was filling super quick. I felt a bit panicky and as I wanted to get through before it got any higher I started across where the river met the ocean. I could feel myself getting bashed by the waves and then Glen yelled at me to come back (too gungho apparently) and as my camera was still on the outside of my pack I figured he was probably right. A young German couple caught up to us at this point and the tall guy just walked right across! He left his girlfriend behind though who came back with us. Once Captain Safety (Glen) was satisfied everything was 100% watertight, we decided to try again. It did reach my waist and a big wave almost got me, but we made it. The German girl also made it across, but only because her partner jumped back in to help with her pack.

Just made it across in time.

Lunch was more salami wraps on the safe side of the river and then more beach walking. Weirdly, there were about 20 dead blue penguins all along this beach. They all looked mostly whole so it's a bit of a mystery as to why they had all washed up...will have to do some investigation on this as was quite sad. Finally we arrived at another river crossing, but right on the other side was the campground. This time I could feel the current and it was very strong. We watched the Germans and the French man cross further upstream and although deep, it looked safe enough. Seems like a strange thing to be nervous about, but when you have a weighted pack on, it's actually quite hard to find your balance. We got across this one with only thigh deep water, although I'm sure I almost got sucked into a quicksand bog at one point!

Ice-creams and a cabin for the night at Pakiri campground as the weather had been threatening rain again. Turned out to be a stunner of an evening of course, and about another 9 hikers turned up over the afternoon. We met Courtney a fellow kiwi  who we swapped blogs with. She was lovely and it was great to have a decent chat with a fellow New Zealander. A couple of hikers turned up quite late and it makes you wonder whether its a ploy to get out of paying. If no one is in the office, how can you stop a hiker strolling in late? I realise everyone is doing their own walk, but some hikers seem to be doing all they can to avoid paying to sleep. Camping in the bush/forest/farmland where it has been expressly mentioned not to freedom camp due to various reasons. Not a lot can be done about this I guess, but I do wish people would cough up a bit more for our economy. It's a shame as the TA Trust has put so much effort into this trail, providing all the info needed for hikers to find a cheap place to stop for the night.

Looking back towards Pakiri beach.

Most of the big group headed off super early as they were going all the way through to Dome Valley in one. We just aren't that good yet, so our goal was to go to Matakana Valley Road. Omaha forest was a typical NZ bush walk. We smashed the few kms along the road then up, up, up some steep farmland and along a ridgeline to a steep descent through very slippery, thick mud. "Babies diarrhea" according to Glen. This was slow going for us, as you really have to concentrate and use your entire body to keep yourself upright. Even though a couple of parts were a little hairy, mostly I actually found myself enjoying it....weird I know, but no mud was getting into our boots, so no wet feet and you end up kinda having to just go along with the slide.

Just before we reached Matakana Valley Road, we checked Guthook again and changed our minds about accommodation that night. We were going to camp somewhere along the next few kms on someones front garden offered to hikers, but the weather was turning again and it had been tough on the muscles, so we rang a place called Matakana Outback and got a cabin there instead. There was a shortcut through the bush right to their driveway, which if we had known it would be the steepest downhill of the entire day, we might not have taken. Once there though it was an amazing night of luxury. Their dog Orca kept popping over for cuddles and we had enough of the afternoon sun left to enjoy it and dry our sweaty clothes (so much for that rain). We watched some old Big Bang Theory reruns with dinner then off to bed.

The next day saw the weather turn yuck again. The rain clouds threatened all day, but only the odd shower actually got us through the dense bush. We had our wet weather gear handy just the same. We had a few kms of road walking to do first then off up into another bush section. We chased a wild goat family up the track for a bit then got right into it. I had a goal of getting to the Dome cafe before 5pm when it closed. Glen was dreaming of hot chips and I was drooling over the nachos I was going to have for dinner. Dome Valley walk (or Doom Valley for some) was tough ups and downs with plenty of mud. Nothing quite as thick as the previous day, but we did have 3 massive summits to get through. I even fell over at one point, which was basically inevitable. In some parts the track was well looked after and we could crank up the pace, but uphill slows me down a lot and downhill in mud takes even longer sometimes.

This was actually the first day I felt physically fitter. It was 18km through tough bush and even though we were tired and sore, we really kept up a great pace and I didnt need to stop as much up the hills as I used to. It doesn't take as long for us to recover our breath now either, we can just go and go and go. This made the day better for me. What made it even better though was that we arrived at the cafe at 4pm and even though my dream of nachos was shattered as they had no mince, we shared a ham and cheese toastie and a fisherman's platter YUM! Then, after we finally managed to cross SH1, it was a short 2km walk up to a grassy patch a very kind farmer has built into his front lawn just for TA hikers!

Breakfast in the farmer's shed.

Unfortunately the weather really did pack in at this point and even though we got the tent up just in time, it rained and was super windy all night long. This made for a sleepless night and a cranky Emily the next morning. We relooked at our plan and to avoid camping in rain again, we made a slight change. We walked 7.5km along some road and across a bit of farmland to Nanakoti Homestay where we got a barn apartment for the night. We literally walked into a barn filled with hay bales (uh oh was my first thought), then we were directed upstairs to a fully furnished, beautiful apartment. Not quite a rest day, but a half day instead. Glens ankle was bothering him and I was bothering him so we thought it best to rest while we can. We want to enjoy this experience and with potentially another 5 months to go, we can have the odd treat.

A very overgrown track to Nanakoti.

We hung out here all afternoon and the owners Denise and Urs really welcomed us. We even got some chicken and spaghetti from them so I could cook dinner (first time I have had to cook anything other than dehydrated meals!). Once the goats that lived downstairs finished ringing their bells and banging around for the evening, all was quiet and we slept very well.

The next morning we packed up, ate some bacon and eggs that Denise also gave us and then started our last big day of this part of the journey. 18km over Moirs hill and down a couple of different tracks into Puhoi. My good friend Anna was going to meet us there and take us into Orewa for dinner and a night at the campground. Something to look forward to!

We started up a very well formed farm track, but it was uphill again for a few kms and a super humid day. We ended up at the top of Moirs hill for morning tea. Then back down through farmland and paddocks and more paddocks. Out the other side of that rather nice farm, was the third track of the day consisting of the last 5km to Puhoi through bush. I tried very hard to go down the road and stop at the cheese factory instead as the humidity was really getting to me today, but again Glen kept me in check. We crossed a swing bridge (one of many many more to come) and followed the Puhoi walkway up and along the top and then down to the pub.

As usual I was pretty tired by this point, but the track into Puhoi is actually a really nice one. It's a lovely bit of bush and the path is wonderfully maintained! Makes life so much easier when you can look at the scenery, not just where your feet are going. Anna and her husband Jay were already there and after a quick L&P to boost the energy levels, they drove us down into Orewa. Very strange feeling, returning home, but not really as we don't live there anymore....Glen and I showered so we wouldn't have to put Anna and Jay through anymore pain than necessary then sent the men out to hunt and gather dinner. They came back with Sals and it was the best evening sitting in the campground, eating and being with friends after another tough day.

Another good sleep later, we left the cabin and headed into Orewa itself for a couple of errands. We stopped by our old house to visit the neighbour and there is a new family moved in to our house! We both felt very strange all morning and even chatted about finishing the trail here and going back to normal lives! Coming back to your hometown really makes it hard to carry on. But nah, we still have more in us. It was raining nice and steadily, but we walked up to Silverdale to catch the Express bus to Auckland city. A short while later we were checking in to our serviced apartment in central Auckland! As it's my 30th in 3 short days this is a combined birthday and a congratulatory we-made-it-to-Auckland present. Tomorrow I'm visiting my old work buddies and we might even go see a movie!

Home again!

P.S. - My insoles are AMAZING! I have sore feet every day, but no particular parts of my foot, which means everything is being cushioned nicely now. It is literally like a cloud under my foot and now Glen is super jealous and will be getting a pair himself now we are in Auckland.