• Te Araroa Day 18
• Parutahi Bay to Whananaki – 31.2 km in 9 hours 30 minutes
• Elevation Gain: 1226m (new TA PB!)
• Cattle on Trail: 0 😂

I think I might have done a pack up personal best this morning too.. We agreed on 8am leaving time, and I was ready at 7:59 am after getting up at 6:40am. Thanks Ian for giving me external motivation! Everyone who knows me will know I’m very prone to running just a fraction late, or being not *quite* ready on time 😅

After setting out we walked with a dad and his daughter in a pram for a bit, it was nice to chat. My first task was trying to get a ride up the hill where we left off the trail yesterday to visit Oakura. With a brilliant smile on a quiet Sunday morning in a small town, I managed to get TWO cars to stop at once! The first didn’t have space for two, but the second car were a lovely couple who are doing sections when they can of the cycle version – Tour Aotearoa. It was really kind of them to stop and save us the climb, they’d seen us in the holiday park and figured we were doing Te Araroa.

Next we chugged through the road walk, and found our first trail for the day – Helena Bay Ridge Track.

I was most focussed on this for the day, having read it included quite a lot of uphill. It did, but they were short sharp climbs and manageable. The trail seemed to be an old road Ian noticed – perhaps used for forestry back in the day. He had some great stories about his great grandfather who had worked in the logging industry back in the day. The bush was regenerating, and there was plenty of manuka coming up, with Kauri and other trees growing in places. It was a much more pleasant bush walk than I expected, lovely underfoot after the roads. We also passed the 300 km mark!

Not too far after this we passed a place where the farmer had put up a sign saying TA walkers may camp here in the grassy clearing. There was a water tank too that is manually filled up. I’d read about it in a blog, and it was noted in the Guthook app where people can make comments attached to locations, but it is not in the official trail notes – despite existing for a few years at least now. We had lunch there and were pleased with our progress.

After a brief gravel road section, the DOC signposted ‘Morepork Track’ began. The sign said one way, 4.6km, 2 hours. It too began with a lovely, wide, easy trail through more bush. Oddly there was no signposted end to this trail, it just seemed to merge into a far more typical tramping track, through private property. This track careered up and down very steeply though, there was no zigzagging to be had! ‘Killer Morepork’ is perhaps a bit harsh as that 4.6km was lovely, but this day really had a nasty sting in the tail.

Time was ticking by, we seemed to be “just about out of the forest” for an hour, although eventually emerged for a short trip through farmland. In some faraway paddocks were perhaps the bulls referred to, but not on the trail today! Finally, the Whananaki Estuary trail was average and obviously not a trail the locals are fond of, but it delivered us to the doorstep of the holiday park just after 6 pm. All hope of the dairy/shop still being open and an ice cream had faded sadly.

I can’t really find anything positive to say about the holiday park, but they had kindly held a food box for me. Thanks for the apples Mum, and the newspaper idea to separate each set of meals!

We hobbled around just managing to do the evening camp chores. One of my quad muscles feels quite strained… In the end today involved more uphill than either of the two big forest days. In hindsight I wish I’d checked the elevation more carefully, and it was frustrating that the farmer’s camp wasn’t mentioned in the notes. That would have been a great place to stay to break up the huge day, but when it seems unofficial it’s really hard to know if it will still be there, if there will be water in the water tank etc. Not really aspects you can gamble on…

Thankfully, I have tracked down a really good value Air BnB place just 8 km further down the trail for us to stay in tomorrow night, and have a rest afternoon. At least that’s something to look forward to!