• Te Araroa Day 23
• Ocean Beach to Reotahi Reserve – 16.45 km in 8 hours 15 minutes (includes long cafe stop!)
• TA ice cream count: 3

Sometime in the middle of the night, out of nowhere, it rained really heavily for about ten minutes. I can’t think of anything to compare the deafening noise to, but I had my headlight on, and was beginning to wonder if I’d have to evacuate the tent! It held up well though, stayed dry inside, and I’m full of love for my little yellow home.

Northland rain is much heavier and more sudden than Christchurch rain. On the upside, I’m 99% sure I heard a kiwi calling last night.

After more reading than sleeping, we set off at 8:30 up the steep Te Whara track towards Bream Head summit. My Achilles hate really steep climbs, especially without a warm up, and it was a bit of a struggle. The views of Ocean Beach were well worth it and vast though, and we made good time up to where the old WWII radar station once was.

The views only became more impressive as we went along the ridge towards Mt Lion. There were tui and korimako / bellbird singing, and I saw a tomtit too. Although early on we’d seen a couple of ships, it was odd as the huge industrial sprawl of Marsden Point came into view too.

I do agree with another blogger though who wrote something like anytime Te Araroa mentions ‘the track follows a ridge’ it is code for ‘the track will go up and down relentlessly until you are exhausted’. Just when I thought there could be no more climbing:

I was dreading the end of this track as from the map it seemed to descend very sharply, and I wasn’t sure my leg would be very happy. It was back to about 80% at the start of today. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but the descent was almost completely down steep sets of stairs. More than 1000 of them judging by the odd number in vivid! I tried to put as much weight on my poles as possible, and it seemed to work with my legs not shaking like jelly at the bottom like they normally would be. There were only a couple of quad twinge moments today, so all in all it held up well. Today’s total climb was big again – almost 1000m.

After that began the road walk around to our campsite for this evening. Ian thought there was a cafe along the way, and while I wasn’t convinced, I really wanted there to be one. Hope was fading as we were just a couple of kilometres from camp with not a hint of a shop, but a quick Google, slight detour and then just over the hill, there it was! The Deck Cafe! It was spacious, empty, served all day breakfast, had fast Wi-Fi and friendly staff. They even let me plug in my 4 USB port maxi charger for the headlamp, phone, power bank and watch. In summary, it was the perfect cafe for TA hikers.

They even had Tip Top ice cream in waffle cones, so I managed to add to my ice cream count with goody goody gumdrops. After the two in two days earlier, I’ve really got work to do on the ice cream front. Ruakaka should deliver tomorrow though.

Tonight’s campsite is a small council reserve next to a car park for freedom camping. There are toilets but nothing else. The council sign says no camping in tents but apparently the deputy mayor says it’s fine for TA hikers. It’s 10:20 pm and we haven’t been kicked out, so that’s promising. I used my bucket thingy to have a wash, after paddling in the bay. Alas no washing today though.

As we walked along the beautiful bays this afternoon, I wondered a lot about the oil refinery that looms large in the view from at least half of the nice bays. It is a huge eyesore, and generates quite a lot of noise. I need to read a bit more about when it came about etc, but we wondered what property is worth here so close to it, and why people choose to live here. Everything else is really beautiful though, so I think they must just block it out? Maybe the jobs it generates are more valuable than anything?

Tomorrow morning we’ll see it up really close, as we catch a boat across to the other side and walk on the trail right around it. I hope there are no torrential downpours tonight and I can just listen to the morepork.