• Te Araroa Day 40
• Ngāruawāhia to Huntly – 22.87 km in 7 hours 30 minutes
• $4 bargains: 2!
• Masks on the public bus: 1 out of 5 people

Over breakfast I chatted to a couple of camp long termers. It was a funny coincidence one was planning to go geocache hunting and walk the same trail as me today, but from the Huntly end. I caught the 8:14 bus to Ngāruawāhia which was only about a twenty minute journey. Masks on public transport doesn’t seem to apply here for most people though (including the bus driver!), despite the signage. Ah well, I was just stoked this handy bus existed, was running on a public holiday, and only cost $4.

It was easy to pick up the trail and walked around The Point Reserve. Once a year there is a huge waka racing regatta here which apparently has even included hurdle races! I also liked this sculpture by local school children. The glass bottle part is to draw attention to the waste our lives generate. They made it back in 2006…

On I continued to the Hakarimata Walkway car park. Unfortunately here I almost got attacked by a dog… It was a busy car park but I just happened to notice two dogs come out of the opposite property, and one of them ran across the road and took off after me barking and snarling. My poles were in my back pack from the bus ride, and I desperately looked around hoping someone would help. The property owners came out and got the dog and apologised, but I was left bewildered by more bad animal luck. Before Te Araroa I haven’t really had any sketchy dog situations in my whole life…

Moving on, the trail notes were right for a change and this walkway is really popular with the local community. It’s 1349 steps up a steep hill to the Hakarimata Summit, and seems to have become a regular activity for many who run up and down. There were all sorts of people of all different ages, and I really enjoyed the company and camaraderie of doing the challenging climb together.

Apparently it also attracts visitors from Auckland too, and numbers have boomed. This article explains a bit more but now they apparently have about 350,000 people a year! I don’t think I’ve been on a DOC track with motivational signs before, but towards the top when things get tough there is this collection:

I thought how these applied to my journey, and tried to feel more enthusiastic. The view from the summit wasn’t bad:

It was overcast today and really humid – a sweat running down the face kind of day. After the summit it becomes a ‘tramping track’ grade which undulates along the ridge line. It runs beside the Waikato but there are only occasional glimpses through the trees. There were plenty of roots that required nimble feet and some slippery sections. The signposted time was 5 hours which wouldn’t normally faze me but I decided that listening to podcast and some music might help the time pass and lift my spirits.

It did and I made good time. I realised as lunchtime rolled around I had not put my spork in my pack this morning. I kept an eye out for a good looking stick, but nothing jumped out. I searched around in my pack which only had stuff for the day. My sunscreen tube seemed the best option and it did indeed do the job well!

Just past that was a halfway point of sorts – a kind of fire break or possibly where a pipeline goes this morning’s breakfast mates thought. I did indeed run into the geocache hunter coming the other way just after this, and it was nice to compare our Macpac packs and see someone else – he was the only person I saw between the two ends (about 4 hours).

Then came this mystery… 700? This is a classic Te Araroa hiker thing to do, but both of my apps said this was about 738km. And certainly not 700 km from Wellington. It was a mystery… Had Jo & Greg made it a couple of days ago? Maybe?

Towards the Huntly end there was an optional bit called the Kauri loop. I was feeling good and with a nephew called Kauri I couldn’t not go. It was well worth it, and definitely one of the best parts of the whole track.

Then it was on with the high vis vest, onto the road, and past all sorts of rubbish that people have just dumped beside the road as well as a few written off cars. The 5 km-ish back to Huntly went relatively quickly at least. I picked up afternoon tea on the way back to the campground, again for the sweet price of $4!

Tomorrow’s section of trail is a cycle way that runs the whole way from Ngāruawāhia to Hamilton. My friend Judy has recently taken on the role of ‘chief researcher’ (Googler) in my support team. She found a local bike rental company that will drop off a bike for me so I can cycle all the way to Hamilton! It’ll give my feet another decent rest, and hopefully be fun.