To Kaniwhaniwha

On By NicIn Te Araroa
  • Te Araroa Day 43
  • Whatawhata to Kaniwhaniwha Camp – 23.8 km in 6 hours 20 minutes

Apologies everyone, I’m about five blog posts behind as I’ve been watching too much cricket in the evenings. I also really appreciated all the support after the rocky path to Hamilton – thank you.

I could get used to lounge camping 😍

This morning Paul gave me a tour of their garden and orchard before I left. Using permaculture gardening they had planted a huge variety of plants and trees, and Paul’s explanations of the thought and planning that had gone into it all were really interesting. Permaculture was a word I’d vaguely heard of before, but am embarrassed to say didn’t really know much about. I’m looking forward to having more time to garden after this journey finishes.

Today involved road walking, a reasonable climb, then some farm, briefly a bush trail, farm, road, and a short DOC track to finish. A bit of everything really! To be honest nothing too exciting happened on the road section, except meeting a goat who came to say hello while I had a break.

I passed into another district, briefly I think. In the background of the photo below you can see the hilltop the trail goes across

The view from the hilltop

At first the farmland was deserted, then there were cows but the trail headed in a different direction and I was lucky today. After the farm and bush, I got the first view of Mt Pirongia for the day too:

Probably the highlight of this afternoon was running into Greg & Jo who were coming the other way. They were on their way back to Hamilton after a trip up to Mt Pirongia. As always it was great to compare notes, and I wasn’t the only one who’d found Huntly edgy. They raved about the views from Pirongia, and said the campsite I was off to, and the hut at the top were both really nice. I was sad to say goodbye for the last time, but they did mention another TA hiker around and about.

Kaniwhaniwha Campground

The name Kaniwhaniwha apparently means dancing stream, which I thought was beautiful. It was lightly drizzling when I rolled into camp but I set up on the edge in the shelter of some trees which kept me dry. I’m really looking forward to Pirongia tomorrow and getting into the real bush again. I don’t have much reception for a while so the next blog update may be a few days…

2 thoughts on “To Kaniwhaniwha”

  1. ALICE HERRIMAN CENTERS's avatar ALICE HERRIMAN CENTERS

    Hi! I am Kent’s mom and I have been following your blog from the start. Trying to learn as much as I can about NZ, and its culture. Kent forwarded your blog site to me and its been very good at cheering me up while being stuck in the house due to Covid . So has Kauris photo site and you Christmas video.! True Gratitude.
    I am cheering you on no matter how you get around. Perfection is not necessary in humans. Glad you have met so many very nice people on your adventure.! You mentioned your favorite ice cream , what does it taste like? Don’t worry about answering, I know your very busy. I can ask Fi. I Loved the blackberry sage one. I have a tea with that same flavor. Delicious. Safe and happy trails! Bless your new sox!

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    1. Nic's avatar Nic

      Hi Alice! Thanks for following my blog and cheering me on. That’s really cool that Kent sent you the link, and I’m glad you’re finding them interesting. I really enjoyed making the Christmas video, and I hope I can make a few more Kauri videos too. My favourite ice cream flavour is quite hard to describe! The gold coloured ice cream is kind of caramel, kind of hokey pokey flavour. Then mixed through it are chocolate covered nuggets of crunchy hokey pokey. I think it’s a more common flavour in the South Island because I haven’t found it so much up here in the North. I’ll keep seeking out ice cream and sharing the photos for you though 😁

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