Sixteenth week on Te Araroa: km 2,263-2,441

Day 108: Hamilton to Ngāruawāhia: 21 km

Welcome back to the TA! I have just taken a day off in Hamilton so that I could get my eye checked this morning. If you missed it, I developed a floater in my eye a couple weeks ago. I travelled all the way here to Hamilton to get it looked at. When they told me I should follow up in a week, I told them it would take me a week to walk back here from where I had left trail in Taumarunui. It was the perfect timing. 

My eye is looking good and healthy. Nothing to be concerned about. They did have to put dilation drops in my eyes. I was so discombobulated that we needed to wait a couple hours before hiking. That just gave us more time to go eat at Hello Rosie. It was phenomenal. 

We hiked a half day today to the next small town along the TA. The walking was this beautiful multi use river trail for the entire day. It was wonderful. We got 20 done in about 5 hours. When we arrived in Ngāruawāhia we checked into the River Bed Motel. It was simple and clean. I had a burger for dinner and then we relaxed for a few hours watching Netflix together in the motel room. It felt good to have some down time. 

Day 109: Ngāruawāhia to Rangiriri: 35 km

We started the morning with a coffee and a resupply run. We got a few snacks. The TA almost immediately climbed up to the small ridge visible from town. It was busy today on a Saturday with lots of locals out exercising. We climbed about 300 vertical metres to the lookout tower. From there, the trail continues along the ridge and we had that part of the trail almost completely to ourselves. 

The forest is lush and delicate. We had to scrub and disinfect our shoes upon entry and exit to ensure a disease that kills one of the tree species doesn’t get spread. We were happy to do our part!

After the slow 8 km in the forest we arrived at the 27 km of road walking. We had a WARM lunch of soup to fuel up. Then it was time to crush the kilometres. It was flat and easy walking. Mostly through farmland. At one point we were off the road and were walking through pastures and through the golf course. But then back to the road. 

We arrived at the Rangiriri Pub and Hotel. Checked in. Got food and beer. Hot shower. Now relaxing in a comfortable bed. You know, it’s pretty nice getting to shower every night at the moment. I am relishing in it. 

Day 110: Rangiriri to Pokano: 39 km

Alarm in the middle of the night!! Didn’t sleep well. Went to the cafe at 7 am for breakfast. It was delicious. Hit the trail for 8 am. 

The first 8 km were on road. The next 11 km were through rough farm track. It was beautiful along the river. The sheep were cute. The walking was annoying. 

Then we walked past a race car track speedway thing. Then through another few kilometres of rough track. At one point I was pushing through prickle bushes and getting slapped in the face by tall grass. Not cool. 

We walked through the town of Mercer so stopped in for some food. Back out on trail. This time we walked through a much more straightforward farm. Which is good, because the sun was starting to set. We crossed paths with a SOBO, which is very rare nowadays. 

The final few road kilometres weren’t great. It was dark and the cars were loud. But we made it safely to our Airbnb. Yay!! Shower, food, video editing, and sleep. 

Day 111: Pokano to Manukau: 39 km

It took about 30 minutes to get back to trail from our Airbnb. We immediately linked into the local trails to climb a 300 m tall hill. It was a nice way to start the day! 

After going up and over the hill, we were on road for the rest of the day. None of the roads were too busy thankfully. And we were on a bike path for a while. We went through two small towns where we could eat meals at restaurants. We crossed by a lot of people out and about. There was one stretch of road where all the teenagers were pretty rowdy. But they seemed okay. 

Near the end of the day the TA took us through the Auckland Botanical Gardens. It was beautiful to walk through the broad paths as the sun set and the moon rose. Favourite part of the day!

We finally arrived at our motel at 7:30pm. I immediately had a bad feeling about it based on the lobby. When we got into the room things were worse. Super dirty. Smelled terrible. I noticed so many red flags that I even checked for bed bugs. We decided it was past our limit. Which is saying something since we haven’t bailed on a room this entire trip and we have stayed in some with serious character. Thankfully there was a hotel next door with availability. We checked in and managed to get our chores done, including laundry. Masala Dosas for dinner. 

Day 112: Manukau to Auckland: 44 km

We ended up having a great sleep and were able to get breakfast at our hotel. The start of our day was through a lot of industrial area, which was tough walking. Loud, busy, hard pavement, and fully exposed to the sun. Then about 10 km into the day we arrived at the coastal part of the route. This was such a welcome change!

We weaved along coastal paths and through a small farm. The noise faded away and we gazed out at the abundance of bird life. About 15 km later we crossed a bridge and were now walking through the Auckland suburbs. 

The creators of the TA route seemed to intentionally send us through pretty neighbourhoods and local parks. So much of what we walked through reminded me of Victoria, Canada. Boulevards with big trees lining the street. Small hills dotting the city. 

We gained our final little hill of the day as the sun set. We were rewarded with a stunning view of the city skyline at dusk. It was so cool!!

Our final 10 km were in the dark, but thankfully along streets with street lights. It felt perfectly safe the whole way. We were both hobbling at this point on very tired and sore feet. 

We realized we couldn’t stop again because it was so hard to get going. We get pushing at a steady pace all the way to our hotel. We dropped our packs in our room and went straight to a vegan eatery. We ordered food at 8 pm, ate half of it, then went back to our room to finish eating. With full bellies we showered and fell asleep. 

Day 113 & 114: zero days in Auckland

With a storm passing through we decided to take two zero days. We also needed to wait an extra day for me to get my new shoes in the mail, so the timing worked out well. I was exhausted and spent most of the time lounging in the hotel room watching shows and movies. We organized some logistics for our final 600 km stretch to the northern terminus. It feels very close now!

Thank you so much for reading!! This was an interesting section with lots of road walking!

I cannot wait to share with you how heading north out of Auckland goes. That story will start in next week’s blog post!

Much love,

- Story