Having been dropped off at the campsite yesterday p.m. we set up the tent and, as I noted in yesterday's blog, were subjected to some reasonable wind and a good deluge! Apart from an issue keeping the tent pegs stable in the sand :-( the tent stood up to the deluge in great fashion although it was obviously wet when we packed up for a start this morning. We only ended up doing 15.3km today over 6 hours (planned!) as it made sense for our bodies and for camping. GPS track from the Suunto is here. We needed a ride back out to our starting point on Cove Rd so walked a km out to Mangawhai Heads Rd. Beginners luck - second car past after a couple of minutes stopped and picked us up! So we were dropped at the DoC carpark just after 0900 from memory. At this stage I should say that it was already raining and with easterly wind and was expended to do so for rest of day (despite the unfounded optimism in yesterday's blog!) so we had our rain gear on! We had a short walk down the highway before turning east into Bream Tail walkway - through the privately owned Bream Tail Farm. This was a lovely walk mainly through well-managed farmland that eventually joined the DoC Mangawhai Heads walkway along the cliffs south to Mangawhai Heads township. Some nice stock, good tracks and fences. The above photos were taken at our first peak - about 130m asl from memory. After that we dropped down past some well fenced wetlands and then up a step pinch (150m asl, our high point for the day, into some native bush, including kauri. Eventually we left Bream Tail Farm and headed more southerly on the Mangawhai Heads walkway. At the bottom near the wetlands we ran into a couple from Auckland who had a place nearby in Langs Beach and were out for a day walk. The M-H walkway takes you from Bream Trail (the name of the headland north of Mangawhai Heads) south to M H. This starts along a rocky cliff face and eventually down to the beach to M H. From there it is about another 6km mainly on roads to Mangawhai township. Apart from the rain and wind, the scenery and the walk was great. As it was an easterly, we were pretty exposed at times! Mist of the cliff track was well benched into the eastern side of the hills (i.e below the ridge line) and was fairly easy going even with the weather the way it was. At the end of this the track descended quite steeply down to the beach employing a lot of very nice steps - relatively new and we'll spaced, which is a big help! Having negotiated the steps and setting off along a relatively short stretch of beach (thankfully!), we bumped into the same couple we had meet earlier in the day - they had been to MH surf club and were on the way back. Lorraine and Don very kindly offered us dinner and accommodation at their place, including offering to come and pick us up from Mangawhai township when we got there! An offer to good to refuse :-) We then meandered down to the surf club, from where it was mainly road walking (with a little on the estuary shore) for the additional 6km or do to Mangawhai. We did, however, stop in MH centre for lunch, undercover. I had a (well deserved!!) burger and chips while B had some of the latter along with her sushi. We got to Mangawhai about 1500, scouted the local 4Square, and called Lorraine to say we had arrived. Lorraine and Don picked us up and took us back to their place where e had a very pleasant evening, with a delicious dinner, interesting conversations (among other things, their two boys are just a little older than Gray and Amelia) and finally a lovely night's sleep in a comfortable bed!
Turns out Lorraine and Don are off to the deep south this coming weekend - they are doing the Rakiura Track on Stewart Island followed by the Hump Ridge Track starting near Te Waewae Bay in Southland. If you're reading this, best of luck guys - we know you will ace it no trouble :-). Thanks again for such wonderful hospitality, definitely 'Trail Angels' it was very much appreciated.
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We ended up walking 21 km today from around 0800 to 1615 although I (yet again) forgot to turn the watch off at the end so today's gps track shows 28km. You'll also note that there is a dramatic increase in speed at there end! This is because we decided to hitch into the campsite at Mangawhai Heads as we couldn't manage the extra 11km to walk there! First timer hitching and the first car that came past with only a minute waiting, kindly picked us up and took us into the camp. We will hitch back out there tomorrow to restart. Had quite a bit of road walking today. Around 7km of flattish,mainly asphalt from Waipu to Cullen Road (although for a couple of kms there was a separate track alongside the road) then it was uphill, first on tarseal then on metal, for about another 7 km to get to the start of DoC's Cullen-Brynderwyn Walkway. This bit was much more interesting, up and down mostly through regenerating forest with occasional views back up to Marsden Point and later south to Mangawhai. As noted above we ended up finishing our walk at the end of this track where it meets Cove Rd. As noted above, the walking got a bit more interesting on the C-B walkway after our lunch stop. Although the high point of the track was only 297m you can see from the gps track that we did around 615m verbal ascent and descent in total today - so there was definitely a bit of sweat flowing at times as it was fairly warm!
The last bit of the C-B was quite steep down an asphalt road which wasn't much fun - helped make up our minds that it was sensible to pull the plug for the day :-) at the DoC carpark at the end of this track and hitch to the campsite! We were lucky with the weather, not having to get the raincoats out at all today even though rain was due. However, it is now 2100 while I am writing this and the rain is fair tipping down right now. We are deliciously snug in our tent however - it is supposed to clear up a bit for tomorrow, so here's hoping. As noted earlier, we had decided to have this as a rest day to avoid heavy rain and to rest weary bodies. Had a fantastic dinner last night at the Pizza Barn in Waipu. Absolutely beautiful pizzas (quite possibly the best we have ever tried) and a delicious wheat beer for me - brewed on the premises. Well worth the visit if you are near Waipu!! Went to local museum for a look this morning. In chatting with the lady in the shop about where everybody came from etc, I mentioned Ben and Joyce Howell (for those outside family, Ben was my mum's cousin) who farmed near Waipu for decades. Of course, being a tiny town, she knew then well. It turned out that Joyce was living in a retirement place right opposite our backpackers!! So I rang Joyce and Belinda and i popped across for a couple of hours this afternoon to catch up. Coincidentally her son Graham came in as well so we had a bit of a catch up! The backpackers is a small place out the back of the owners' house. Pleasant enough for what we need! However, it will be back on the trail tomorrow with the promise of some rain over the next few days!
Having been out of action for 3 months or so waiting for the dodgy knee to hopefully recover, it was finally decided to test it out on some more of the trail. We selected a start at Marsden Point as a reasonable option, the walk from there to Auckland seeming to be not too tough! To keep order, I thought I would call this Part 2 Day 1, and so on. Flew up to Auckland where Ella, our lovely niece, picked us up from the airport and let us stay at her flat in Onehunga for the night. Took the train into Britomart next morning and spent a short time looking at nearby sights around the station/wharf area before catching the bus north that dropped us off at Ruakaka. A short 2.4km road walk ensued to get us to the campground. Went for a brief swim in the Ruakaka River estuary - almost warmer than the swimming pool at home :-) Weren't entirely sure how we were going to get to Marsden Point to start the walk - thought hitching would work as we didn't want to walk an unnecessary 9km extra! Long story short, as we were packing up the tent around 0645 a lovely lady called Shirley, who we had meet while swimming, came over and very kindly said she would drive us up there! A "trail angel"! So, after a tour around One Tree Point looking at all the new housing developments, Shirley dropped us off at the Marsden Point jetty. Off onto the beach we went. In the words of Yogi Berra (I think!?), it was a case of deja vu all over again! Apart from the Herekino forest, beach is pretty much all we seem to have done so far. For those interested, the day's gps track from the Suunto can be found here. A bit like Ninety Mile Beach - sand, sea and wind, but also a few fishermen and women and a few people to stop and chat to. We had planned the first 9km to arrive at the Ruakaka River mouth around 1040 so we could cross the estuary at low tide. It was no more than knee deep at 1050. Shirley, who is interested in photography, was waiting there and got some shots of us arriving at the river mouth and also of us crossing the estuary. She will send them to us later and i will add them to the blog for interest's sake! Our new-found relaxed routine saw us stop for almost 30 minutes for a break at the campground before heading south again. There was also a bit of time for me to express my artistic side (which hardly exists in reality!) and draw B a (sort of) horse alongside some real hoof prints! Another 4km or so saw us stopping at DoC's Uretiti campsite to take an hour's break for lunch while sheltering from the wind!
With that it was back to the beach with around 6km to Waipu - 3km or so of beach and 3km or so of road. We got to our backpackers around 4pm and settled in for two nights. The weather forecast for Friday was lots of rain and we also thought we might need a rest after 20km on our first day! Overall, the bodies have held up OK although mine was a bit hobbly at times. The knee is certainly no worse so that's good news! |
AuthorBelinda and Anthony (aka Tony) Hadfield made a decision, in their late 50's, to do something a "bit different" and walk New Zealand's 3000km Te Araroa Trail over summer 2015/16 - although updates will now tell you that this plan will take longer now!!. As the old saying goes - "don't leave home 'til you've seen the country"!! Archives
January 2018
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