kerikeri to whangarei, part 2

sunday, september 13
kaiikanui forest to whananaki north, 5.5 miles (+9)

this day realy should have been an awful one, but somehow it turned out positively after all. after a surprisingly restful night of sleep, we headed out on a beautiful but misty sunday morning into the kaiikanui forest. our directions advised us to take the unmarked but well-formed track that led into the forest for 6 kms, and then follow a very rough track for 1 km to meet up with the other 6 kms across private land. we hiked most, if not all, of the initial 6 kms but couldn't find any sign of a track from there, and after an hour and a half of exploring potential trail leads around the last trail marking we could spot, bryan made the difficult but correct call to turn around and head back out. i could never have made that decision - i'm much too stubborn. so, 5 hours after entering the forest, just when we expected to be exiting it on the other end, we found ourselves back where we'd started. we had, appropriately, just read and reflected on the portion of james 4 that reminds us not to boast about the plans that we've made, as we don't know what the day will hold. nice.
we started down the road, looking for another way to get to whananaki north by sunset, and were able to get a ride in the back of a pickup truck amongst the fishing gear thanks to two guys from auckland, saving us about 7 miles. once on whananaki north road, we walked the next 5 miles, but were then picked up by a family that was actually heading the other way but turned around to help us out. they dropped us near the entrance to the whananaki estuary track, the last mile and a half of the day, and the spot where we both received particularly painful bites by an electric fence. we really should be warned about these electric fences in the te araroa route details - this is not the first that we've been "shocked" :) to find a current running through a fence that crossed our path.
we stopped by a dairy just before closing time for some snacks, and received a very welcome surprise at being upgraded to a cabin at the holiday park, where the owner called our hiking "inspirational". wished we could have stayed here longer, but the trail was beckoning, as always.

monday, september 14
whananaki north to tutukaka, 14.5 miles (+2)

today is our second anniversary! thankfully, it was one that we'll be able to look back on with happy memories, as the hikes today were especially good and we had a tasty meal to finish off the day. perhaps due to the strange but filling meal of instant potatoes and spicy noodle soup the night before, we cranked out the miles with energy to spare. the whananaki coastal track woudn along coastal farmland with plenty of dramatic views of the surf (plus a nice but accidental detour to a memorial for a french ship that sank in 1975), the matapouri connection brought us alongside the surfing hotspots of sandy bay and wooley's bay, and the matapouri bush track took us away from the coast for the afternoon and through some recently logged areas. we even finished the last section in half an hour less than the directions estimated - a very rare feat! walked the last 3 km into ngunguru (nung-a-roo, apparently), only to find that they didn't have any budget accommodations (hostel/campground), so we trotted back north (the direction from which we'd come) to tutukaka and found a spot at a holiday park. went out to dinner, our first real date in months, at a restaurant that was a bit too nice for our grungy selves, but it was the only one open on mondays and we enjoyed a very tasty seafood chowder as the stars came out over the marina. it's strange for us to be out at night - it feels like we're playing grown-up. our feet were killing us by the end of the day, especially mine, which refuse to grow calluses and keep blistering in the same spots. ouch!

tuesday, september 15
tutukaka to pataua south, 19.25 miles (+1)

new distance record - 20 miles in 10 hours on the road. though exhausted, we're quite proud of the day's total. only 2.5 of these miles were on a real track, the mackerel forest track; the rest were on busy roads where we were offered plenty of rides that we begrudgingly turned down. a bland day overall, though the lateness of our arrival (6:45 pm - the sun sets around 6:30) meant that we were privy to some beautiful sunsets that we generally miss. restocked in tutukaka this morning at an expensive general store, so the packs felt especially heavy. the nutella is worth its weight, though, and will be nothing more than an empty jar in a day or two. stayed, again, at a campground - we'd much prefer a spot in the woods, but the east coast is just too developed and we don't have a choice.

wednesday, september 16
pataua south to ocean beach, 11.75 miles (+1)

the morning got off to a promising start, the morning sun having dried out our rainfly for the first time in weeks and the campground owner charging us less than half of the usual rate. we had been concerned about our first tramp of the day, a low-tide only route along and then across an estuary, but fortunately we happened to be setting out near low tide and didn't have to scramble to find an alternate route. the soft sand was pocked with small pools of water that hid little still-life scenes of red, green and purple shells and sea life - colors that i wouldn't normally put together but that are stunning when they occur naturally. we waded through the river at its shallowest point, tiny crabs skittering underfoot, and reluctantly climbed over farm gates back to the road to tackle the relatively short kauri mountain. had the track's orange arrow been pointing in the logical direction at a critical turn, this would have been a quick route; instead, we huffed up a substantial hill only to find ourselves a half mile off the trail.
the day finished off with 4 miles of beach walking that reminded us of why we hate beach walking, passing small bay with nearly a dozen surfers in the water before climbing steeply up a cliff to hit the ridgeline of the bream head track. this early part of the track was through grass, allowing us constant views over the ocean to make up for the burning in our calves. during this hour of constant steep ascent, we were pleased to make it 20 steps before rewarding ourselves with a long breather. despite the lack of a flat surface (which we would notice acutely as we slid towards the foot of the tent all night long, coming to call this camp "slanty camp"), we set up camp at the first sight of the start of the forest. we're hoping that having tackled this climb today means arriving in whangarei tomorrow.

thursday, september 17
ocean beach to whangarei, 7.25 miles

we're constantly impressed by the kindness and generosity of the people that we run into. after completing the remainder of the challenging but, thankfully, well-marked and formed bream head track in 4 hours, we walked 4 miles on the road along a series of bays, deciding to skip a 2-mile track that would have detoured us from the main road. our plans to spend a few days in northland's largest city, whangarei, took us off the main trail route and meant that we'd need to hitchhike the 15 or so miles into town. before we could even put out the thumb, an older couple heading into whangarei for a load of fertilizer offered us a ride, which we gratefully accepted. apparently they'd seen us walk by from their home and had almost invited us in for a cup of tea. besides dropping us off at the door of the hostel, they highlighted sights along the way, took us for a brief detour to a good lookout point, and even invited us to spend a few nights with them at their home. regretfully, we decided to decline their offer, as we were anxious to get into town after having been on the trail for 10 days straight and are running far behind our original schedule. the end of a hitchhiking ride can be so rushed, scrambling to get our belongings and stay out of traffic's way, that i fear we don't always fully express our appreciation. anyway, we're now staying at the fairly centrally-located bunkdown lodge, which protests its mediocre 73% user rating with the note "unjustified rating-check us out!" in the hostel guide. it's not a bad spot, though cleanliness doesn't seem to be its forte. found a pizza hut for dinner (in all fairness, the cute local spots were either closed or too expensive) and settled in for the evening with a viewing of swiss family robinson. met a german woman who's been travelling solo through asia and australia, as well as two brits who took sabbaticals to explore nz for a few months. planning to hitchhike out of town and back to the eastern beaches on saturday. not long enough.

pictures:
1-bryan saying hello to some horses while crossing a pasture
2-a pedestrian bridge connecting whananaki north with whananaki south
3-along the coast - by ocean beach, maybe?
4-finishing the day with a steep hike up towards bream head
5-bryan climbing up to the highest point along the bream head track

time's up - we'll update again in a week or so. not sure yet where we'll stop between here and auckland - hoping to make it in 10 hiking days.

rachel