November 27th: Whananaki Coastal Walk to Ngunguru Connection
We started the morning with a ramen breakfast; Tracy the owner of the Holiday Park was nice enough to give us a couple of eggs to use in our breakfast. Since being in New Zealand most of our food has been either fried or in meat pie form. Very little veggi's. To make up for it we bought a large bag of frozen veggi's and split it between our frozen pizza last night and the ramen in the morning. Hopefully it'll count for something.
We walked across an absurdly long bridge to cross an estuary. The bridge had been there since the 50's and was built for the children if that small town to get to the school on the other side. Before the bridge was built the Principle used row the school children in a boat across the waterway. The tide really affects how high or low the estuary is so rowing might have been very difficult back then.
Otherwise today was a very beautiful easy day. The weather was good and the views from the coastal walk were stunning. For lunch we ate fish and chips and ice cream for in Matapouri and had take out again for dinner. I know spoiled. Interesting fact about their burgers, they like to put beats and carrots on them in addition to lettuce. It's actually tastier than tomatoes so I'm definitely going to carry the practice over back in the states.
That night we stayed at the Riverbank B&B - technically we stayed in their garden. Melba and Hilton are TA trail angels and allow trappers to stay in their garden in exchange for "koa" or gift. We had tea and wonderful conversation with Melba in the evening. She was kind enough to save us some rhubarb crumble that she had made. In the morning she also packed us each a snack bag with chocolates and oat bars. Good thing we have trail Mom's to take care of us!
November 28th: Ngunguru connection to Pataua North Connection
Rain today.
We were hit with a cold front that broke our heat streak which was both good and bad. Hilton saved us a 15 km road walk and gave us a ride to the trailhead early. The generosity of the people here is just astounding and continues to amaze me. Melba and Hilton really took care of us.
It started raining as soon as we exited the car. Luckily it didn't continue all day. NZ weather is very temperamental; we often have three seasons worth of weather crammed into one day.
Today we wrapped things up a little early since our hitch allowed us to get to a convenient campsite earlier than expected. So we finished the day by drying out our gear and having a celebratory meal of mashed potatoes and sausage for Thanksgiving.( We are a day ahead in NZ) We didn't get the chance to eat turkey today but there were plenty out on the trail. They must know they're safe here.
November 29th:
Today was all about kicking butt...say we weren't the ones doing the kicking. The first half of the day was spent slogging through sand. Pretty views though made up for it.
The second half of the day was all about going up. New Zealand does not believe in switch backs and today we were to walk from the beach up to a mountain range then hike the ridgeline. We felt like we were on the stair master ride from hell. And no one was aloud to get off.
Still magnificent views though.
November 30th: Peach Cove to Ruakaka
It was the day of trail magic.
For those that aren't familiar with hiker lingo; trail magic is something that happens that is unexpected and good to java happen while on the trail. Usually another third party is involved.
We definitely had the magic going for us today. Yesterday was fairly challenging since we had to slog through soft sand for half the day; then climb the stair master for the other half.
I started out my day climbing up to the tippy top to retrieve my sunglasses. Then after that little escapade our day finally got started.
After the roller coaster of Ridgeline we exited down into the small beach town and immediately hitched a ride to the general store.
We were starving and had just run out of snack food. We got another relatively easy hitch back to where the boats were docked. No sooner has we gotten out of the car and a speed boat pulled in. A very nice kiwi couple gave us a hitch across the bay; normally it's an 80$ charge to get a taxi to the other side of the bay but this couple wanted to show us some kiwi hospitality. They wouldn't even take our gas money.
As soon as they dropped us off anther kiwi who was fishing with his children offered us a ride to the super market. What luck! Then after the supermarket we immediately got a lift to our camp ground. Finally the grounds keeper gave us a discount on the room.
Trail magic! It was an awesome day.
We started the morning with a ramen breakfast; Tracy the owner of the Holiday Park was nice enough to give us a couple of eggs to use in our breakfast. Since being in New Zealand most of our food has been either fried or in meat pie form. Very little veggi's. To make up for it we bought a large bag of frozen veggi's and split it between our frozen pizza last night and the ramen in the morning. Hopefully it'll count for something.
We walked across an absurdly long bridge to cross an estuary. The bridge had been there since the 50's and was built for the children if that small town to get to the school on the other side. Before the bridge was built the Principle used row the school children in a boat across the waterway. The tide really affects how high or low the estuary is so rowing might have been very difficult back then.
Otherwise today was a very beautiful easy day. The weather was good and the views from the coastal walk were stunning. For lunch we ate fish and chips and ice cream for in Matapouri and had take out again for dinner. I know spoiled. Interesting fact about their burgers, they like to put beats and carrots on them in addition to lettuce. It's actually tastier than tomatoes so I'm definitely going to carry the practice over back in the states.
That night we stayed at the Riverbank B&B - technically we stayed in their garden. Melba and Hilton are TA trail angels and allow trappers to stay in their garden in exchange for "koa" or gift. We had tea and wonderful conversation with Melba in the evening. She was kind enough to save us some rhubarb crumble that she had made. In the morning she also packed us each a snack bag with chocolates and oat bars. Good thing we have trail Mom's to take care of us!
November 28th: Ngunguru connection to Pataua North Connection
Rain today.
We were hit with a cold front that broke our heat streak which was both good and bad. Hilton saved us a 15 km road walk and gave us a ride to the trailhead early. The generosity of the people here is just astounding and continues to amaze me. Melba and Hilton really took care of us.
It started raining as soon as we exited the car. Luckily it didn't continue all day. NZ weather is very temperamental; we often have three seasons worth of weather crammed into one day.
Today we wrapped things up a little early since our hitch allowed us to get to a convenient campsite earlier than expected. So we finished the day by drying out our gear and having a celebratory meal of mashed potatoes and sausage for Thanksgiving.( We are a day ahead in NZ) We didn't get the chance to eat turkey today but there were plenty out on the trail. They must know they're safe here.
November 29th:
Today was all about kicking butt...say we weren't the ones doing the kicking. The first half of the day was spent slogging through sand. Pretty views though made up for it.
The second half of the day was all about going up. New Zealand does not believe in switch backs and today we were to walk from the beach up to a mountain range then hike the ridgeline. We felt like we were on the stair master ride from hell. And no one was aloud to get off.
Still magnificent views though.
November 30th: Peach Cove to Ruakaka
It was the day of trail magic.
For those that aren't familiar with hiker lingo; trail magic is something that happens that is unexpected and good to java happen while on the trail. Usually another third party is involved.
We definitely had the magic going for us today. Yesterday was fairly challenging since we had to slog through soft sand for half the day; then climb the stair master for the other half.
I started out my day climbing up to the tippy top to retrieve my sunglasses. Then after that little escapade our day finally got started.
After the roller coaster of Ridgeline we exited down into the small beach town and immediately hitched a ride to the general store.
We were starving and had just run out of snack food. We got another relatively easy hitch back to where the boats were docked. No sooner has we gotten out of the car and a speed boat pulled in. A very nice kiwi couple gave us a hitch across the bay; normally it's an 80$ charge to get a taxi to the other side of the bay but this couple wanted to show us some kiwi hospitality. They wouldn't even take our gas money.
As soon as they dropped us off anther kiwi who was fishing with his children offered us a ride to the super market. What luck! Then after the supermarket we immediately got a lift to our camp ground. Finally the grounds keeper gave us a discount on the room.
Trail magic! It was an awesome day.
While there is NO WAY I could do it - possibly even in my youth - I am jealous at what you two are doing! What a wonderful experience! Trail Magic is my kinda stuff! And the blog?! What a cool way to document your trip! Far superior to the traditional "trip slide show" of days gone by! BTW, I have seen Cody's "calling". His story of the FeedaWeta shows that he could make a fortune writing and illustrating Children's Books! No, really! You two keep it up!
ReplyDeleteWait just a moment! Bangers and mash for Thanksgiving?? Isn't that a real live turkey I see trotting by? With a little Trail Magic and a small fire you could have roasted him up! At the same time, there is nothing wrong with bangers and mash!
ReplyDeleteBelieve me it was very tempting. We were wishing we had carried a slingshot.
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