500 to go

12 May

Dome Valley to Pakiri Beach

KM 476.5 502

Distance: 25.5 km

Elevation: ascent 1180m; descent 1362m

Steps: 46,200

Time: 7:50am - 5:20pm

We've probably said this many times before, and will again: today was tougher than expected.

But first, an addendum to yesterday's post. Soon after we uploaded it, the owner of the Dome Valley cafe came home, and invited us into her house (next door to the cafe) for hot showers. Of course we said yes! She even insisted we cook inside, since it was a bit cold out; also her husband was away at Netball last night so I think she was glad of company; we did help distract her 14-month-old son so she could have a nice sit-down dinner for herself. She is absolutely lovely, and made sure to tell us to recommend everyone we know doing Te Araroa to stop by!

This morning, we slept in a little bit longer than we had planned, but still got up and going at a reasonable time. We had done the first section of today's walk before, as training; doing it again today reinforced for us how much quicker and fitter we are now, after 4.5 months on the trail! This part of the trail overlooks not just the Dome Valley, it looks all the way back to Warkworth and the Pacific Ocean beyond.

We also passed another significant milestone today - or rather a significant track marker: 500km to go!

A friend recently included a link to a TA article into his comment on one of our posts (see Achievement Unlocked, posted May 6). The article is titled 'Low-key Torture on Te Araroa Trail' and was written by someone who walked the TA and included the following quote about the Pirongia Track (we did this 6 days ago) "Boardwalks? Why now?!". We asked that question when we came across this, the first boardwalk after many kilometres of mud, tangled roots and streams. Also, there were no further boardwalks. The explanation we arrived at was that it was protecting the root system of the kauri tree on the left of it. 

On exiting Dome Valley Forest we came across this fence of dead boots and shoes. 

We were treated to some very special scenery today, the eastern coastline of northern Auckland. The hills tumble down to a coastline perforated with estuaries and headlands. Golden sand beaches meet the azure blue Pacific Ocean which stretches to the horizon almost uninterupted, except for rocky offshore islands. While we've both holidayed in parts of this area we are both looking forward to exploring it more slowly by foot. But not too slow because we still have a deadline. 

Through the challenging Te Hikoi o te Kiri track, we struggled with the mutliple roots, constant up-and-down, and some bits of mud. Our shoes no longer look as pristine as they did yesterday morning! This tired us out more than we were expecting this afternoon, although we did fair race through it. We stopped a couple of times when we met people along the trail. One was checking the stoat traps along the trail, in preparation for the local iwi and Doc to release kiwi in the area. He said there have been a few stoats trapped, and a few ferrets caught on the trail cameras they have out. We also met a hunter who has been hired by DoC and the local conservation effort to control feral pigs. He'd managed to get one today, although another escaped to a nearby ridgeline, manaing to evade not just the human hunter but also his four dogs!

A lateish finish to the day saw us walking to the moon for a while. It was that time of the evening when the blue sky had a faint pink blush from the setting sun, and trees became silhouettes. Our enjoyment of this time of the day was stymied somewhat by a half hour walk though an ungrazed field of thigh high kikuyu grass which made walking difficult and a little treacherous. Both of us rolled ankles or twisted knees multiple times because we couldn't see where our feet were landing, luckily nothing serious.

After a challenging day we treated ourselves to a cabin at the Pakiri Beach Holiday Park. 

We will sleep well tonight. Tomorrow includes a walk along one of those golden sand beaches we mentioned earlier. Pakiri Beach and Mangawhai, our destination for tomorrow, are home to New Zealand's rarest seabird the fairy tern/tara iti. The population is only around 45 individuals, 12 breeding pairs. Hopefully we get to see one tomorrow.