Minor celebrities

15 May

Waipu to Reotahi Bay

KM 398

Distance: 21.1 km

Elevation: ascent 231m; descent 221m

Steps: 30,000

Time: 8:30am - 2:00pm

We woke up bleary-eyed this morning, after an interrupted night's sleep. While it is wonderful having a place to pitch our tent, it is less wonderful when there is a house party nearby somewhere that went on well towards 2am. Is this what we have to look forwards to in coming back to civilisation?

So the first thing we did was top up our food supplies at the Four Square. The second was to stop for proper coffee and second breakfast (first breakfast had been muesli and instant coffee) at a cafe in Waipu. Eliza had a sensible fritatta. Vaughan had an only-sensible-if-you're-burning-tons-of-calories-on-the-trail piece of pecan pie. Neither of us regretted our choice.

We then hit the trail at a reasonable hour. We weren't sure exactly where we were going to stop tonight, with a few options but needing to get in contact with the respective owners to see if things were available. We also knew we had a tide-dependent river crossing, so needed to time that correctly.

In any case, after a few km of rural road walking, we stumbled back out onto a prototypical Northland beach. No matter how many times we see this, it is still stunning.

We walked along this beach for most of the day today, crossing the Ruakaka River outlet about halfway through our day. This is a low-tide-only crossing, and we had heard from a local on the beach that we should expect to be up to about our waist as we made the crossing. It was... not that deep. (We crossed about 2 hours before low tide, although there's a reasonable high-pressure system in the area right now which will depress the tide level somewhat.)

Along the beach today, and even a few times yesterday, we were hailed by people who recognise us as TA walkers. It feels like being a minor celebrity - everyone knows who you are, but doesn't really - like a B-list actor whose face looks familiar but you can't actually name anything they were in? 

One of the best parts of today was the beach surface itself. Ripples in the wet sand and blowing dry sand both are mesmerising in their own ways

We also saw evidence of sea life

And in addition to watching the sea birds play in the wind, they left feathers for us to inspect more closely

We made it up to Marsden Point in time for lunch (a late lunch for us, but that second breakfast had really seen us through!). Here, we had arranged for a boat to ferry us across to Whangarei Heads, where the trail continues. The boat crossing took all of 2 minutes; getting the boat back up on to land at the Heads took 5; drying our clothes out after getting fairly well soaked in spray during the crossing took another 20. (The operator did ask if we wanted to put raincoats on... we said no. It's a warm day!)

 

Accommodation. Well, we had thought about going further around the Heads today, but realised the trail quickly becomes steep on this side. Having done a few long, tiring days, we had planned out for a relatively short, flat day today. We had hoped to get accommodation a few more km around the trail, before it gets steep, but everyone is either booked out or not working on Sundays (who can blame them?!). So we are camping pretty much where we got dropped off, and enjoying a very rare long afternoon in one place. Time to catch up on knitting, sketching practice, reading... you know, like having a vacation!

Here's the view from our campsite:

Plants seen in this picture: 

* coprosma

* kowhai (Sophora microphylla)

* flax

* ti kouka (cabbage tree / Cordyline australis)

* pampas grass

* pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa)

Bonus points if you can spot the monarch butterfly!

Extra bonus points if you can spot the giant lizard climbing up the side of the hill

Still no fairy tern sightings. We're now mostly out of their known range so it's not likely we'll see any now.

What we do get to see on a pretty regular basis, though, is beautiful sunsets.