Rangiriri Pies

7 May

Ngāruawāhia to Rangiriri

KM 721

Distance: 34km

Elevation: ascent 888m; descent 894m

Steps: 55,600

Time: 6:45am - 5:10pm

The mighty Waikato River once again held centre stage as we largely continued along its banks and flood plains. 

Our first challenge of the morning was Hakirimata Range, a series of peaks towering up to 349m over Ngāruawāhia and the river. The track climbs steeply from the start to the summit, then it's a gradual descent to the other end.

For those who are not from Auckland, Northland or the northern Waikato, this is a footwear cleaning station. No, not because Aucklanders are precious about having clean shoes, its purpose is to sterilise footwear to minimise the risk of spreading a soil-borne fungus which is killing off NZs mighty Kauri tree (Agathis australis, you're welcome Kris).

We had the company of a local for the steep section who chatted with us all the way to the top. This kind of thing is really helpful because time passes more quickly when we're chatting with people about Te Araroa, and before we knew it we were at the top. We may have convinced her to do the TA herself one day! The views from the top were, unsurprisingly, stunning.

The track, which up to the summit was mostly boardwalk or stairs, turned into "tramping grade" for the next 9km or so, across the other summits. This meant lots of tree roots, uneven ground, pushing through close grown vegetation.. yeah, we loved it :D It did sap a bit of energy and contributed to foot weariness later in the day, though. 

11km of road walking followed, and we had the town of Huntly in our sights, or more specifically coffee in Huntly. Unfortunately this wasn't to be because we were on the wrong side of the river and we couldn't afford the extra time to cross over. So we settled for icecream and cold drinks at a local dairy instead. I think we were just as happy with those, especially as it was a hot afternoon. 

The rest of the day involved either more road walking or traipsing through a golf course and then fields like this below. We mostly followed a raised bed over what we assume is a pipeline running from the Huntly power station, and this did make following the path a bit easier.

We came across this interesting sculpture park near the local power station, at the northern end of Huntly,  on the west side of the river. It represents the ties of the local Maori to the land and river.

Evening was settling in when we arrived at the small highway town of Rangiriri and the light of the setting sun on the river was amazing. 

Our trail angel Cathy was waiting for us when we arrived. She explained where to put our tent and other admin details. After we had set everything up we went to her house and sat down to a homemade pie and fresh veges from her garden. She runs an artisan pie business and fed us one of her venison and mushroom sauce pies. The pastry was amazing and surely one of the best pies we've ever eaten. We'll be stopping by another time for another pie. (And no, we didn't receive any payment for promoting her business, in fact we paid for the pie.)

All in all another long and challenging day, but deeply satisfying to put another 30km behind us. With the light from the pub shining into our tent, and the sounds of State Highway 1 from only a few hundred meters away, this almost feels like we are back in our flat in Grey Lynn! A far cry from the backcountry huts that have been so much of our TA experience.  But this, too, is the TA!!