Te Araroa days 20-40

dbBrad's camp until the tide went out for crossing Taiharuru estuary, Te Araroa

Day 20 (18k paddle/3k walk) I kayaked in the open Pacific ocean from Ngungaru to Pataua with Mark of Pacific Coast Kayaks. It was a calm day, the sun was mild and though the water was even a bit too calm, the tour of 19km along the east coast of New Zealand was phenominal. After Mark and the boats were loaded and had departed for home, I hiked another hour until I got stopped by high water and Mangroves. I found and camped at a tiny private Boat Launch just on the north side of the Taiharuru estuary until the tide when out so I could cross.

dbBrad and MSR, like peanut butter and chocolate! I love my Zoid II tent and all the variations it allows me.

Day 21(18k) I crossed the estuary and had my most exciting day yet. On the far side of the estuary are mud flats and mangrooves and a fence. A little off track after finding the easiest way throuth the trees I came to a fence. I was soaking wet and standing in several inches of water looking at the fence when my carbon fibre poles toughed the wire. I've had plenty of shocks doing wiring and welding over the years but never like this. When I figured out what hit me, my right arm was sore and I was about 10 feet from the fence staring at the sky on my back in the mud. Yikes. I have since developed a subtle phobia of bare wire fences! This night I camped at a Radar station from WWII

Just another day with wet feet on the Te Araroa trail!!
dbBrad crossing the Taiharuru estuary.

Day 22 I stayed in Whangeri on Ari's couch. The next day he took me all around the city and over to the Refinery where i would start hiking again. I toured the facilities of New Zealand's one and only Oil Refinery and am convinced by it's propaganda that it's completely safe.

The cutest mailboxes ever, only in New Zealand!

Day 23 (19k) Camped on dunes near Ruakaka. After an unsuccessful stream crossing I ended up walking an extra 10k to get around the mouth of the river.

dbBrad on a brand new DoC (Department of Conervation) trail
along the East coast of NZ on the Te Araroa trail.

Day 24 (9k) I left the dunes and before I'd gone 2k noticed some one else on the beach. Laurence from Holland living in Auckland was thru hiking a small portion of the Te Araroa trail and we hiked a short day ending up in Waipu.

dbBrad and Trig
SOH CAH TOA
(sine is opp over hyp, cosine is adj over hyp, tangent is opp over adj)

Day 25 (32k) Long day. Ended up camping off a road in a sheep field. I'd actually taken a wrong turn and decided that it may have been for the best since it was near quitting time and camping options had been looking slim. Some rain but not bad.

dbBrad doesn't want "no lip" on the Te Araroa trail,
but give me more of the green lipped muscles please!

Day 26 and 27 (9k) I hiked along a lovely little beach and ended up at Mangawhai Village around lunch. I actually met a wonderful woman from Germany named Gabi. The weather was again rainy and I ended up staying an extra night with kitchen, hot shower good company and a dry bed. Yippie!

If ever I was to look cute and innocent at my age, this would be the shot!

Day 28 (27k) The beaches along this section of coast just north of Pakiri are georgeos and appear to be a bit fragile. Ever shifting dunes create new landscapes every year but make a tough life for plants. As a result the plants are sparse. Interesting though that nesting birds seem to love these areas and to protect them and the plants, vast areas of the beach were roped off. I was able to find a site for my tent where neither plants nor birds would be affected and had a lovely evening with no rain and blue skies and sunshine in the morning.

My best shot so far, sitting on an old radar station from WWII on a bluff
east of Whangarei NZ on the Te Araroa trail. dbBrad is design build brad!

Day 29 (21k) Hiked to a lovely little town, Matakana. I'ts a ritzy little town with a wonderful theater and the nicest public restrooms I have ever seen in my life. Pretty expensive and no where near by to camp easily and rain again. I ended up sleeping under a lovely awning by the coffee shop. My dreams of ordering a 'flat white' and drinking it in my sleeping bag weren't achived, but i did stay dry for the night.


Old footings from radar station near Whangarei Heads, NZ.

Day 30 (22k) Didn't hike that far but over some wicked terrain. The Dome section ending at the Dome Tea house was very steep. The track descriptions by Te Araroa Trust suggested planning on a 2.5 k/hr average and that's just about what it was. The Tearooms had a porch but I couldn't stay there. I was able to use it to assemble my wet stuff in the morning.

dbBrad following the Te Araroa trail around Whangerei

Day 31 (21k) Though I was up early, it was noon before I left the Tearooms. I talked at leisure with Bill the owner and various customers and then Phil of Give Phil 5. It was fun hanging out all morning. I eventually started hiking and ended up on the edge of suburbia in the Dunn Bush. Camped in style near a stile! An amazing sunset and one of the best land views I'd had yet.

Ari and family put me up for the night and delivered me around Whangarei harbor.

Day 32 (27k) Today brought me to Puhoi at about noon. There is a river section here and I had already made a reservation from the Tearooms for a boat. This was a tidal area with mangroves and doing it at low tide made it easy. It was only a couple of hours and ended at a nice park but no camping. I hiked about 5k further and ended up catching Josh and Nick, two American guys hiking the trail, at a little tiny boat house on a small beach under a bluff lined with houses. Getting pretty close to Auckland at this point.

Day 33 (32k hiked and 20k on bus) Nick and Josh and dbBrad got an early start and kept a nice pace up all day. There was a river we had to cross at low tide and we were a few hours late. I don't know if it was wadeable even at low tide but it was a 30 meter swim for us. The technique we used involved our air mattresses and a modified dog paddle! After an hour to eat and dry out we were off until. Eventually one neighborhood became just like another with all street walking so we jumped on the bus to downtown Auckland. I stayed at Base x again, why I don't know!

A beautiful beach on a gray rainy day, south of Whangerie,
Ulrich beach on Bream bay, NZ

Day 34-38 I was in Auckland. A tough city to exit via foot coupled with the Xmas holidays and travel, closures, and the need for company kept me in Auckland longer that I'd have liked. Finally though, on the 27th, I busted out and was back in the woods.

Just south of Whangerei heads is a point at the north end of Bream Bay.
New Zealands only oil refinery lives here.

Day 39 (8 hike but 40 by other means) put me in Clevedon at the start of the Huana Range. At the beginning are some amazing waterfalls and though they were slightly off track I was glad I visited them. Such a nice little spot. I camped near the bottom that night.

dbbrad and dbLaurence, a section hiker but clearly of 'thru' mentality.

Day 40 (20k) Interesting mountains in the Huana range with three large and beautiful water reservoirs. They're surrounded by native bush and it's a testament to the water quality issues New Zealand faces given the fact that 2 of the 3 reservoirs are not potable. Camped below one of the reservoir's earthen dam this evening and met a great ranger who showed me around the park and gave me some food.

dbig tree with dbrad in dfront

Day 41 (26k) Out of the range on the south side and on McIntyre road I camped at a duck hunting shelter. There are stop banks all along the river for flood control and irrigation and grazing bulls along the dikes this time of the year. The canals and swamps are all engineered save for some native portions here and there. This was one of the native portions. A problem with the waterways believe it or not is Koi. There are giant golden carp in the swamps which have devastated indigenous species and they dig into the edges of the dikes for minerals causing premature erosion along the banks. I didn't believe it until I saw a perfect golden Koi about 30"long. Perhaps I'll start exporting the Koi to the states where a fish like that may be worth $1000!

msr tent is very stealth.

Okay, so even on the Te Araroa trail I love tractors and machinery!

dbFern

dbJungle

dbBeach

lichen dbBrad!?

El Pacos sure are cute!

dbBrad eating lunch at a play ground, Te Araroa trail, 2011

Not much of a building site but probably pretty cheap!

dbbrad te araroa2011

dbBeach, Bream Bay NZ

My beloved MSR Zoid II in yet another variation. I love this tent.



My mom, Fran, is blogging on my travels on the dbAraroa trail.
She is vicariously hiking with me in her mind and with this little bit of
graffiti I made, she with me. Love you mom, dbBrad on Te Araroa trail.

The nicest restrooms I've ever seen, Matakan NZ

dbBrad on a trail that was a road and is now, due to the rain, a river.
Another day with wet feet on the Te Araroa trail!

Give phil 5 and dbBrad raising money for Heart Disease.

I love my MSR Zoid II tent so much I used a flash to capture this
picture of my tent against a sunset along the Te Araroa trail, 2011
Please, MSR, give dbBrad a job in product design and testing.

And in the morning the valley was full of fog and it wasn't raining. Yipee!
Somewhere along the Te Araroa Trail, 2012. dbBrad, North Island NZ.

dbMangroves in the way of my Kayak trip down the Puhoi, so I climbed them!

dbBrad on the Pohoi river, Te Araroa trail 2011

dbBrad on the Te Araroa trail, 2011

Dirty Harry aka Nick Glatt kicking some ass on the Te Araroa trail.
His set up, on the bench next to him, is the lightest I've seen yet, impressive.

Josh Murphree from Burmingham Alabama hiking with Dirty Harry.

Johnyboy, Dirtyhairy and dbBrad on the Te Araroa trail, 2011.

Dirtyharry and Johnyboy along the beach, Te Arararoa just north of Auckland.

dbBrad, rocks and the Te Araroa trail.

In Auckland's northern suburbs there are some awesome parks and lots of opportunity to access the beach like this one.

Auckland has a mix of nature and urbanism visible everywhere, especially along the coast to coast section of the Te Araroa trail..

dbbrad Te Araroa trail 2011 new Zealand msr product design architect thru hiker brilliant designer college professor conservation resource management environmental friendly low impact development sustainable, teaching, university, education, building officials, world peace, low consumption living, planning for the future, next generation, green, sustainable issues!

Thru Hiking, going riding

I've done a fair amount of road walking in New Zealand which has shown me two things. My knee doesn't like the hard surfaces and constant slant of the road. The roads are curvy and made for motorcycles.

dbBrad borrows a Moto Guzzi for a moment of fantasy during the Te Araroa Hike, 2011

I'll continue on, but this is always an option!!

Light weight packs

Light weight packs.  Something I've looked at for years and scoffed at.  Flimsy material, easy to tear, little tiny buckles and small.  Where is all my stuff to go?

Gregory pack donated by Gregors, aka TGW

 My trusty mountaineering pack was always my pack of choice.  It could hold all my climbing and camping gear combined and was made out of material so heavy I could drag it up the mountain and it would be okay.  The frame was strong enough for me to stand on the the buckles and straps gave me great confidence.  But it weighted 8lbs.

dbBrad with 11 months of hiking/living gear in his awesome light weight pack made by Gregory,

But when I section hiked the PCT last summer, I saw lots of small packs going long ways and decided to give it a try.  Sure enough, it's an awsome pack.  As of now it has 40 days of use and is showing signs of wear but no signs of failure.  It loads great, the buckles are solid enough, wears well, has some additional storage with stretchy back patch and top pocket and is anything but waterproof.  But as soon as MSR starts production of the New Zoid 3, my convertible rain fly will keep me and my pack nice and dry so in the mean time, garbage bags work great.

Typical backpackers with front and back packs as well as hands full. These two are out for 3 months.

OR Gators not a crock!

One of the issues with hiking on sand, snow or mud can be debris flipping up from one shoe and hitting the back of your leg and falling into your other shoe.  It only happens one little bit at a time but when you're walking 8 hours a day it adds up.

OR Gators not a croc, but a great product no TTH should be with out.

I purchased a set of light weight gators from OR which I love.  Surprising because on day one I slipped on a big rock and tore the base strap (goes around the bottom of my shoe) through the buckle and bent the pin which holds it.  I though, these darn gators are a crock, but they were easily repaired and it hasn't failed since.

Croc OR Gator

Features of the Gators I love are the lightweight soft shell material giving it a little stretch and being quite resilient to abrasion and the extra tabs top and bottom to help secure the Velcro closure system.  Even so, I have concerns about the longevity of the Velcro which gets muddy and wet daily but so far so go.

dbBrad with all his gear prior to departing for New Zealand.

(dbBrad products, product design, design development, product review, MSR, OR, REI, Greggory, Garmin, Nalgene, Camelbak, Northface, Marmot, Ibus, Patagonia, just to name a few)

Te Araroa Signage

Some signs are better than others.  For the most part the trail has been incredibly well marked in the bush which is amazing considering I can count the number of people I've met hiking on trails (over 350km so far) on one hand.

Trail markings on the Te Araroa, this one in particular is a bit confusing!

The road markings are another story and while there are Te Araroa signs here and there, the only way to navigate these portions is with the track details provided by the trust.

The puhoi river section was very easy to follow and well marked with large signs telling me where I was.

All in all the trust has done an amazing job with their maps and descriptions and I thank them for over two decades of work to put this trail system together.  A little side note, that the Te Araroa trust is only about a dozen volunteers working out of a spare bedroom.

An orange post marking the trail on farmland where there are no trees.

The Department of Conservations is improving many of the trails I've walked so far and responsible for much of the signage and there are numerous volunteers who have worked on all these trails who all have my thanks and appreciation.  I breath a little sigh of relieve with every orange post or triangle I find, letting me know I might be lost, but at least I'm still on the Te Araroa Trail!

Hiker Accommodations in Waipu

So far I've slept in my sleeping bag every night since I've been here, usually setting up my tent for shelter.

Today I'm making an exception. It's generally been wet and rainy for most of the past week which is fine here and there but eventually the wet gets old. I can live with shoes that never get to dry out, but when my spare clothes and sleeping bag become saturated, I know it's time for a break.

Special thanks to Waipu Wanderers Backpackers Hut for great accommodations and the use of their personal computer

So tonight I stay in a wonderful little back packers dormitory-like setting, watching star wars on a VCR and clumsily typing on a microcomputer while looking at some of my pictures.