Twig Adventures

January 6th Mangaokewa rd/SH 30 junction (km958)-Bogg Inn hut (km988) Mileage: 18.6mi/30km I was so ready to get back to walking this morning! But first I had to get back to where I had left off. It wasn’t really feasible to find a ride to the remote road where I finished the river track 2 days ago, so I was just shooting for the start of the Timber Trial off SH 30. Don gave Steffen and me a ride to the end of town. Just as soon as we got there, it started raining again. What luck. It’s really hard getting a ride when it’s raining. There were also almost no cars on the road on an early Saturday morning.[…]

January 5th Te Kuiti (km913) Mileage: none They weren’t kidding about the strong winds!  They definitely felt like tropical storm force winds. Not good when you’re trying to sleep in a tent. I had a rough night. At first it was just rain and normal wind. I stayed nice and dry but had anxiety over what might happen if the winds picked up. I drifted in and out of sleep, waking to my tent shaking in the stronger and stronger gusts. There were no trees directly above me…but neither were there any above Mike the night he got clobbered. Around 4:30 am, I heard something large and heavy near Don’s house go flying. It was probably the moment that his[…]

January 4th Te Kuiti (km913) Mileage: none So basically a tropical storm is forecasted to hit the north island today and tomorrow. Rain is one thing but forecasted 100 kmh winds are a showstopper. I knew there would be a price to pay for a month of good weather. The timing could be much worse, since I’ve got a good place to stay holed up and no major time commitments. The morning started out quite fair, making me antsy about not hiking. But it started raining by noon. Don (Dad) took us TA kids grocery shopping in town. He joked that we weren’t allowed to get any treats. Fat chance, I bought a ton of chocolate and candy. In case[…]

January 3rd Te Kuiti (km913)-Mangaokewa rd. (Km943) Mileage: 18.6mi/30km Nancy Hikes’ blog gave me the idea of staying an extra night at the backpacker and slack-packing the Mangaokewa river gorge section. This is the term for when a backpacker ditches their full pack to do a section with just a day pack. In my case, I still hiked with my pack, just not the rest of my gear. I left my tent pitched, which meant I only had use of one trekking pole. Without any weight in my pack, one pole was sufficient…even for the billy-goat trail I was about to do. I also carried water/filter, day food, PLB, rain gear, and my umbrella. Don dropped me off at the[…]

January 2nd Orongo rd. (km880.5)–Te Kuiti (km913) Mileage: 20.5mi/33km Today felt like a much tougher day than the distance would suggest. Probably because it was almost all bush and farm track, with only about 4 kms of road walking. My watch also said I did 23 miles, so I wonder if the published distances are off. First, it was tough just to make a decision as to how to proceed. There was a stream crossing that the notes warned should not be done in heavy rain. It rained pretty constantly overnight and was pouring when I woke up. I looked at the map and decided I should do a long road walk, like 20 kms, just to be on the[…]

January 1st Pahautea hut, Mt. Pirongia (km848.5)-Orongo rd. (km880.5) Mileage: 20mi/32km I listened to light rain falling on my tent all night, so I knew it was going to be a fun day. The forecasted wet weather had come about half a day early. Given the late night, I tried to sleep in but only managed about an hour and a half more. Most hikers had left before me, which is not usually the case. The first km was on an awesome boardwalk to a lookout at the top of a cone-shaped peak. The clouds had opened up enough that we could catch glimpses of the west coast bays. Hihikiwi mountain summit Looking back towards the summit and hut. The[…]

December 31st Whatawhata (km816.5)- Pahautea hut, Mt Pirongia (km848.5) Mileage: 20mi/32km We got an early start this morning at 6:30 a.m. to ensure that we could make it to the mountaintop hut by the end of the day. It looked like a steep climb up Pirongia. We wondered just how many people would be up there. Best to get there reasonably early if we wanted a bunk. The brand new hut sleeps 20 people. The morning road walk flew by and shortly we were on farm tracks. This morning’s petting was of a goat in her little goat hut. They are great for mowing the sides of the road. We spotted 2 backpackers up ahead who had the distinct profile[…]

December 30th Ngaruawahia (km781)-Whatawhata (km816.5) Mileage: 22mi/35.5km It was a good night at the Arrow Lodge, after just a bit of noise from Friday night revelers died down. Days of the week have little relevance to a thru-hiker but we have begun to focus on where we will land for New Year’s eve. I did some hiker math in the morning to determine we could make Mt Pirongia summit and the nearby hut by Sunday night. But we needed to do another big day, plus resupply in Hamilton. The walk to Hamilton followed the Te Awa River Ride the whole way. This a paved multi-use path that is just splendid. The local communities have spent a lot on improvements of[…]

December 29th Rangiriri (km746)- Ngaruawahia (km781) Mileage: 21.8mi/35km There wasn’t a firm plan today but I hoped to end up in the Hakarimata range for a nice, natural campsite. The morning was spectacular: cool, calm, and gorgeous clouds. We crossed over the large Waikato River again, which was glassy calm. Mike assures me it is rare to see it so calm. There was an outrigger canoe paddling under the bridge. It was so quiet that we had a chat with her. Everyone says hello to one another here. It was a very pleasant walk on the stopbanks today. We were in the town of Huntly in no time at all. We got off trail to go across the bridge towards[…]

December 28th Mercer (km721)-Rangiriri (km746) Mileage: 15.5mi/25km Today was pretty straightforward: Follow the river until the pie shop. There is a lady that makes and sells legendary hot pies, plus free camping behind her place. Toilet provided courtesy of NZ local government…more on this later. It was an interesting night in the beer-garden. They closed plenty early at 9 p.m. but then the volunteer fire department alarm went off around 11 p.m. I actually thought it was part of my dream and didn’t even fully wake. Mike mentioned it in the morning and I could just barely recall it. I sleep really soundly in my tent these days. I even slept through all the blinking Christmas lights strung around the[…]