Start – Hakarimata Scenic Reserve (Remember When Guesthouse)
Finish – Ngaruawahia (The Arrow Motel)
Daily Distance – 14km
TA Distance – 780km
After pushing on for longer than planned yesterday I was rewarded with a lovely short day today. Today’s
walk was the Hakarimata track, which the trail notes described as steep, muddy and difficult. Reading
that, I expected a pretty tough day along the lines of Herakino forest (Day 7 – Ahipara), but have been
pleasantly surprised by how friendly the trail was. Not too steep, an average number of foot-catching
roots, but virtually no mud! Given the favourable conditions progress was quick, breaks were long and we
still arrived at our chosen accommodation at the luxurious time of 14:30. Being greeted by a friendly old
lady bearing chilled water was a lovely respite from the heat of the day. Second on the list of pleasant
surprises was that the motel didn’t mind us pitching our tents on their lawn. Chris and I expected to
splitting the cost of a motel room tonight, so that’s an extra few dollars saved for the snack ‘n’ beer fund.
Today’s early camp has allowed for some short-mid range planning, which was more exciting than it
sounds. The real North island highlights are generally considered to be the Tongariro alpine crossing and
the Whanganui river journey. However, with a little creativity and some good advice we have come up
with a plan to extend both of these sections and really see the best of these 2 national parks. Rather than
following the official TA trail we intend to walk a figure 8 route, which will see me arriving in
Wellington 10 days or so later than would otherwise be the case. The point of doing this planning now
was that these sections are surprisingly only 2 weeks or so away and the kayaks will need to be booked in
advance. It’s fair to say that there is also a large deal of excitement too as these sections look stunning and
I have personally been looking forward to the Whanganui section since I first heard about it. If all runs
according to plan (unlikely, but you never know), Christmas may be spent on the river and I will arrive in
Wellington just after New Year. Exciting times.
