Day 5: “I’m Hurt Dawg! Don’t Ask Me If I’m Alright!”

Ahipara Holiday Park to campsite before Retea Forest

Kilometers: 101.1 - 136.4 (39.8km hiked)

“I’m hurt dawg! Don’t ask me if I’m alright!” The famous words uttered by then University of Miami Safety and future NFL Hall of Famer Ed Reed. Today was full of pain for everyone.

Another day of bed weather meant Alex and I got another early start on the road. We woke up at 6:30am and were ready to go by 7. We were out of coffee so no water boiling was necessary. Laura, one of the women who was in our hostel, baked cookies last night after we went to sleep and left out one for each of us to take on the road.

At 7:00am, we took off from Ahipara Holiday Park with a long day ahead of us. About half a kilometer in, my Achilles were not having it. I quickly switched from my Solomon trail runners to my Xero Sandals. The sandals put almost no strain on my Achilles but have next to no padding. With the switch made, Alex and I set off through Ahipara. At the edge of town, Alex and I noticed an traffic sign reading “Slow Down Bro” with a picture of a surfer. Needless to say, we could use those back in the states.

The walk from Ahipara to Kaitaia was 14km along a road with minimal shoulder space. Cars were nice enough to go into the other lane to give us as much room to walk when they could.

The first half of the walk was a breeze as we walked passed multiple beautiful farms and vineyards.

After the halfway point, the limited padding of the sandals started to take its toll on my feet. Every step felt like I was jumping onto asphalt. In addition to that, I could feel a large blister forming on my right heel. The last few kilometers into Kaitaia were far from my fastest.

In Kaitaia, we resupplied for another 5 days. This should be plenty for us to get to Kerikeri. I also bought gel insoles for my shoes in hopes that they will soothe my aching Achilles.

As we were leaving the Pak & Save, we ran into Nicholas and invited him to come to lunch with us. The walk from the store to lunch was unbelievably slow despite the short distance. Alex and my packs were back up to full weight and both of our feet were killing us. Alex had to take off one of his shoes for the last stretch in town.

We met Nicholas at Kauri Arms, a local pub, and sat down for a meal. It was very odd as they only had minimal ingredients at noon on a Tuesday. Regardless, they whipped us up burgers topped with eggs and jam. It sounds crazy but it was absolutely delicious. I also enjoyed a Corona and Alex, a Wild Buck Ale. Our whole meal only cost $24.50 NZD ($15 USD).

After lunch, Alex and I stopped at the liquor store and picked up small flasks of Southern Comfort and Jim Beam. Then the walking resumed. We had 21km left on our long day.

We walked out of Kaitaia passed the Te Ahu movie theatre where we had been dropped off by the bus five days earlier. After 5km on the road, we turned right onto Ruarora Road, a gravel track. The gravel was significantly easier to walk on than the pavement.

The gravel lasted for several km and gave our feet a much needed break. Unfortunately, it didn’t last forever and the gravel gave way to pavement once again. After another hour on pavement, my feet could no longer take it and I had to switch back to sandals.

Eventually, we came to the Retea Track, a 4x4 track that would lead us up to the dreaded Retea forest. We climbed for the track up over 100m in just over one kilometer. The views were astounding.

Just beyond the bend, we found our campground for the night. We had been expecting all day that there would be plenty of other people there waiting to tackle Retea the next day.

When we arrived, only Nicholas was there. He had hitched about 9km to avoid as long of a day.

Both Alex and I took off our shoes to find that we had new blisters, worse ones that we had originally had. In addition to that, our bodies were just sore in general. We had hiked almost 40km on the day and we were exhausted.

For dinner, we had pasta with pad Thai sauce and some crunchy noodles for extra calories. We managed to finish it all despite the sauce tasting pretty terrible. It only tasted of tamarind paste and heat.

Tomorrow will be awful, there is no way around it. Everything we have read about Retea makes us more and more weary about the track. We will have about 18km up over 600 meters through mud that people have been calling knee deep.

-Ethan