Day 18: Hitching Boats

October 28, 2019

Kilometers: 383.3-412.2 (actually walked ~31 kilometers) 

Mount Manaia Club at Whangarei Heads to Camp Waipu Cove

Happy New Zealand Labour Day! We woke up at our usual 6:50am time on the country club volley ball court. Most of us had left over Chinese food for breakfast. Wasn’t actually that bad cold. We didn’t have access to any water so we walked down to the cafe, ordered a bunch of breakfast and asked them if we could fill up our camelbacks there. After breakfast we walked about 2kms down to the boat launch. We turned our charm all the way up and started asking locals if they had any tips or tricks on how to hitch a ride across the bay to Marsden Point. One group of older ladies told us “there’s no way you will get a ride over there today”. However, once at the boat ramp the first fisherman we talked to offered us a ride across in about 60 seconds. We’ve found that locals are quick to offer help, a beer or a tent spot in their yard after you tell them your hiking 3,000 kilometers across their country. 

The boat ride took about 10 minutes and we hopped out on a beach on the other side. We quickly found a path that led us south to the beach we would begin walking on. Once on the beach we shed our shirts to get a nice pack tan and began our walk. 

After a few kilometers on the beach we headed inland to buy some resupply food and avoid a high tide estuary crossing. This meant about 5 kilometers of road walking. After the estuary we cut back towards the beach. At about 1:30pm we hit the 400 kilometer mark. Just a short little 2,600 more to go.

Although the pictures don’t show it, the beach was quite crowded due to the holiday. I was stopped multiple times and asked what we were doing on the beach with huge packs. That question was usually followed by asking why we are hiking 3,000 kilometers. What I’ve come to realize is if you have to ask that you probably won’t understand the answer anyway. 

After the beach we got back on the road and walked into the town of Waipu. The brewery and pizza barn I’ve been looking forward to was closed, needless to say this hurt my morale as we walked past it. We had an additional 8 kilometers from the town to the campsite. The road walk was tough. My left shin muscle became very tight and I ended up having to stop every couple hundred meters to stretch it out and loosen it up. Even worse we were completely out of vitamin I (ibuprofen) so I had to limp it out to the campground. Hopefully stretching and water will loosen it up for tomorrow. 

Once we got to the campground we dropped our stuff off and headed to the dairy and cafe. We each bought some snacks at the dairy and then walked across the street to the cafe for dinner. We each got a pizza and had a few pitchers of Lagunitas. The dinner was filled with quite a few laughs as well as some stares from the other dinner-goers as we were quite dirty and smelly.

After dinner we took much needed hot showers. We also saw a group of about 10 other TA hikers who i’m sure we’ll see many more times before here and the end of the trail. 

Tonight the five of us are in a very small 6 person dorm room. The bunk beds have metal bars on both ends so they are pretty restricted to how tall one can be. Both Peter and Charlie are too tall for the beds so they have moved their mattresses out into the common space so they can sleep on them. Pretty ridiculous set up. 

Tomorrow will be our last full day in Northland. Excited to make the push towards Auckland and the zero days we will take there. 

-Alex