Progress to Bluff:
Start: Kaitaia
End: Kerikeri
Distance: 105 km
Total distance: 220 km
Day 5 was a classic zero day. I don’t think I’ve ever taken a rest day this early into a hike, but my body was feeling the effects of the hard sand and I knew the rest of the group wasn’t far behind. And indeed, Olivia and Adrian sauntered in midday and I greeted them with some ice-cold beers. We cooked an actual dinner together in the hostel kitchen, did some chores like laundry, and planned the next days. Because of flooding and mudslides, the next forest section was closed, and a 20 km bypass on roads awaited us. Some people struggled with figuring out what the detour was, but the TA trust provides really good trail notes and alerts for free.
Morale was pretty low the next morning after a night of heavy rain, but after breakfast in town, we finally managed to get going. We had a 5 km road walk out of town on a busy highway, and we started walking after unsuccessfully trying to hitch. Hitching out of towns is always harder than into towns. However, luck was on our side as a van had pulled over just ahead of us, waiting for us to offer a lift. We had to convince him that we indeed wanted to walk the gravel road and he didn’t have to drive us further. Kiwi hospitality at its finest!
We continued along the gravel road and were glad to be off the beach. The scenery was quite different, and incredibly green compared to what I’m used to. Lots of rolling hills in the distance. After a short day, we pulled into a campsite and enjoyed the sun.
The next day we navigated our way down to Broadwood along the detour. The Northlands are not a very rich region, which is evident passing through the small towns and villages. Yet, the locals go out of their way to help the hikers (or walkers in Kiwi English) out with free campsites, water and bathrooms wherever they can. We got a few snacks at the dairy (Kiwi for convenience store) and chilled at the picnic area for two hours, stretching and snacking our way through the day. My knee was a bit sore, so I didn’t mind going slow for a while.
We planned to stay in Mangamuka for the night and got a hitch from a local nurse. Hitching here is quite easy. Driving down the road we were glad we weren’t walking it: windy, no shoulder, rain, and fast drivers do not make a safe or enjoyable road walk. The nurse told us that there was more traffic on this road as the actual highway had collapsed under mudslides and there was no other way to go coast to coast. Apparently, the highway had only reopened a year ago after a similar issue, so she wasn’t sure if they were going to fix it again or look for a better route through the hills. One of the reasons I enjoy hitching is that you learn a lot more about the area you’re hiking through, something that’s not always the case when hiking.
Mangamuka was not much more than a few houses and a (closed) dairy. We camped behind a radio station that had seen better days, and Adrian, Rowan, and Holly joined us later, having come straight from Kaitaia. The next day, we all continued along gravel roads to a campsite right before our first actual hiking trail in Puketi forest. We had heard rumors of how tough the section was - you’re either walking right in a river or up and down muddy slopes through rain forest. After heavy rain, it is recommended to bypass the section completely as the river can be subject to flash flooding. The rain had been quite heavy for my standards, but luckily it calmed down a bit and the forecast looked good.
But what a night we had before heading into the forest. A possum kept half the group up all night. Olivia and I were camped right next to the trees (not that there were a lot of choices) and a possum kept trying to get to our food. It finally succeeded in getting one of my Mars bars out of a Ziploc, and by the time I had woken up and realized what had happened, half of the bar was already gone. The possum was just right there and ate it in front of me. Having nothing to throw at it, I squirted water at it. Naturally, it wasn’t fazed. It rains all the time, I don’t think they care about getting wet. In the end, we had to throw stones at it and discovered a whole family of possums chilling in the trees. After a lot of chaos, we finally managed to get some sleep but I’m sure I only slept two or three hours as every noise outside made me think the possum is back.
The next morning we all headed out at different times. A few more people had joined us the night prior and it was good to not be solo through this section, as we all didn’t quite know what to expect. Our day started with an immediate steep and muddy descent to the creek, and I could hear screams and hollering for a while as people struggled with their balance.
Luckily, the Waipapa river was only thigh-deep when we crossed it, and the mud wasn’t as bad as I had feared. Despite the lack of sleep, this was definitely my favorite day on trail so far. Finally, something that felt like an actual hike!
After the crossing, we followed a muddy track along the river before climbing a ridge and finally making it to a gravel road leading us to the Puketi campground, where we all stayed the night. The 20 or so of us all arrived at different times, with the last duo only making it at 8 pm.
Heavy rain was forecast for the next day, but luckily we didn’t have it far into Kerikeri where we hoped we’d find easy accommodation like in Kaitaia. Because of the rain, I wanted to get an early start and headed out as one of the first. There was once again a lot of gravel road, especially as one of the private landowners had closed access through his lands due to unspecified “farming operations”. It started raining heavily, and unfortunately, I immediately noticed that my rain jacket zipper was leaking profusely. I’ve used it for hundreds of kilometers of rain and never had this issue, so not sure what’s going on.
After some rough trail through wet and muddy farmland (supposedly “upgraded”, didn’t feel like it), we followed a nice smooth river track into Kerikeri, where to my shock both hostels were fully booked. Apparently, tons of hikers stayed an extra day to wait out the 50 mm / 2 inches of rain. On top of that, seasonal workers had arrived for picking season. Luckily, I managed to get the last motel room at the holiday park and in true hiker trash fashion, crammed 7 people into it.
Shoe cleaning station to combat Kauri tree dieback disease. The disease is transmitted via soil, so it's important to clean your shoes.