Days 23 and 24
- john51648
- Oct 23, 2020
- 4 min read
Day 23 (19th October) - piece of grass at 490.7km to Puhoi (27km)
Probably understandably after such a long arduous day yesterday I was a bit slow this morning. Also I think today is likely to be a little easier so taking it pretty casually.
One thing I omitted to do yesterday was put up the elevation chart for the day so will give you both yesterday and todays here.
As usual the porridge is burnt! Bloody titanium pots, they might be light but they’re useless at dispersing the heat.
Looking at the elevation chart on the app and I realised I didn’t want to take today too lightly, it actually had about three Hakas of ascent and 3.5 descent so obviously some big hills on here somewhere.
Spoke to Marie as I was leaving my camp and she, Shardell and McVets were passing through Puhoi early afternoon and if was there thought they’d stop off to say hi. So an incentive to hoof it!
Day started on forestry tracks so easy going albeit pretty steep in places.
Once I got to some rural roads spoke to one of the local farmers who was astounded how few TA walkers he’s seeing this year. Anecdotally it seems numbers are a quarter or less compared to other years with so few foreign trekkers.
Past the 500km mark! Seems these 100km points generally occur in pretty boring places but they are milestones nevertheless.
One of the long downhill sections the trail was beside a fence through quite long grass. It seemed the landowner didn’t want any scruffy TA walkers meandering onto his property so had put an electric fence up on the other side. This left a quite narrow corridor to walk in (between the two fences) all the while trying to keep away from the electric fence. Given how generous most landowners are allowing access and providing water etc. things like this are so noticeable.
At the start of the final bush section (Puhoi River Track) there was a swing bridge with a young fella and I presume his mum watching an elk in the river below. He’d thrown a ham bone in and this very large eel was feeding off it.
The Puhoi River Track was lovely albeit pretty steep. A series of ups and downs (“Nepalese flat” as our friends in Nepal call it) with the steepest parts being DOCs specialty of stairs many with that awkward pitch of not quite two steps per stair but a little big for one!
Notable were the Kereru in this section, I saw quite a number (unless it was same one circling back to me?!) which did reinforce the scarcity of bird life in the north.
Arrived in Puhoi early afternoon, before Marie and Co. so wasted no time ordering lunch and a beer. My eyes were actually bigger than my stomach which worked out well as had fries to share with the others when they arrived.
I’m staying in the old pub tonight and after Marie left the barman showed me up to the room. Just like one of those old English pubs, steep narrow stairs and really lost worldly but the rooms have been newly decorated and were lovely. It would be over 20years since I’d been to Puhoi but it really hasn’t changed, retaining real old world charm.
Day 24 (20th October) - Puhoi to Orewa (6km paddle-boarding and 12km walking)
The hotel doesn’t open until 10.00am so up and left (you just let yourself out) and wandered down to the local store to get a coffee and hopefully something to eat.
As I got closer it became apparent all was not normal in Puhoi this morning. Countless trucks and vans and probably 100 people running around setting up to film a movie/show set. It looked like the store where I hoped to get my breakfast was being used for the set so started to think it would be yet another day of OSM bar and water for breakfast.
Luckily the store owner was serving coffee and bacon buns from one end that was just outside the movie set bit.
After a few enquires, I ascertained thy were filming a programme “Mystic” which the crew seemed to think I should have heard of! Little did they know they were talking to the guy who sat beside Elle McPherson and Lucy Lawless on two flights to LA and neither time, despite talking to them, worked out who they were.
Sat eating my bun and having a coffee watching the filming, and getting chased from the “back of shot” a few times while I waited for Ding and his friend to do the paddle-boarding to Wenderholm.
By way of background, the TA includes a couple of options to get from Puhoi to Wenderholm, you can walk but a lot of it is on main roads, or you can canoe down the Puhoi River. Ding had very generously offered to bring his paddle-boards up to allow Tahlia, Robin and I to paddle-board down. Given we had successfully got spread out, this required him doing it three consecutive days. His generosity in doing this is amazing!
Ding and Ric (his friend who was also helping with the paddle-boarding) arrived and once they had relocated vehicles etc. we headed off. So nice to be on the water!
It was the perfect day for it, not too hot and what wind there was behind us most of the time.
Took us a bit over two hours to Puhoi and please to stay no incidents so arrived dry!
After Ding and Ric left I sorted shoes etc. and proceeded to walk into Orewa. A really leisurely walk, took nearly three hours for the 12km so essentially a slow stroll.
As I was arriving in Orewa I spotted a Z-Packs ground sheet beside the footpath and knowing both Tahlia and Robin have Z-Packs tents figured it might have been one of theirs. Sure enough it was Tahlia’s! Lucky I’m following them as in Pakiri I found Robin’s scotch-brite for cleaning her pot and now Tahlia’s groundsheet.
It was so good to catch up with you at the pub and to see that apart from more beard you still looked the same ole JB! That pub was fantastic and thanks for sharing your chips with us. The paddle boarding must have been such a welcome relief after all the walking and a chance to let your feet get some air. Sorry to hear that you’ve not yet mastered the art of porridge in your pot. Don’t suppose you have got another pot you could place some water in and then put your porridge pot inside it, just like when you melt chocolate on the stove? No? I’m guessing you only have one pot as that pack o…