Days 34, 35 and 36
- john51648
- Nov 3, 2020
- 4 min read
Day 34. (October 30)
Zero in Hamilton Summarised by brunch with Marie, beers with mates, shopping for food and replacement stuff and resting up at home.
Day 35 (October 31 ).
Hamilton (Home) to Limeworks Loop Road (~30km but slack packing) So a sort of rest day but up early and out the door an bit before 7.00am and trying to get as close to Pirongia as possible in order too make tomorrow as easy as possible. The walk was pretty uneventful, largely road out through the Hamilton suburbs then it actually joins Chris and Jo’s (my son and daughter-in-law) street for a few hundred metres before entering the Taitua Arboretum.
A bit like Auckland though, it is interesting how walking through a city can open your eyes to things you don’t see on everyday life.
After the arboretum the trail follows a farm and more road before getting to Whatawhata. Given today’s technically an R&R day I decided on a coffee and juice at the Whatawhata cafe before proceeding on towards Pirongia.
Just before I got to Limeworks Loop Road (where I’d organised to be picked up) I caught up with Tahlia. While she had got shrewd of me in Northland when I had the leg issues She’d stopped in Auckland for her dad’s birthday so was now only a half a day ahead. Really nice to have a catch up despite the skies opening while we were talking and it absolutely bucketed down. Felt a bit bad as she trudged off in the rain and I got a warm ride back home again.
Back home for pizza and the rugby before I resume the TA properly tomorrow.
I had one bit of gear maintenance to do also, I was hoping to swap my pack out but unfortunately the replace my had not arrived. The issue is I’ve lost about 5kg and the waist belt has run out of adjustment. So in lieu of a new (smaller) pack I purchased an extra thick yoga mat and cut it and cable tied it to the waist of my pack. Will be interesting to see how it goes?
While all this was happening the All Blacks gave Australia a lesson in rugby.
Day 36 (November 1st)
Limeworks Loop Road to Pahautea Hut, Pirongia (16km but felt like more)
Started the day in the company of Cooper (my 8 year old grandson) who walked with me the Limeworks Loop Rd section. This was about 7.5km and he was a trooper. Lovely to be able to experience a bit of the TA with him and perhaps I’ve sown the seed and in years to come he’ll do it. It was also nice to see it through the eyes of an eight year old.
At the Kaniwhaniwha carpark I swapped Cooper for Chris McCaughan (aka McVet) who joined me to walk to the top of Pirongia.
As usual Pirongia was a long hard climb. No matter how many times you do it, line the Hakas, it never gets easy. Generally it can be notoriously muddy but despite yesterday’s torrential rain the mud before the summit was not too bad, still ankle deep in places but generally you could get around the worst of it.
On the way up we passed the 800km point for the TA (well 800 for me and 2.2 for McVet). Great to be able to share this with a good mate.
McVet and I had lunch about a km from the summit and he then returned down and I continued on.
The last bit to the summit is a bit of a clamber up rocks but today, perhaps powered by McVets home made sourdough it wasn’t to strenuous.
At the summit was a gym group from Cambridge who were pretty interested in the whole TA thing. They mentioned, with some pride, they were doing the six highest peaks of the Waikato, at which point I put my foot right into my mouth, telling them we did that one week a few years ago and what a great challenge it is. Well...... after the stilted silence they said they’re doing it over six months. I felt like a total braggart and could have crawled under a rock!
After leaving the gym group at the summit the walk to the Pahautea hut was actually probably the worst mud of the day so arrived with wet muddy shoes and legs.
Outside the hut were a pair of shoes I recognised as Tahlia’s (same make different model to mine) which was strange as I was sure she was doing Pirongia in the one day. When I got into the hut she was asleep, seems she’d got to the summit and decided even though it was only lunchtime to call it a day and dry out her stuff from the day before.
Being a Sunday meant we had the hut to ourselves, a bunk room each and space to really spread out and air gear.
Even one day out of Hamilton, hikers hours have kicked in amd I was asleep before 8.00pm. First night on the new sleeping bag/quilt so will be interesting to see if it helps the gammy leg.
I can report though that the pack modification seems to be working well.
Pleased to see the rugby is still a priority John. Hope you're not returning home for the US elections!
Fantastic to see Cooper on” the walk” with you. So admire what you are achieving, Go JB!