GoogleEarth Map – Returning to Te Ika-a-Māui

53. Whangarei: Te Whara

Tuesday, April 2: A bit cloudy to begin with, clearing up to sunny an only fairly warm

Tramping: 8.7 km

The Cell Block

Today was the day of the last tramp, so it was up @ 7:30 & breakfast, lunch preparation and the internet all got their turns before I headed for my shuttle. This had been organised late last night with Trail Drop Whangarei – for a section of the Te Araroa path known as Te Whara. Walking time to the pickup location was less than ten minutes, putting all of the equipment on the outside of the pack likewise and just before 9:00 Hannah Ffrost turned up in her van to pick up the only fare for the day, myself.

Drive was about thirty minutes in the direction of the Heads through what appeared to be little holiday villages, quite pleasant. There was one Natural Jetty, which would have to be photographed at some point as one of the series “Jetties” and we were soon in Urquhart Bay for the start of the walk. Read more…

50. Motukawanui – Mahinepua (CC5) – Paihia

Saturday, March 30: Rather cloudy with 20 knot easterly winds on the water, a drop of rain, and a few showers in the afternoon

Kayaking: 10.8 km

Jarrad’s

Wake up call for everyone was 7:30 and our breakfast was rather simple this morning: Muesli with the fruit salad thrown in and milk. Everything had to be packed in again, and the hut swept out as best as possible.

Because it might rain or otherwise be wet on the water we were advised to put on the dry tops, and I had all of the electronics under deck. The bay we were about to cross looked calm enough, but the problem was going to be the combination of high swell from the north with wind from behind us. Once out of the sheltered bay we were in the thick of it and Magnus directed us to stay together and aim for the point almost directly west, where we would then take a left hand turn. Read more…

49. Motukawanui – Harawera – Panaki – Hamaruru (CC4)

Friday, March 29: Two bursts of rain in the night, overcast during the day, improving in the later afternoon

Kayaking: 12.4 km
Tramping: 1.0 km
Swimming: 400 m

Motukawanui Hut

Apparently everyone snored last night, but the spear fishermen were very quiet when leaving, and we didn’t get up until 7:30.

Breakfast was eggs and bacon on toast followed by the usual fruit salad. The weather was apparently not conducive to a circumnavigation so the plan was to stick to the west coast and try our hands at paddling through channels and into caves so that the helmets came on. Very beautiful, steep coast, caves and channels galore with the tide just returning from low. At one beach we stopped for a cup of tea and a biscuit, and a short time later we stopped fairly close to the north end of the island and continued up to the top of a hill on foot and returned to have lunch of salami, cheese and coleslaw on bread. Read more…

48. Lane Cove – Motukawanui (CC3)

Thursday, March 28: A short burst of rain as a wake up call, overcast for a lot of the day with a bit of sun returning in the afternoon

Kayaking: 25.2 km

Motukawanui Hut (Doc, $15)

It was very dark this morning as we awoke and the rain burst sounded very hard indeed. Breakfast was porridge with muesli and sultanas, followed by fruit salad. I made avail of the French press coffee, which was reasonable. Today everything had to be packed up, as we were departing the hut on a longer stretch along the coast to the Cavalli Islands.

As usual, everything packed much better this time, and I volunteered to sweep, which was accepted. Also everything fit into the boat better, but that was possibly also due to the provisions being exhausted. We took leave of the pigs and set out on our very direct route, all except Ana who was going to reprovision and move the van to rejoin us later. Read more…

47. Whangaroa Harbour & just outside (CC2)

Wednesday, March 27: Becoming cloudier during the day, overcast by lunchtime with a stronger north wind

Kayaking: 16.2 km
Tramping: 1.0 km

Lane Cove Cottage

Dawn was just beginning to show around 7:00 and that is when all of us decided to get up. Breakfast was two fried eggs with tomato and mushrooms with a couple of coffees for me, and fruit salad for all at the end.

Then it was time for today’s excursion. The boats basically remained empty except for lunch, and I had my camera and the GPS with me, but they disappeared into the dry bag at a stop just before the heads because I could already see the waves breaking. Pushing off from the shore I scraped a finger on a mussel shell, a scratch which had to be attended to when we were back at the hut. Read more…

46. Whangaroa Harbour – Lane Cove (CC1)

Tuesday, March 26: Sunny with a couple of clouds

Kayaking: 9.5 km

Lane Cove Cottage (Doc, $15)

We were all up at around 7:30 and I had everything together fairly quickly and had an opportunity to watch a bit of news on the telly.

Putting all of the stuff into the duffle bag/pack made it feel quite heavy, and it was not that easy to carry as a backpack. I was soon down at Anchorage Motel where we were being picked up from. The other two made an appearance fairly soon and that was followed by the kayakers. Then we were on the road to Kerikeri and Whangaroa Harbour. Read more…

45. Paihia: Lookout Track

Monday, March 25: Sunny and quite warm

Tramping: 6.5 km

Jarrad’s

Was up bright and early, well before the others and had my breakfast (finally finished off the hiking crackers). After that travel planning was on the agenda. Managed to get a response from the Cell Block in Whangarei and had to decide between a simple room for $45 and the deluxe version for $60. Decided on the latter and sent off my credit card details via SMS. Still have no confirmation, but we’ll take that as it comes.

Still no news from ATHop so I called them and fifteen minutes later the account was set up and I could see the balance down to the cent. Had to use the uni-hannover.de email account to get an email through at all, and even then stuff went into the trash folder. Read more…

41. Rotorua: Redwoods

Thursday, March 21: Sunny the whole day, quite warm, a couple of clouds towards evening

Tramping: 13.1 km

Funky Green Voyager (Genevieve)

The kitchen was rather full this morning, but I somehow managed to squeeze my breakfast preparations in between the many French guests. Packing seemed to go quite easily, and just after 9:00 I was looking for destinations for an activity today and saw that a bus could take me (almost) to the Redwoods and was leaving @ 9:48.

Dragged my stuff to the reception and was down at the bus stop in a few minutes. Bus was a little late, but for $2.8 I was at the corner where the Rifle Ridge Road begins in a few minutes. Read more…

40. Rotorua

Wednesday, March 20: Cloudy and colder in the morning becoming clear & sunny by the afternoon

Walking: 8.9 km

Funky Green Voyager (Nick)

Breakfast was self-supplied: OJ, two toasted ham sandwiches (finally impressed by a sandwich toaster that doesn’t leave a mess behind and is otherwise straightforward to clean) and coffee.

Then all the stuff had to be packed up and moved out of the room because consecutive nights in the same room were not on offer. Everything packed up neatly and I was considering what to do with the day and in the process made the acquaintance of Nele, a French woman living in Cork. Read more…

34. Kahui – North Egmont (AMC 4)

Thursday, March 14: Clear skies above this morning, cloud below, a couple of half-hearted showers, a few sunshowers and fairly warm

Tramping: 18.6 km

Colin & Theresa’s (airbnb, $68.9)

Was up around 6:00 this morning after all the sleep from yesterday and nothing much was very dry, but it all had to be packed in. Noticed almost too late that the water I was trying to boil had almost the color of the coffee I was trying to prepare. The water from the drinking tap was not much better, but anyhow the coffee had to be finished up, as well as a couple of other things.

I was ready to go by 8:00 and had enough time to look around for the lost croc for ten minutes. Nothing found, so I set up the GPS. I had left the ski undershirt on, had the camera in the pack, and had the pack cover on as well. Got a signal after a while and set off. Read more…