Te Araroa Trail Blog Day 10: Waikare to Oakura

The Russell Forest Track is now permanently closed due to Kauri dieback disease. There is a road walking re-route of the trail in place. Check the Te Araroa Alerts & Trail Status for more information.

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We’d already decided to leave early in the morning, as we knew we would have to traverse Russell Forest today.

I was nervous about this section, but Julia had given me a mini pep talk the night before, so I was feeling hopeful. 

It had been a cold night in the tent. Sheryl’s place in Waikare is at the bottom of a valley, right next to a river. This meant that a dense fog and mist settled in the evening and led to an uncomfortable night. I struggled to get to sleep, and when I did it came in fits and starts. Add to that the noise from the surrounding cows, possums and other animals, and I didn’t really get much in the way of rest. 

Snapping a quick, awfully bad, photo with Sheryl before leaving her place.  

Sheryl had already pre-warned us we’d have to cross a stream on her property first thing in the morning, so we didn’t bother putting our shoes on straightaway. Instead, we had our breakfast, said a quick goodbye to Sheryl and took a picture whilst she cleaned our shoes. Then we crossed the stream as she waved us on and waited until we were closer to the road and our feet had dried a little before switching to our hiking shoes. 

A beautiful kauri tree on the Russell Forest track.  

It was about 3km further up the valley to get to the start of the Russell Forest Track. The track started pretty well, being nice and wide and basically a four wheel drive road. But it soon became narrower and muddier. Julia was up ahead and there was a hill to climb straight away. I found it really hard going first thing in the morning. 

A rather ominous marker at the start of the Russell Forest 4WD track.  

It hadn’t helped my anxiety much that Sheryl had spent most of the previous night telling us how many hikers got lost in the forest. Apparently the trail was very poorly marked. She’d recently taken it upon herself to put up some white bin bag ties throughout the forest to help people navigate their way through. We noticed the first one of these not long after starting the track, and were grateful for it later on as the official orange trail markers seemed to be few and far between. 

Beautiful native bush marking the start of the Russell Forest Track.  

It was slow going for the first little while, as we tried to figure out where the trail went. We were very thankful for Sheryl’s markers which, at times, were the only ones visible along the track by the stream. 

Entering the bush section of the Russell Forest Track.  

Eventually we dropped down into the bed of the Papakauri Stream. We couldn’t see a marker on the other side, so we assumed we’d reached the river walk section we’d been warned about by Sheryl.

I’d heard stories of the long river walk section through the northland forest section of the trail, but I hadn’t realised there was another short section through the Russell Forest. To my untrained eyes, it seemed to go on for a long way. At the time, the concept of walking up a river instead of a trail seemed completely foreign to me. Now, I know that this is very common in New Zealand. I really enjoyed it, but I think Julia was less than impressed at having wet feet. 

Dropping down from the main track into the bed of the Papakauri Stream.  

The weather was really good all day, and I was glad to be out of the sun as we hiked through the forest. The stream varied from ankle to almost knee deep, and there were some obstacles like large trees and roots to navigate around. When I think about it now, there were probably a fair few eels. But thankfully I didn’t come across any of them.

Julia hikes her way down the Papakauri Stream in the Russell Forest. A particularly scenic section of the Papakauri Stream walk.  

Eventually the river walk section was over and we came across the small DOC shelter which roughly marked the half way point of the track.

We sat here to dry out a bit in the sun for a while. I pulled out my tent and quilt, both of which were quite damp from the previous night’s condensation. They seemed to dry very well and very quickly in the bright sunshine, which I was impressed with.

There was a small nest full of baby birds perched right in one corner of the shelter. I tried to get a picture of them, but didn’t want to disturb their feeding time. 

Roughly marking the half way point on the Russell Forest Track, this shelter and toilet offers a respite from the forest section.  

After almost an hour’s rest we got going again. Thankfully the rest of the forest wasn’t too hilly, but now we were worried about the troublesome dog at the end of the forest.

Apparently a hunting dog, it had been causing much trouble to hikers over the past few weeks, and in some cases had attacked hikers. In fact, this dog had attached a fellow Taupō hiker who I’d met with before I started the trail, causing him to injure his leg quite badly and leading to him getting off the trail for a little while. Needless to say, I didn’t want to have any similar incidents.

Looking up towards the tops of a Kauri tree on the Russell Forest track.  

When we emerged from the forest, sure enough there was the dog at a house which was literally right at the end of the forest track. Thankfully, today it was tied up. The owner emerged from the house at the same time and gave us a brief wave. It looked like some sort of pit bull, and was a light golden colour. Funnily enough it didn’t seem particularly bothered about us. 

Another example of me getting worked up about nothing.

At the end of the short access road I stopped to put on some sunscreen (I hadn’t needed any until now due to being under the forest canopy) and we prepared ourselves for the ~6 kilometre road walk into Oakura where we’d decided to stay for the night. We had discussed maybe pushing on to Helena Bay and staying at a homestay there, but after finding out how much it was, we’d decided it was better not to.

Mentally we’d already both made the decision not to complete the road walk to the start of the Helena Bay section the following day. We figured we’d have plenty of opportunity to sort some kind of transport out when we got to Oakura, or try our luck at hitchhiking. 

Hiking past Sue’s place on Russell Road.  

On the way to Oakura, we walked past Sue’s place. Sheryl had given us a heads up about Sue the previous day, and said she was a great person to stay with. It looked like a nice and friendly place to stay from the road, and it would be a great place for hikers through this section to stop. The sign out front mentioned that Sue can also usually transport hikers to Helena Bay the next day, which is a handy service if you’re not keen on the road walk.. 

We walked on and on. Up some hills. Down some hills. The sun came out and made waking difficult.

Just when I thought I couldn’t walk anymore, we arrived at the intersection for Oakura. We turned left and walked down this road for another kilometre or so until we reached the Oakura Bay Store.

Finally reaching Oakura after a gruelling 6km road walk.  

Accommodation in Oakura (in fact, through this whole section) is relatively sparse and we were having trouble deciding where to stay. Nowhere looked particularly nice. 

If you want to hike an extra kilometre off trail than the centre of Oakura then the Whangaruru Beachfront Camp may be a great option.

But tiredness had gotten the better of us and whilst Julia ducked off to the toilet I noticed a sign on the message board for TA hiker accommodation with Justin Smith at Oakura Bay Fish, Dive & Cruise. I rang Justin (the owner) and asked if he had a place available to put up our tents. He said he did, so we walked another 500 metres down the road to his campsite. 

Tent pitch at our campsite in Oakura. Note our very special long-drop toilet.  

Although Justin was currently on his way back from Whangarei, he told us we could set up our tents at the top of the site and use the toilet and shower in the house. 

The place was actually very small and untidy. Both the house and the site were grubby and there was stuff everywhere. Justin has 5 or 6 caravans he lets people stay in for $25 per night instead of the $15 for camping. They were all unavailable for us, but I wouldn’t have taken the option anyway. They looked pretty run-down.

One of the many caravans being renovated at Justin’s place in Oakura.  

Although he’d said we could pitch our tents anywhere, really the only flat spots were up the steep grassy driveway at the back of the section. At the top, there was a man doing some work on one of the caravans. He showed us around a bit, but otherwise left us to ourselves. 

We decided to put up the tents and then go get something to eat. I was absolutely starving again and lacking energy. Skip’s Fish N Chips on the waterfront had a great selection of greasy food that looked delectable. I got a cheeseburger and some fries. Julia got an egg burger, fries and a strawberry milkshake. She finished it all. I have no idea how. 

Well deserved burgers and fries at Skip’s Fish N Chips, Oakura.  

When we’d finished with dinner, we walked back to Oakura Bay Store, where we’d stopped earlier, for some dessert. It was here that I introduced Julia to Whittaker’s chocolate for the first time.

All supplied up, we made our way back to our camp. I laid in my tent and decided to telephone home. I was feeling a bit down again, I think in anticipation of the next day. We’d arrived at about 3PM that afternoon, so we still had plenty of time to rest up, but I was getting more worried about making sure I was eating enough. I talked to Dad about it, and he made some suggestions but none of them really helped.

A quick late afternoon snap of Oakura Bay from my tent.  

He said I didn’t sound like I was having much fun. I conceded. I really wasn’t at the moment.

The trail was a lot harder than I’d thought it would be. And it was getting me down.

Dad was very practical. “If it was easy, everyone would do it!” He left me with parting remarks to promise to try and enjoy myself the next day and see what happens. I promised him that I would try. 

To cheer myself up I decided to have a ‘pot wash’. I soon made a regular occurrence of them on the trail. A pot wash is achieved by filling one’s cooking pot up with water, boiling it to a warm temperature and then using it like a sink to have a wash with soap and water. They’re a great way to have the closest thing to a shower out on trail without using too much water (around 250-500ml per wash). And it always makes me feel refreshed and reinvigorated.

Watching the sunset from our tents at Oakura Bay.  

It was getting late in the day, and we still hadn’t paid. Justin had arrived home, but he hadn’t come to say hello yet. We finally managed to track him down so we could pay him, although he seemed a little scatty and was more interested in saturating everything green in weed killer! A couple of times, he got very close to the tents with the weed killer, which I wasn’t happy about.

We’d already thought about asking if he knew anyone who could drive us to the trailhead at Helena Bay tomorrow. Luckily for us, when we mentioned the killer road walk we had just done and where we were heading the next day, he said his wife would be leaving for work at 6.30AM and she would gladly drive us. We immediately accepted!

Another worry off the mind!

As we chatted to him an older gentleman named Paul turned up. I immediately noticed that he was missing his two front teeth. We got chatting and he asked what we were doing. When we told him we were walking the trail he said he used to be a bushman and that one of his good friends had spent seven years in the wilderness in NZ.

Given that we’d just been watching it on TV only two nights before, I asked him a few more questions and sure enough. it turns out the friend he was talking about was Peter Raine, the man we’d seen on Ben Fogle’s TV show in Paihia, husband of Miriam whose book about their adventures I’d read before setting out for the trail.

I couldn’t believe it! Paul studied with Peter at university and was around when he was writing his doctorate thesis. Paul struck me as a very spiritual person. He’d spent a lot of time in China and Tibet and was obviously a thinking man. He seemed to me like he was searching for his enlightenment. I enjoyed the pseudo-philosophical conversation with him which lasted around a quarter of an hour.

After chatting, Julia and I made our way back to our campsite for the final time that evening. Once there, in light of how hungry I was still feeling, I decided to have a second dinner, one of my mushroom risottos. I eventually had to force it down, but it was nice. 

I noticed that I was running a little short on gas, and wondered how long it might last. I wasn’t expecting to be able to pick up any more gas for a few days.

View out from my tent pitch at Oakura Bay Fish, Dive & Cruise, Justin Smith’s TA friendly place.  

Julia and I chatted as we waited for the sun to go down, then I got cozy in my sleeping bag. The first thing I noticed was that my tent was on a slope. I had to angle my pad slightly towards the bottom left corner of the tent so I didn’t roll off it.

As I was just dozing off I heard Julia’s voice. “Michelle, look at the moon!”

Spotting the moonrise from my tent just before going to sleep in Oakura.  

Sure enough, a bright full moon was rising just out over the ocean. I sat and watched it peacefully until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.

The gentle lapping of the ocean was quiet in the distance, and (with the assistance of my earplugs) I slept like a baby. 

prefer to watch?

Watch the full video from this section of Te Araroa below.