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I desperately wanted to connect my footsteps as much as possible, so on Day 7 I decided I’d set out to do just that.
After the failed call to trail angel Derek the day before, I’d realised it was all but impossible for me to get out to Puketi Forest Hut (at the end of the Raetea/Puketi Forest section) from where I was in Kerikeri. It would have involved a lot of hitchhiking (which I wasn’t comfortable with just yet) and potentially a long day before I arrived.
But I decided it was feasible to hike out to the junction with the trail at Puketotara Rd at the western entrance to Kerikeri. Doing this cut off 20 kilometres of road walk from Puketi Forest Hut to the junction, but at least I’d be back on trail once I got there.
In the morning I went to New World to look for a new container for my sunscreen (the cheap plastic one I’d bought from the $2 shop the day before had already broken) and see if I could find any narrower water bottles. I also thought I’d look for something else to eat for lunch, as I didn’t want to carry salami and cheese again (I was pretty over it by this point).
I scoped out the supermarket for packets of cream cheese (I’d forgotten Laughing Cow made those little triangles that Mum used to pack in my lunchbox!) and some other crackers. My stomach had been griping since I’d eaten the crackers I’d bought yesterday.
New World was pretty lacking in choice, so I made the long-ish walk to Countdown a little further up the road. They had some sturdier Sistema containers and also a different water bottle which I thought I’d try out. I also picked up a packet of gluten free pretzels to snack on.
Doing little day hikes like I was planning today, close to town, allows for some luxuries on the food front.
I stopped at a cafe on the way to Countdown to have a banana chocolate chip muffin. I didn’t particularly want the sugar-filled treat, but I was hungry after my blueberry porridge this morning.
I was struggling to force my porridge breakfast down even at this early stage. In fact, it had been happening since my very first breakfast on trail: apple and cinnamon porridge back at Twilight Beach campsite. Unfortunately, I had about 60 more servings of porridge awaiting me at various points along the trail, so I would just have to get used to it.
It was about 12pm by the time I got back to the hostel and was ready to go. I headed back out, this time with a full(ish) pack (to try to strengthen my legs again) and only 1L of water. I headed back up the same road I felt like I’d walked 10,000 times in the last few days.
I walked about 4.5 kilometres down Kerikeri Rd to the State Highway 10 roundabout, and then another 4.7 kilometres (approx.) to the start of the Kerikeri River Track.
Along the way out of town I passed big stands of bamboo shoots that lined the roads.
Bamboo lines the roadwalk out of Kerikeri towards State Highway 10.
There was plenty of traffic along the way. On State Highway 10, the traffic became worse. I was able to walk well inside the road shoulder, but in some sections the road narrowed so that cars travelling 80 km/hr were only an arm’s length away. I also had to watch out for cars cutting the corner on a few occasions.
A dangerous off-trail roadwork along busy State Highway 10.
I hadn’t thought about the fact that the road is cambered at the edge just like the beach. And if you are doing the right thing and walking into the traffic (as you always should do), it’s the same right leg that’s under pressure!
Like I said, the roads were busy and noisy, and there were a couple of sketchy sections over bridges where there wasn’t any room to walk if there were cars. I ended up running over one of the bridges because of this.
Taking my first steps back on Te Araroa after two zero days, finally reaching the TA junction at Puketotara Road, Kerikeri.
When I arrived at the picnic area, Scott and Nick (the two older kiwi gentleman from the group I’d met at Utea Park on Day Zero) were sitting under the little shelter! It looked like I’d timed it perfectly to meet some hikers for the day and hopefully bring me out of my funk.
We got chatting and they told me about their experiences in the forest sections to date. They told me it was ‘beautiful’ and by the sound of it not too muddy. They had, after all, had the best weather for getting through.
As we were getting ready to leave, Troy from New Zealand and Jordyn (his Canadian girlfriend) also showed up. They too were hiking the TA.
A typical Te Araroa informational sign at the beginning of the Kerikeri River Track. I’d get quite familiar with these throughout the North Island.
Soon after, we were on our way. We climbed over the first stile and immediately found ourselves in a small field with no discernible trail. I was in front and managed to work my way through. A little further on, I came up to a wire fence. Not thinking, I got very close to it and even bashed it with one of my poles before realising it could possibly be electric. I was only alerted to my stupidity when Nick came along behind me and stepped on it to help me over. Thank goodness, but I felt like a right idiot!
Meeting new TA hikers! I am surprised to see Scott and Nick again, and meet two new people, Troy and Jordyn.
It started to rain shortly after. First in short bursts and then it chucked it down. The trail alongside the river had started out difficult to follow, but eventually it became an easy pathway.
You’re never too far from the river on the Kerikeri River Trail.
The power of the Waipekakoura River along the Kerikeri River Trail.
It really was a stunningly beautiful track alongside the river. The rain actually made the greenery pop all the more, and I felt like I was walking through some sort of enchanted forest.
A gorgeous little spot reminds me of something straight out of Hobbiton on the Kerikeri River Track.
A serene pathway through the trees keeps me mostly out of the rain on the Kerikeri River Track.
After hiking alongside the river for an hour or so we arrived at the famous Rainbow Falls.
We first came out upon a lookout at the top of the falls. It was beautiful watching the force of the river rushing over the ledge, plunging into the depths below and releasing a dense mist.
My first glimpse of Rainbow Falls, as I come over and down the river track towards the lower viewpoint.
A little further down the track, before we made our descent to the lower lookout, we arrived at (for me) the first kauri dieback cleaning station. Kauri dieback is a disease which lives in the soil and infects kauri roots, damaging the tissues that carry nutrients and water within the tree, effectively starving it to death. It is particularly spread on the boots of hikers, therefore DOC has positioned boot cleaning stations through areas which need to be protected.
The other hikers had probably already encountered these stations in the forest section, and luckily Simon and Nick were ahead of me so I could watch them before it was my turn.
The stunning Rainbow Falls, Kerikeri.
After descending down to the lookout at the bottom of the falls, we headed into a beautiful little kauri forest not much further down the track. I stopped for some photos of the falls, and met an Englishman from Hampshire who took a picture for me and asked what I was doing. He said he’d like to walk the length of the UK one day.
A friendly tourist stopped to take this photo of me at Rainbow Falls, as the rest of the TA hikers pushed on into town.
The others had gotten ahead of me whilst I had been stopped. After a bit of walking, I caught up with Troy and Jordyn. They were discussing strategy. Both their phone batteries were low and they weren’t sure of the way into town. I explained to them as best I could how to get to the holiday park (I’d already told them about my hostel being a bit noisier and louder) and even offered to walk them there if necessary.
We caught up to Simon and Nick at the next cleaning station. Again, I was last through, and as I was cleaning my shoes Simon and Nick disappeared off down the trail. Troy and Jordyn were standing still just the other side of the station, and when they set off again I assumed they were following the two kiwis.
About 15 mins later I felt something wasn’t right. I hadn’t seen Simon and Nick since the cleaning station, despite the trail now opening up for a few hundred metres. We were also now hiking down a main road, which just didn’t seem right.
I checked the map and sure enough noticed that we had somehow managed to miss the junction to the river track which carried on by the stream. I knew the road carried on to the Stone Store, so I would still get to where I was going, but for the first time I noticed I was annoyed not to be walking the actual trail route.
Troy and Jordyn started to lag behind, and by the time I noticed and turned around to check, they were already stopped and rummaging around in their backpacks.
Noticing the late hour of the day, and assuming they were rummaging for their battery packs, I decided to push on. I plodded on, alone once again, and spent some time at the Stone Store taking pictures and getting some videos.
Reaching The Stone Store in Kerikeri is a fantastic milestone, marking just over 200 official trail kilometres.
This location is also home to Kemp House, the oldest house in New Zealand.
Kemp House at Kerikeri is New Zealand’s oldest building, having been constructed in 1821.
By the time I was ready to get going again I found it difficult to find the trail. After a bit of deducing, I finally spied a tiny trail market next to some toilets in a large field. I walked toward it. There was a DOC sign which indicated I should carry on straight ahead, so I followed some ornately carved wooden poles which I thought denoted the track I was supposed to follow.
It turned out they only led me up to the historic Kororipo pā site, so I had to backtrack to the large grassy area I’d already walked through.
Checking out the view down the Kerikeri River from the Kororipo Pa.
I could now see a small pole hiding just over a rise, with a trail blaze stuck to it. By this time, I was angry. Time was getting on and I couldn’t understand why the Te Araroa Trust couldn’t make sure the trail was more clearly marked.
The sign at the junction estimated 25 minutes to another set of waterfalls. From my memory of the map, I assumed this would also take me pretty much to the nearest road, and leave me just a short walk from the hostel. I was struggling to confirm the directions, though. Using The Trail App (my primary means of navigation), every time I tried to zoom in closely to see which direction I needed to take, the map would refuse to load and I would get grey boxes on the screen. It made it very frustrating to navigate on a turn-by-turn basis in city environments.
The trail started off as another forest track but then turned into a rough trail through some private land. It was a little strange, and time was marching on. The fact of being alone played on my mind and I started to get a little pre-anxious. I stopped for a quick toilet break to help calm the nerves, and carried on.
A stream was coming up, prefaced by a number of signs that bade hikers not to cross the stream in flood. I hoped against hope the stream was low enough that I wouldn’t have to turn around and go back.
Admiring a small stream after getting hopelessly lost on the hike out from the Stone Store.
Thankfully when it came to it there were two routes to get back to the road I was heading for: a more direct one by the road and a fair weather one which included the stream crossing and a track to the second set of falls.
Within another 10 minutes or so, I was at the falls. But by now I was more than over it. I was sick and tired of being alone, scared in case I took another wrong turn and ended up really lost in the bush, and was starting to get anxious. A sign just before the falls junction mentioned a track to the inlet road. I looked on the map. Sure enough, that was the road I was hoping for! The track was very steep and there were steps to climb, but at least I could hear cars whizzing along the road at the top.
When I reached the road I felt the relief wash over me. It was so nice to feel like I was back in civilisation again. I cried a little as I hiked back to the hostel. The last hour and a half had been an ordeal, and there were times when I had convinced myself I would end up lost in the bush.
Stumbling across Wairoa Falls somewhere in the middle of urban Kerikeri after losing my way on the trail.
Later on, when I looked at the map, I realised how close I was to the surrounding residential environment the whole time. It would have taken a lot to get seriously lost. I felt rather silly that I had worked myself up, but in the moment it had been a scary experience. I recalled back to my experiences on the Tarawera Trail, just a few months before and realised I was letting that experience colour my judgment in uncertain moments.
I was glad to be back at the hostel, but I was starving! Summoning up the last of my energy, I made my way to Pizza Hut to grab some dinner, and brought it back to the hostel.
I recognised that I was trying to psych myself out of hiking the next day (as well as trying to ignore my desire to quit the trail completely), when I noticed the proprietor, Victoria, showing two new guys around the hostel.
The first thing I noticed about them were their packs. One had a ZPacks Nero and the other a ULA pack. Hikers! I felt an immediate sense of affinity.
Their packs really were tiny so I greeted them with a, “You look like ultra-lighters!” It turned out that they were (unsurprisingly) both American, and had already completed the triple crown. Austin was from Oregon (originally Florida) and worked for a cannabis testing factory. Thomas was also from the USA and smoked (He was outside a lot so I didn’t talk to him much to find out more!).
They let me know that they would most likely be zeroing at the hostel tomorrow, after having hiked nearly 60 kilometres from the Apple Dam campsite that day! They said the forest was crazy (but not too bad), but that today was worse because of all the steps! I chuckled and made a comment about how high the steps are on our trails here, and they couldn’t help but agree with me!
As Austin and I were chatting that evening, the most violent thunderstorm I’ve witnessed in a while passed by. The rain torrented down, and the lightning and thunder were almost directly overhead. I assumed this must have been the forecast storm we’d heard about in Kaitaia. The boys had decided to get pizza for dinner also, and poor Thomas was just on his way back! Thankfully, a little while after the storm died down he returned, surprisingly dry.
I said my goodnights to the boys, and (feeling rather more invigorated) set myself to a good night’s rest.
To my surprise, I had also received a message from Julia! She had made it to the Mangamuka Dairy, about half way into the forest section. As she’d been sitting at the dairy, waiting to find a place to stay for the night, a local had arrived letting hikers know there was a big storm rolling through. He had made it seem so bad that Julia had decided she didn’t want to be caught out in the middle of the forest in a bad storm, so she’d hopped a ride with him back to Kerikeri.
She was staying at the holiday park that night, but we agreed to meet the following morning to get back on trail together towards Paihia.
All of a sudden, things seems to be back on track. My knee and feet had held up surprisingly well during the day’s test hike (although the distance hiked probably pushed it a little) and I was feeling optimistic about hiking again tomorrow.
Aside from a rough night’s sleep (brought on by one of the occupants of my room deciding to hold a board game night at 10.30pm) I was eager to get going, and get back out onto the trail.
prefer to watch?
Watch the full video from this section of Te Araroa below.
