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**Due to an issue with phone backups at this point of the trail I lost many of my photos from the section up to Auckland. Photos are limited in this post, but I have shared the ones that I managed to recover.**
When I awoke comfortable in my bunk at the Endless Summer Lodge in Ahipara, I felt entirely complete.
I had made it to the southern terminus of Ninety Mile Beach, having hiked the 100 kilometre distance from Cape Reinga over the previous three days. I’d had a good night’s rest, and my muscles, bones and body were aching pleasantly from the effort.
I was able to shower this morning, and use a flushing toilet. And I was able to rustle around the beautifully bespoke kitchen and dining area, feeding myself and chatting with other fellow TA hikers and travellers.
The idyllic outdoor seating area at the Endless Summer backpackers, complete with trellis and vines.
And whilst I sat and listened to their stories and plans for the upcoming section through Raetea and the rest of the northland forests, I smiled sweetly as I consoled myself with the thought that I’d already decided to skip this section of the trail.
Both Julia and John were insistent on pressing on. There was a rainstorm coming, but Julia decided it would be best to tackle this by avoiding the Ahipara to Kaitaia roadwalk, and getting the trail angel we’d spoken to yesterday to ferry her to the campsite close to Takahue. This meant she could start her climb of Raetea fresh the following day.
She’d made all the arrangements. All we had to do was be ready to meet the trail angel in the morning.
John had opted to do the roadwalk, so we dropped him off at the dairy and takeaway store we’d stopped at for dinner yesterday. He was the first purist I’d met (it turned out Haley was a purist too, but I hadn’t realised it yet), and he was adamant he was going to hike every single kilometre of the trail.
I’d hoped I would be a purist too. But the ordeal of the last few days had made me realise that this was never a realistic goal for me. Quite simply, there were times when I knew I would have to skip a section just to achieve the greater goal of making it to my final destination. And there were other times when I knew it would just be too much for me to tackle some of the challenges the trail had to throw my way.
After dropping John off, Julia and I enjoyed a pleasant chat with our trail angel (I wish I could remember his name!) on our way to Kaitaia. He would be dropping me off at the Beachcomber Backpackers (popular with TA hikers) but first we made a stop at Pak n Save so I could assist Julia with her resupply for the next section.
I know what it’s like to be in a foreign country and not to understand what half the products on the shelf are. She would say to me, “I need some crackers.” And I would direct her to the cracker aisle and tell her what all the different types of crackers were and we’d work out which ones might suit her better. We must have been a good half hour in the supermarket, but it was worth it in the end. By the time we’d finished she was more than ready to tackle the forests.
When I was dropped off at the backpackers a little later it was a very short goodbye… not much time for too much emotion. I was caught short by the fact that I found myself very close to tears. I’d only known this person for a grand total of three and a half days, and I already felt a strong bond with her.
Often, along the trail, we’d be mistaken for sisters. I honestly felt close enough to her to almost think of her as one.
I had one thing in mind today. I needed to collect the resupply box I’d sent here and get myself settled in ready for a big day tomorrow. I hadn’t quite decided what I wanted to do yet, but I was pretty sure I needed to make my way to Kerikeri.
Safe and sound: Collecting my first resupply box in Kaitaia, just a few days after I sent it from home in Taupo.
Kerikeri sits on the other side of the Northland forest section. My intention was to try to get back on the trail at Mangamuka (about half way between Kaitaia and Kerikeri) and continue from there… maybe even meet up with Julia and John. But getting there from Kaitaia would involve hitchhiking, which I wasn’t comfortable with just yet. Instead, I thought my chances might be better if I contacted a trail angel close to Kerikeri.
When I checked into my dorm room, the lady at the desk said there was one other girl already in the room. She mentioned that she was American, and when I asked if her name was Haley she said yes!
Needless to say, when I walked into the room a few minutes later I gave Haley a big surprise! We hadn’t seen her in Ahipara, and weren’t sure where she’d been staying. We had time to catch up on how her journey had gone so far. It turned out she’d pushed herself far too hard on the beach, and was now having major issues with her knee.
We were just getting into details about our future plans, when John walked past our dorm. We invited him in and got to talking. He’d decided not to push on any farther today, as the roadwalk had been much more harrowing than he’d expected.
And so, instead, I found myself wandering around Kaitaia’s town centre with my two new friends. First off we went to the pharmacy where we all picked up a few supplies. I hadn’t realised I’d have a need for a pharmacy this early into my adventure, but the pains in my foot had prompted me to get some orthotic insoles for my shoes (to help raise my arch). I also picked up some Voltaren cream (liquid ibuprofen) for my aching IT band.
We enjoyed a lovely pizza at Frosty’s Vault bar and cafe before heading back to the backpackers for the evening where we caught up with a whole host of other hikers. 
My first real trail town food on Te Araroa – a luxurious pizza in Kaitaia!
Some of the hikers we met had also just got off the beach, and others were on their way up to the Cape. For those heading up there we gave as much advice as we could in between rounds of pool, doing laundry, washing my tent off and drying it out, and cooking dinner.
Drying gear in the small garden at the Beachcomber Backpackers, Kaitaia: A hub for Te Araroa hikers.
That evening I booked myself an Intercity bus to Kerikeri for the next day. It left quite early in the morning and took a couple of hours to get there. I tried to say most of my goodbyes to John and Haley before we went to sleep, as I knew I wouldn’t get chance to do so in the morning. I also got my backpack packed as much as possible so as not to disturb the others in the early hours.
The pool and table tennis tables at the Beachcomber Backpackers kept us busy on our zero days.
In the morning I was up and out of the hostel very early to catch my bus. I said a quick goodbye (again) to John who was already up, and made my way to the bus stop.
It was an uneventful journey, and as we whizzed along the highway I cast multiple glances up towards Raetea mountain where I knew Julia would be today. The weather looked overcast at the moment, but maybe it would hold off for her.
Arriving in Kerikeri, I was focussed on the immediate task of finding somewhere to stay. It was a little hike from the town centre out to the Kerikeri Holiday Park where I’d sent the second of my resupply boxes, and I struggled with my aches and pains.
When I finally arrived there, I was distraught to find out that there were no dorm rooms available, and that a cabin would set me back around $80 per night. There was a possibility some more hikers would arrive and I could share with them, but without a guarantee I wasn’t willing to shell out the money myself.
And with the bad weather coming in, I wasn’t prepared to pitch my tent.
There aren’t many other options for backpacker (or cheap) accommodation in Kerikeri, so I made my way to the Hone Heke backpackers on the other side of town. By the time I arrived, I was exhausted. It was full of seasonal workers (northland is particularly prevalent for this) and so the other five beds in my six-bunk dorm room were occupied. The proprietors, however, did their very best to accommodate me, and I am incredibly grateful to Victoria and her team for doing her best to help me out in a pinch (she even gave me a slightly cheaper room rate for being a TA hiker).
For the first time, I felt completely isolated. Up until this point, I’d been surrounded by other hikers, and the shared sense of a common purpose had pulled me out of my normal introverted tendencies. We would chat about all things Te Araroa and then start finding out about each other. There was no embarrassment, no holding back, it was just a natural connection that we all made with each other.
The wharenui at Beachcomber Backpackers, a surprising addition to this hiker friendly hostel.
But here, in this hostel, with these people, the feeling was much different. No one really spoke to me, other than to ask what I was doing. When I told them they’d raise their eyebrows, maybe mutter a short “Really?”, ask a few questions and then get back to what they had been doing. I felt completely alone. And I didn’t like it.
In the afternoon I made a call to (I think!) Peter Griffiths, another trail angel registered with the Te Araroa Trust to see if he could pick me up in the morning and take me to Mangamuka where I could re-start the trail. I’d had two zero days (a zero day is a day when you do zero kilometres on the trail) to try to help my body recover from the beach, and I was ready to get back into it.
Unfortunately he was unwilling to take me. I was disappointed, especially because his name was specifically mentioned in the TA notes as somebody who offered transport for hikers.
I could understand his position. It was a weekend, and he was spending time with family. But not for the first time I felt my mind starting to doubt myself and my goals. What was I thinking, trying to hike the length of a country? I didn’t belong here. I was all alone, and I felt uncomfortable. This isn’t what I’d thought it would be like to hike this trail.
The heaviness of the day was weighing on me, and I decided the best thing for it was to make a new plan. If I couldn’t get back on trail at Mangamuka, I would have to settle for getting back on the trail at Kerikeri. Plus, this would allow me to ease back into hiking with a shorter distance day for the good of my feet and knee.
I wanted to make sure I skipped as little of the trail as possible, so I decided to re-join on the western side of the town at the junction of Puketotara Road and State Highway 10. Even though the actual section of trail I would be hiking was only 12 kilometres, I had to walk almost that distance again off-trail to get there.
It would certainly be a big day for me, as my first real foray into hiking alone so far on the trail. But I was confident that I didn’t want to give up yet. My feet were still aching slightly so I decided to freeze a small bottle of water and started a practice of rolling them out two or three times in the evening before bed.
Eventually I set my head down to sleep and tried to steal as much rest as I could ready for my return to the trail and another big day ahead.
prefer to watch?
Watch the full video from this section of Te Araroa below.
