3 Wonderful Days Make 2 Horrible Nights Worth It

So it's been quite a long time since I last updated and a surprisingly little amount has happened. Again, I'm in a regular routine now so during the weeks things sort of are all the same. Classes are easier but that's mostly because I only need to get a 55 to get credit back at Georgetown. I've done probably about 4 days of work and by Friday I'll be done with all my work until May, (I had to get some stuff out of the way so I could take a trip next week).

But anyways, the biggest thing I've done was take a trip up north and hike the 40km (22ish miles) of the Cape Reinga Coastal Walkway. We took three days to do the whole thing and slept out in a tent 2 nights. First I'll complain before I praise the walk. I slept probably 6 hours the whole weekend. We had a 4 person tent and 5 average sized humans and 20 or so mosquitoes. Part of the fun of camping is getting to the campsite at 7:30 and being in bed by 9:30. For us it was a curse; getting in the prison of a tent at 9:30 meant at least 10 hours until the sun came up and gave us reason to get out of the hot and smelly mosquito Mecca. I have at least 20 bites from my sleeping attempts and another 10 or so from these mites called chiggers. They pretty much just live in your socks or waste band and then kill some skin cells for a snack when you put them on. The result is these tiny red dots all concentrated in one area. Not fun...not itching has been really hard since getting back Sunday. The other downer came early the first day walking. I bought new socks for this tramp and they were too thin so I got two blisters right away which made the hike a lot harder because I had to walk in ways that didn't agitate them (and this said style of walking wasn't productive up hills).

BUT with that all said, the walkway was amazing. We strolled into Waitiki Landing looking for fuel and a map (neither of which the complex had). We had arranged to get dropped off at one end of the circuit and get picked up Sunday elsewhere and we assumed they would have some maps and their website mentioned they have fuel, (in fact they have a sign 50 km away that says last fuel stop in New Zealand...lies). Once we found something like a map we got in the a manure truck and headed to Spirits Bay on the east coast of Northland. From there we walked about 3 hours between a beach and a swamp. Crazy how you look left you see the Pacific and you look right and you see this swamp that just doesn't look like it belongs next to a beach.

From there we got a little lost. The trail wasn't really that well marked on beaches because the tide varies and depending on what time it is you take a certain route. Nonetheless we found our way to Pandora which is pretty much the start of my blisters and a "roistering up and down" as the book warned. The up and down is so worth it though. Since we're surrounded by flat and low beaches, when we started to climb these ridges that were probably 1000 feet or so above sea level at most, you get these great panoramic views of the ocean. The ocean here is also a unique blue turquoise and it's like nothing I've seen really. The camera couldn't even do it justice but trust me that it's really amazing.

4 hours later we got to the first night campsite at Tapotupotu Bay. This was a formal campgrounds with water, toilet, flat ground, and even showers (not that we bothered to use them). It's also on the beach so we set up camp, hung out by the beach to watch the sunset and ate dinner. This time we had a gas cooker so we bought dry food and boiled water. We ate well both nights.

The second day I got up at around 6:30 because I couldn't take the tent anymore and just sat around pretty much. The views from the campgrounds were great so I just did some lounging alone which was a nice divergence from the clown car like tent we were in (if you saw the tent and and then saw the five of us pile out you'd gasp). This day was by far the best and most diverse. We walked 2 hours to Cape Reinga. It's just barely the second most northern point in New Zealand, the first being a few kilometers east of Spirits Bay. It's very touristy and when we climbed our last hill, we all collapsed on the grass by the famous Light House while tourist likely smelled and avoided us. Cape Reinga is fantastic. You can see for miles on a clear day and there's almost nothing in the distance. about 40 miles off are a few islands that we could see but nothing. It really made me sympathize with people who once thought the world was flat because if you didn't know any better you'd think you just fell off the edge eventually. The other amazing part of Reinga is that you can see the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean collide. Very odd to think of bodies of water having clear cut starting and ending points. The waves just collide a few meters of the coast and the color is unbelievable. As always, please just look at my pictures if my descriptions fall short.

From there we travelled down a ridge to Te Werahi Beach. This was the most amazing place I've been yet probably. The beach was just so beautiful and vast that it really made me feel isolated and small. It really can't explain it. We were so close to all these people from all over the world but the beach was just so untouched. The sand was incredibly soft as well and there was at least 100 yards of flat beach before the water. We were also under a cloud so we got a refreshing breeze as we walked. Walking on these longs and empty beaches is a challenge because nothing ever changes. We would walk for 20 minutes and turn around and feel like we just started. Once we finally made it to the end we lounged in the sand and relaxed. From there we ended up in these amazing sand dunes that seem like they were meant to be on Mars. Again, the diversity of the land impresses me. It seems like someone took a whole bunch of scenery puzzle pieces and just jammed some that didn't fit together and made New Zealand. One of my fellow campers said it made him feel like on the 7th day of creation whatever was doing the creation took all the little bits and pieces it didn't use and chucked them in the ocean, wondering if anyone would find them.

From the dunes we found another amazing beach, Twilight Bay, where we set up an informal camp. We used survival skills to find a stream with fresh water to boil and drink which made us all feel like self sufficient nature taming campers. The sunset was amazing and we watched it as we ate all the food we could find after our combined 14 hours of hiking. Sleeping that night was horrible as I mentioned and the I woke up the third day grumpier than I've ever been which unfortunately made me almost forget what we did that day. We had a brief walk to 90 Mile Beach were we walked for an hour or so trying to find Te Paki Stream. The walk there was awful because the sun was blistering and we didn't feel like we were moving. The stream wasn't much better. We had to cross shallow areas of water while we winded through massive dunes on our left and forested ridges on our right. We made it to the car park where a nice man offered us water. From there we had 3km to get to the meeting point for our ride. The driver actually met us closer and picked us up after 1.5km. The last stretch was through a cattle farm where we didn't make many friends. As we walked through all the cows started to moo and run around. We were convinced a stampede was coming but we made it out safely.

Once we got back we bought the last 10L of gas the Landing had and found out they had no electricity for 100km which meant no gas or food till then. That was a very stressful drive but once we got gas we got some junk food to hold us off until a more appropriate dinner time. We ate in Whangarei, the biggest city north of Auckland. Chicken never tasted so good.

We made it home safe and sound where all of us rushed to shower and do laundry. The sense of accomplishment after finishing these hikes is a great feeling. Next week I head to the South Island for a week since we have a few weeks off for Easter Break. That's the next big thing in my life so once I get back expect an update. Sorry if it takes me too long sometimes but I rather write one long blog rather than a few short ones just because it makes me feel like I'm doing more and also my weeks are very boring. They usually entail class and hanging around with friends. Wednesday nights we usually take advantage of the student drink specials around town and Thursday we pack for where ever we're going on the weekend.

Life is really a treat down here and so easy going. There's something about living on an island that makes everyone more relaxed (I think it's the ocean breeze), so I'm really living the life down here. I'm looking forward to coming back home but I'll definitely need some time to readjust.

OH and the pictures. I think I put 140 new ones so hope that keeps you busy until I get back. Check them out here.