Every day around Noon I get a message from my Garmin watch that says something to the effect of – “Whoa Dude. You need to calm down.” It’s telling me to immediately stop activity and rest for the next eight hours or so. I’m regularly hitting over 50,000 steps a day and I don’t think it has a “Hike a Country” setting. I’ll have to email them about that in my next zero. The Garmin is also tracking heart rate and the amount of rest I’m getting so it might have a fair point. The last two days crushed me.
We headed out from Jo’s Funny Farm for a pretty twelve mile hike across pastures and fields to the town of Te Kuiti. The pasture hiking is beautiful but it’s tough because the sheep and cattle make big ruts in the fields that are hidden by tall grass. It’s slow going in most places as we try to navigate the big divots and clumps of manure. Thomas twisted his ankle pretty bad in a field a few days ago and he stopped in Te Kuiti to let it rest. The fun part about the pastures are all of the animals to interact with. We are regularly hiking straight through horses, cows, bulls, sheep, chickens, turkeys and deer. The horses are super friendly and nudge my pack to see if I have anything good to eat. I’ve upped my food game today and am now packing spinach, fresh avocados and fancy cheeses to make healthier lunches and dinners. I wanted to buy carrots today but was afraid of getting mauled by the horses.
After a resupply at the grocery store, we left Te Kuiti for another twelve miles to our campsite along a river trail that looked like it would be pretty pleasant. It was anything but. The first few miles were pretty tame but then the trail just kind of ended. It’s like they got bored with it and decided to just nail some trail markers to the trees telling us to head up to the steep riverbank. For the next nine or so miles we had to slog along in deep mud along really steep banks to try to make progress. It was slow going and covered in sharp sticker bushes. It ended up taking six hours of hard work and a lot of falling before we finally headed away from the river and up a nearly vertical slope into the valley on the other side. I was cursing this blasted river the whole way and couldn’t wait to get away from it.
I got into camp around 7PM and put up my tent in the rain, made some dinner and commiserated with the other hikers at the hut. Everyone was exhausted after the long day fighting along the banks. I fell asleep immediately. After a great night’s sleep, I awoke to an amazing morning. I hadn’t taken the time to notice where I ended up but I was deep in a deserted green valley and there were hundreds of birds singing their beautiful songs to wake me up. I stretched out in my tent and looked forward to the hike today on forest service roads – anywhere except that damned river.
Be careful what you ask for. As technical and uneven as the day before was – today was just the opposite. Twenty three miles of gravel and tarmac road with literally nothing in between. Just miles and miles of sheep and cattle farms. Hours of boring road walking punctuated every thirty minutes or so by a terrifying logging truck bearing down on you at sixty miles an hour. On the plus side, I made really good time and we found a hut to sleep in with a hot shower and great cell service. We spent the extra time planning the logistics for the next few days. Coming up, we have a mountain bike section, the Tongariro Mountain Crossing and then a five day canoe down the Whanganui River. It’s a lot to coordinate and negotiate with the Tramily so we needed the extra time to get everything sorted out.
This trail is challenging and so different from anything that I’ve done before. It takes a lot of planning and you have to be flexible when you run into really difficult and slow sections. I’m still learning how to manage all of this but my trail buddies are a big help. We’ve been taking turns acting as trail director. Thorsten gave up the reigns a few weeks ago and I’ve been leading the charge so he can just hike. We picked up a new buddy named Saad from Seattle and he has been helping with logistics as well. I’m ready to follow his lead for a few weeks if he’s up for it. We have a ferry crossing to the South Island, some complicated food drops and winter gear to coordinate. Just tell me what to do so I can hike!
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