Sunday 10th March 2024
Paihia to Kerikeri
28km walked today
218km to Cape Reinga
Remind me not to stay in backpacker places again, even with my own room. The walls are paper thin and excited German teenagers seemed to be playing hide and seek until very late. I can hear people talking in other rooms in the morning. The kitchen is supposed to open at 6:30 but it’s not, and I have a dilemma about coffee. Do I wait or do I head down town to find an early opener? It finally gets unlocked and after a coffee I’m very glad to be out, walking along and saying hello to joggers and dog walkers.
The track passes the Treaty of Waitangi grounds, signed in 1840. You can feel the power of this place, but it’s understated. If this were America, there would be huge monuments. A few tour buses are pulling up so people can pay their $80 each and go inside to view the relics, including a beautiful Marae (meeting house) and other buildings. Interestingly, about a kilometre further on, I pass a bog standard obelisk with a plaque saying that this is where the treaty was actually signed. Now there’s a kilometre or more of walking through a golf course with its contoured “fairways” and hardly any vegetation. A golf course! It’s too close to NZ’s most important site and should be brought up and replanted to restore the beautiful forests that would’ve been here. Instead we have bare land for the enjoyment of the wealthy few. I hate golf courses.
A man on a bicycle comes toward me and I realise it’s the proprietor of the backpackers out on his morning constitutional. He greets me as he passes, and I say I’ve left the key in the door.
This morning I’ve got both the sun and the wind at my back. I’m now walking west for six days to get from the east to the west coast to Aihara at the bottom of 90 Mile Beach. Last night I tried to plan each day to Cape Reinga to coordinate meeting Kim at the top. The forecast is good, the tides will be favourable for beach walking and there will be a half moon if I want to walk after dark. It’s still 10 or 12 days away though, and anything can happen.
The next landmark I pass is a small monument about Te Araroa. The track was officially opened in 1995, and apparently follows pretty much route decided then. There is a strange cairn, phallic and uninspiring, but a small plaque has a beautiful line from a poem by by NZ poet A.R.D Fairburn .
“I could be happy, in blue and fortunate weather, roaming the country that lies between you and the sun” (from “To a friend in the wilderness”).
Two cyclists approach, followed by a large rangy black dog. The dog turns back down the track. I ask them if it’s their dog and they say it belongs to some pig hunters 100m down the track. I walk on and spot a ute with six or more dogs following it. I’ve seen this setup before. They’re pig hunters. The dogs are looking for scent. When they locate a pig they’ll chase it, corner it and keep there until the hunters can arrive and dispatch it, usually with a knife to avoid shooting a dog. It seems cruel but pigs do so much damage. There are signs saying this is Kiwi habitat.
I’m making good time so stop for an early lunch and work out I should arrive at the pick-up point for Peter and Julie before 4 pm.
It’s now along gravel forest roads but there’s no forest! It was all logged a few years ago and the new pine seedlings are less than a metre high. At least there’s a breeze on the hill. Kerikeri comes into view.
Once I’m out of Waitangi Forest forest I’m onto a busy road with not much space and it’s a bit nervy for a few kilometres until the footpaths start. The track goes past Kemp House and an old stone store, the oldest buildings in New Zealand (1814)?. It’s very popular on a Sunday.
Now there’s a pleasant walk along Kerikeri river, past two waterfalls and finally I’m at the spot where Lynne has said Peter can pick me up and bring me to the Llama Farm for the night. I ring, and soon Peter arrives. The Llama Farm has many animals including a pet cockatoo, a dog called Lady and several species of fowl. Soon I’m clean and asleep early.
SAUNTER101 