Day 35: Rangiriri to Huntly (17km, 5 hours)

This morning I woke up with stiff muscles, sore achilles, and still exhausted. Just as well today's hike is my shortest so far. And only three more day's walking until I get a rest day in Hamilton - I think I’ll need it!

I had a leisurely late start today, and took the chance to finish off yesterday’s blog before having breakfast. The tavern is old and ramshackle, and breakfast was very basic, but I appreciated it.

A good kiwi breakfast

I remember last year up north, leaving each place was always a bit emotional, and I always took the time to say goodbye. I think it was because I was far from home, and passing through new places I may never see again. It hasn’t been like that so far this time - these are places I’ve driven past many times before, and I’ve been walking away each day without a second thought. I was contemplating this as I headed off just before 10am. 

10am pic: crossing to the west side of the Waikato, over Rangiriri Bridge

Wise words, at the end of the bridge

Today’s hike was a breeze compared to yesterday. Basically this was a simple hike most of the way to Huntly, along a stopbank on the west side of the Waikato, through farmland. Navigation was easy, just keep walking from field to field and look out for the frequent stiles with orange arrows. The only issue was dodging the herds of cattle.

Very curious cows 

…and more cows. Apparently some aggressive jersey bulls often graze here too, though luckily not today.

Passing through the Huntly golf course. Sadly the clubhouse wasn’t open for lunch today.

Well, this is the Waikato after all. I had a good chat with the ginger cow, I think we bonded. 

I think in recent days my mind has been preoccupied with practical matters as I’ve been walking - navigation, traffic, bodily aches puffing up hills, etc. Today I didn’t have to worry much about anything apart from cows, so my mind wandered a lot. I don’t listen to music while I hike, but songs and other thoughts do pop into my mind frequently and randomly. Here’s a selection of what was playing in my mind today:

• Humming to random songs - Blondie (Call Me) and Weezer (Hash Pipe - why??)
• Muttering about various regrets, embarrassments and frustrations - I guess these solo hikes are a good time to get the bad thoughts out.
• Trying to recall my psychotherapy training and attempting some self-psychoanalysis for a while.
• Back to some more obscure music - Cosmograf (The Man Left In Space) and Porcupine Tree (Time Flies, and others)
• Etc

My mind is complicated.

Anyway, it was about now I realised my TA app and notes were telling me to go somewhere impossible - through a marsh full of thigh-deep clinging vines. I’ve worked out now that the TA app and trail notes occasionally diverge from the real life path. It was time to focus on navigation again.

I think my expression says it all. Time to stop the madness, and go back to look for an orange marker. 

10 minutes of scrambling later, I was back on track. In fact the last few kilometres of the trail today were back road walking, past the Huntly power station and in to Huntly.

Passing Huntly power station 

A sculpture near the power station - I think it symbolises the 1995 Waikato-Tainui treaty settlement

Crossing back to the east side of the river, over a railway bridge

Ham roll and custard pie for lunch in Huntly, en route to my campsite 

After detouring an extra 1km north of Huntly town, I was finally at the Lake Hakanoa Holiday Park, a little before 3pm. They even had a spare cabin - only $20 for TA walkers - so I didn’t even need to put up the tent. Luxury!

My cute little cabin

The rest of the afternoon I spent resting up, walking back into town for provisions, and doing my blog. The caravan park isn’t busy, but there are some permanent residents here who I have been warned are planning to have a new year’s eve drinking session close to my cabin. So I’m preparing for a noisy evening (they’ve just started played Abba!). I suspect though I’m going to be asleep quite early. 

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! See you all in 2022.

Today’s route.

Day 34: Mercer to Rangiriri (26km, 8 hours)

For some reason I woke in the evening last night, and checked my phone. There was a surprise text from Julie - apparently the Pokeno police had contacted her to say my credit card, ID and money had been handed in at the police station.

D’oh! It had probably fallen out of my pocket when I was walking back from buying my dinner earlier at the Mobil Mart (yes, a pie). 

I phoned the number Julie gave, and caught the policeman on him way home - he said he would arrange to have some colleagues drop it off to me in the morning. 

Morning came, I packed up and waited outside for the police to arrive - for 2 hours! I was cheered up though at the sight of a guy in a mobility scooter, wearing a mask, towing a trailer with a little dog in it, loudly playing soul music, driving very very slowly through the Mercer McDonalds drive-thru. There was something quite joyful and uplifting about that. 

Still waiting…

Finally at 9:30am the police arrived with my cards. What a relief! Thank you Julie, the Pokeno police, and especially the very honest guy called Gerald who found it and handed it in - otherwise this could have been the end of my TA!

(Update: it turns out it wasn’t my sister Julie who alerted me after all, it was Julie Debreceny the associate principal from Western Springs College! She must have wondered why I was being a bit over-familiar in my replies. Thanks again Julie!)

Thanks, Pokeno police!

After a quick nutritious McDonalds breakfast I was finally off. Only 3 hours behind schedule, and a long day ahead.

10am pic: my first stile of the day (but there were many more!)

Straight out of Mercer is the Whangamarino Track, leading over the hill through scrub land to a Maori pa site. But, problems - with probably only TA walkers using this track, and with very few walkers this year, it was hideously overgrown, and the trail markers were often hidden. Worse, the path shown on my trusty TA app didn’t match what little trail I could find.

I think this is the way… or is it?

For over an hour I was hacking my way through undergrowth, gorse, dense bush, down steep slopes, over boggy streams, at times going in circles trying to find some evidence of the route. There was a lot of cursing! Finally I popped out somewhere where there seemed to be trail markers (though still very little actual trail).

Muddy shoes

Looking back towards Mercer

The TA notes said to allow 50 mins. Took me over 2 hours!

Even more behind schedule now, I needed to push on.

Passing under the main road again…

…and now alongside the highway for a while.

The rest of the route followed along the bank of the Waikato all the way to Rangiriri - still over 20km away. Initially it was a rough trail - often overgrown and very poorly marked. But after passing Hampton Downs it was mostly walking through farmland along the stopbank (a raised ridge in case of flooding). 

I passed another TA tramper, Graham, coming in the other direction, we stopped for a quick chat (and I warned him of the route ahead). So that’s 2 TA hikers sighted so far - they do exist! Apparently there is another hiker Andrew walking about 1 day ahead of me - in fact Graham said that Andrew mentioned there was a ‘Simon’ guy who was following him down the trail! I think someone I met earlier messaged Andrew to say I was behind him - but almost certainly we will never get to meet.

Passing by wetlands

Hampton Downs racetrack. No, I’d rather walk.

You… shall not… pass!

Lunch by the river

Walking along the stopbank

 More wildlife blocking the way. They were big - but pretty placid.

And, turkeys!

Great view down the Waikato

Selfie time.

This is actually a boardwalk over marsh. I could barely see it, and I was walking on it! So overgrown.

Hardest bit over! Now on to Rangiriri

Yes, I do! Thank you, Te Kauwhata Water Association.

The final 8.5km was walking down a country road. I was pretty exhausted by now, and my feet were starting to hurt. So, head down, only 2.5 hours or so to go.

Actually it was quite a nice country road

Finally arriving at the Rangiriri Hotel

By the time I checked into my little single room at the tavern it was after 6pm, and I was shattered. After a shower, beer and pub dinner, I was back in my room collapsed on the bed, too tired even to update my blog. Never mind, I plan on starting late tomorrow, there’ll be time to do this entry in the morning.

I’m a bit concerned about my sore heels, I’ve been hobbling around since arriving at the tavern. But, it’s time for sleep.

Today’s route 

Day 33: Mt William to Mercer (21km, 6 hours)

There's always time for education. For instance, I learnt two things in my tent last night:

1. How to reply to blog comments. Apparently if you are a mobile user using Safari, you have to go to Settings, Safari app, turn 'prevent cross-site tracking' to OFF. If you've also been having problems adding a comment, try that.

2. Why it’s not a good idea to pitch a tent on exposed stony ground. At 2am this morning the wind really picked up, and it rained steadily for several hours. The wind pulled up several tent pegs, so the tent's rain cover didn't maintain an air gap with the inner tent, allowing the driving rain to start soaking through. I managed to shift things around to avoid getting too damp - but, lesson learned!

After that.I did manage to get some sleep - but was woken just before 6am by a farmer in a ute who had driven up the other side of the hill, where there was a steep gravel road. He just waved, didn’t seem to have a problem with me being there. 

After packing up my damp tent, I was off at 6.30am

It was misty and threatening to drizzle for the first hour. I walked over farmland to the highest point of the Mt William walk - after that the route descended another hour down lots of stairs through bush on the other side. 

The trig point at the top of Mt William. Time for breakfast. Note the level horizon - great camera work.

Going down, through bush. One of the rare parts that wasn’t steps.

I'd been conserving water because of the stopover last night, and was running low. I passed a small fertiliser warehouse and asked if they could fill my water bottle - a friendly guy took me to their smoko room and gave me the good stuff (ie. cold and filtered). Much appreciated!

Next was verge hopping along SH2 for 6km, dodging the streams of traffic heading to the Coromandel. 

A quiet moment on SH2. Mostly it was never-ending streams of holiday traffic.

Maybe I could just go to Tauranga and visit Helen instead…

OK, I think this is telling me I need to climb the fence and go back underneath the highway.

Finally I turned off SH2, back onto farmland. The next section followed the Mangatawhiri stream for a couple of hours. 

10am pic: following the orange triangles along a ridge. Farmland on the left, stream on the right.

The Mangatawhiri stream. A couple of swans were  paddling along keeping me company.

Eventually the farm and stream ended, and the last section was a gravel road leading into Mercer. Or so I thought. Approaching the highway into Mercer, there was an orange triangle pointing into a bush trail, which followed directly alongside the highway for the last couple of kilometres into Mercer.

Nice - but where is it going?

Where? Oh, under the highway again.

Yes, this is actually a track. I couldn’t see it either. Very overgrown.

The locals had put up a sign to welcome me.

…and another. Oh please, you shouldn’t have!

I arrived at my destination early, at about 12:30. Mercer Motel has seen better days. It’s very run down, more a trailer park with a few deserted motel rooms and a couple of cabins. There are no staff on site, so it took me 30 minutes of phoning to get the right passcode to access my key from the security box.

Mercer Motel - my cabin is far left.

Actually my cabin is rather cute. A fridge, kettle, microwave, and a very comfy bed. Beats camping!

Time for a beer while waiting for them to sort out my cabin key. I’m sharing the pub with a dozen well-behaved Headhunters.

After a shower, shave, laundry, and a late lunch (a quarter-pounder combo from nearby McDonalds), I was feeling human again!

My first view of the Waikato River, opposite the motel.

The motel is right next to the Mercer service centre - petrol station, Irish pub and restaurant, McDonalds, cafe and mini mart - so there is enough there for me to find food and stock up for tomorrow. 

But, I’m eyeing up the bed already. It’ll be an early night for me!

Today’s route.