Simon's Te Araroa Hike: Day 32: Botanic Gardens to Mt William (31km, 10.5 hours)

I slept a bit better last night - no thanks to the traffic noise, I think I was just exhausted. Also, no Botanic Garden security guards shining torches at me during the night! Nonetheless I didn't push my luck - I was packed and away by 6:30.

Breakfast on the hoof, leaving the Botanic Gardens. Yes, another OSM bar.

Much of today was sadly more road trudging, once I was past the Botanic Gardens. I had about 14km to get to Drury, where Paul was going to meet me for a coffee and a final goodbye.

A Buddhist temple on Porchester Rd. Aside from this, Porchester Rd was 5km of dead-straight monotony.

The mind wanders while trudging. Today mine was trying to remember the rather convoluted plot to Predestination (you should watch it Max!). No maudlin thoughts and melancholic music on this trip yet - apart from after I waved goodbye to Paul on the first day, when I was tearily singing All Sweet Things (No-Man) for a while. I guess it’s because it feels like I haven’t truly left home yet - they will come later, I’m sure!

A passing cyclist called out - and turned out to be a local TA 'trail angel' who helps out TA walkers. Emma (passing TA walker yesterday) had even mentioned her name - small world! Zoe walked her bike with me for 30 mins, it was nice to have a chat and get some TA goss.

Thanks Zoe!

Paul turned up in Drury just as I arrived, and drove me back up to Papakura for nice coffee. And scrambled eggs for my second breakfast (first breakfast being the One Square Meal bar back at Botany Gardens).

My 10am pic. Mmmm, moccacino!

My last goodbye before Paul drove off into the distance. Bye Paul! (Though I’ll see him again when I pass through Hamilton)

OK, back to more road trudging. Another 16km of it actually. Nuff said.

Bypasses. I believe I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I hate bypasses.

Ahh, Hamilton. At least I’m going the right way. But do I have to walk on the motorway???

OK, no - but I couldn’t get much closer!

Getting tired! Time to have lunch by the side of Hillview Rd in Ramarama, and rest for a bit.

Now some relentless hills, leading to Bombay. Great views though from the top of Hillview Rd, - that’s the Sky Tower in the distance.

I was getting exhausted, and craving something cold and sugary. Totally worth the 30mins it took to detour to the Bombay motorway service centre and back.

Finally on Razorback Rd, leading out of Bombay - this one’s for you Dad. But you didn’t tell me it was so hilly!

My view while taking a 10 minute power nap by the road, under a tree.

By this time it was after 4pm and I was struggling. I’m actually almost a day ahead of schedule - I skipped my originally planned night in Drury because I made it further than expected yesterday - but by now I’ve been on the road for 9.5 hours today (even if 1.5 of that was catching up with Paul), and the hills were taking their toll. And coming up is the Mt William walkway, which leads up a steep hill through farmland and bush - and I won’t have the energy to make it through that to where I had planned to camp. I decided to look for a place to set up camp.

The Mt William walkway starts uphill through farmland, and passes several trig points - so I ended up detouring to the first of these. There’s a telecom tower on the hill, but it seems very isolated, so I set up camp near the tower.