Road trip snack – pie with curry and meat filling. Yummi.

After my unsuccessful Tongairo hike I adapted a little to the newzealandic way of travel and actually planned my hikes on the Heaphy and Able-Tasman track. The idea to first go to the Able-Tasman, spend New Year’s Eve in Golden bay and than go to the Heaphy should not happen because everybody seems to walk the Able-Tasman between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. However, I could work out a way by walking both tracks into the opposite direction, even though the transport to the Heaphy became quite pricy that way.

It was raining the whole morning in the bus ride to Kohaihai and I already feared a soaked backpack for this day, but when I started walking (the bus was late and I first started 2 pm) it reduced to a slight drizzle making the 20 km along the coast really enjoyable.

20 km along the coast in a slight drizzle rain were mot to bad.

And in the end of the day some sun even colored the sky red.

Unfortunately most of the rest of the track lead through (quite different styles of, but still) forest lacking any kind of view. The walk in it self was compared to the Te Araora leisure walk with huts every few hours and lots of friendly kiwis to talk to showing me all the reasons why I actually like hiking.

In the beginning of the track the forest mainly reminded of a safari though the jungle …

… but turned later into something overgrown with moss (maybe that’s why they call it rain forest).

I shared a little hut with these lovely ladies for one night (They made me going to bed at 8 pm and getting up 5.30 am.).

I decided to spent New Year’s Eve in Collingwood a tiny place at the end of the golden bay mainly because I would be able to walk from the Heaphy track there in one day, if I couldn’t get a lift. Anyway I got one from Noah and was very grateful, because exactly this morning it was again pouring down. He also showed me the tiny shop just by the road, making a great coffee and selling little pieces of art that existed at least as long as the Heaphy track and looked exactly the same.

New Year’s Eve in Golden Bay turned out to great fun. Standing in front of the sad bar in Collingwood left only one reasonable option: heading to the Mussel Inn, a bar everybody was talking about. And it is so different to the European New Years Eve. People are camping in front of the bar to avoid driving home, girls are swinging in light summer dresses, and the rest is drinking beer around the bone fire. And when the night finds an end you still can go back to the beach and watch the first sunrise if the year.

I couldn’t believe it, but people were indeed camping in front of the bar. A bit like a tiny festival.

My first New Years Eve in short trousers.

Indian pale ale is my usual favorite, but this one was the perfect choice for the night.

The first day, though hard couldn’t be spent in bed. The sun shine left no excuse and the bikes could be borrowed for free from the hostel. So we biked the 25 km to farewell split wandering around on the longest dune I have seen so far. After the long 25 km back it was then also okay to finish the day with the greasiest fish&chips I have eaten so far.

The dune is that long, that many people don’t bother to walk, but take the bus.

The next leg if this journey meant walking four days along the coast on the Able Tasman track. I could only book the campsites and got therefore very cheerful when I saw the sun promising weather forecast. So we headed out the first morning our thumbs ready the find a lift to wainui beach (24$ for a 22km bus ride seemed just a bit to much). It took just 4 hours and four rides to get there, but all the nice chats on the way were worth the little hazzel of hitch hiking.

We are walking in the sand lalala. Pretty hard but luckily only part of the track.

The track has definitely one feature lacking all other hiking tracks I have been to before: astonishing golden beaches and crystal green water (pretty cold though). On the other hand it meant quite some up and down and low tide bay crossings, but nothing you couldn’t manage even while pushing a trolley (saw a few on the track). I guess that was the bad thing about it. The beauty and accessibility if the area draw many people (only a small percentage being hikers) here, but on the other you don’t have to be the lonely fighter all the time.

You have to plan your trip carefully otherwise you and up with wet feets, trousers, shirts, backpack and hair while crossing the bays.

Boats are swimming again at high tide, otherwise they are just laying around in the sand.

If you don’t want to walk, you can also paddle around. But be aware you are never alone.

But the view is unique.

After staying in the honest new zealandic town of Levin, trying out my tent for the first time, stocking up on some supplies and preparing myself by buying hut tickets I went of for a short hike on the Te Araroa track. This track is going through the whole of the northern and southern island. The weather was not perfect but not to bad either.
After the first kilometers in the road I met another hiker chatting with two newzealanders (commonly known as kiwis). I kept hanging out there for half an hour chatting with a widely tattooed guy about Berlin before heading on. It got a little wetter in the way while walking between cozy looking wooden houses with sheeps in the front garden.
Right at the beginning if the the trail I heard a horn from a car and suddenly the tattooed guy was back with some tea and Christmas cookies. It was a little scary to me, but it surely was a pretty kind gesture.

If you ever wanted sheeps in you front garden, live in the suburbs of Levin.

Getting deeper into the forest unfortunately went hand in hand with more rain poring down on me. The track surely was beautiful, but I kind if wondered for four hours, why I do this to me (the fact that my shoes were socked with water after the first two made things not really more cheerful). When the hut appeared in front of me I was really just glad to get out of this weather and happy to meet some fellow hikers inside.
The next day I repacked my bag, since already it’s outer shell was soaked and the weather didn’t seem to improve. Than I got into my wet cloths, socks and shoes and we headed again for the steep and muddy path. I was really lucky to bump into this group of „TA“ hikers that gave me the opportunity to hook up. Otherwise I would have stumbled around on this unbelievable hard trail in the never ending rain and probably just turned around. Though it was really kind of dangerous. The path was in a constant mode going up and down through a moss overgrown forest that looked soft and cozy, if it wouldn’t have been all wet.
At the end of the day (I buried the cam in the bag as far away from the water as I could, so no pictures), being wet for more than twelve hours, we arrived in a little hut. There were beds for six, we were ten causing the hut to be really warm and cozy though a little humid.

Amazingly everybody made it work in this little overcrowded hut.

When you walk in rain for two days, you are already happy when the sky is just grey, but spirits really got up this morning, when a little bit of sun sneaked through the clouds. Apart from that it was again a really hard day of constant climb and slides through mud, water and woods until we arrived after 11h and 18 km at the last river. A little fear spread as it started raining but we couldn’t find the hut that was supposed to be there. To everybody’s delight we found it a little off track, with an oven and dry mattresses waiting for us.

Day four started as day three ended, pouring rain on the roof of the hut. It was pretty hard to get motivated to leave the warm and dry conditions for a 700 m very wet ascent, but nobody had much food left and at the end of the day civilization was waiting. After half an hour me and Sebastian were so focused on keeping our bodies moving that we missed the turn up the hill. I was just wondering a bit, but happy that it wasn’t so hard and 1.5 h later we found our selfs at the end of a loop. Luckily it was a loop and we didn’t had to go back. Anyway neither of us wanted to make a second attempt for the mountain, because that would have ment to arrive at 8:30 pm in Waikanae, so we headed back to the car park in the hope for a lift. We found it a knock at the rangers door later, spent a few hours in his home and when we arrived in Waikanae the sky was opening and the sun came out. Anyway I needed a bed, a shower, and a laundry and went off for the hostel in Paraparau beach, that would save me 1.5 h the next day, while Sebastian would try to do the hike he missed today, tomorrow in the opposite direction.
My last day should be turn out to be quite nice. I started in light rain (what a surprise), but it was stopping soon and around 2 pm the sun would burn down on me with all it’s power. Additionally there were no real climbs this day, though walking on the beach also was kind of exhausting.

The start …

… the mid break …

… and the finish of this nice day.

This day was worth every single step, but when I arrived in Plimmerton after 25 km and saw the hostel at the seaside I knew I wouldn’t walk any further.

What a few from a hostel lounge.

I checked in, got my self a good portion of pasta, red wine and a beautiful sunset at the sea.

I am actually not taking to many pictures of sunsets, but I enjoyed this one quite a lot.

I came here to walk one of the great walks „the northern circle“, but it should never come that far. Somehow, I had missed the fact that not only you have to pre-book the huts on this track but also the camping sites. The guy in the visitor center explaining this to me was neither friendly nor especially helpful. Maybe he simply meets to mainly ill prepared tourist everyday. The thought that I could just camp somewhere 500 m away from the track first occurred to me, when I was already heading in the opposite direction. Fact was that I arrived here at 4 pm and had no clue where to stay and what to do now. But there where many other tracking paths and huts in this national park. So I decided to walk south to Ohakune and to re-think the situation.
The big disadvantage of this decision was that despite the high season I was almost alone in the track and in the huts, which can be really scary (just hoping there exist no bears in this country). The track in it self was nice but a very challenging up and down on muddy and very slippery paths (I fell at least four times and was covered in mud on day two.), through tiny waterfalls, over steep landslides and over rocky lava fields). Therefore view on Mt. Ruapenu is surely gorgeous, unfortunately it was blocked by clouds most of the time during my tramping (the NewZealandic form of hiking resp. trekking).

The tracks were pretty though, the huts empty and the view … kind of blocked.

The ground of lava is slowly conquered by moss and lichen.

I actually never found out what was surprising at ‚lake surprise‘.

On the third day I got up to perfect sunshine and with the sun also the mood rose. Just another 1.5 h climbing up a lava field (I felt very uncomfortable with the 20 kg on my back.) and I reached the road to Ohakune.

Mt. Torangiro, the best view I got while walking on the road.

Because I didn’t wanted a lift right away I chose the denture from the road but regretted it fast when I found myself in a path containing if mud under 20 cm of water. 2h later back on the road it took 5 min before a nice elderly couple stopped next to me offering me a lift to Ohakune which I gladly excepted. So I found myself at 1 pm in the sleepy town (which in winter must be a hub for ski and snowboarder with all it’s „Snow lodges“) back to the frustration of planning the next weeks in NewZealand.

Sleepy Ohakune, with it’s potential ski resort just behind.

Apart from its obvious relation to snow requiring sports, Ohakune is a good base for exploring Tongairo national park, biking the empty roads through green hobbitic hills and hanging out in one of the loveliest hostels (even have a trampoline in the garden).

Did anyone know that NewZealand is mainly populated by sheep? They say it’s 40 Mio. sheep versus 4.5 Mio. humans.