Slept amazingly well here actually. Surprised how well for a night in a tent, but I think jet lag, a few drinks the night before, the fresh air plus carrying those heavy rucksacks helped to knock us out!
We didn’t get very far on the first day due to the late start, camped near Te Werahi Stream, just above the beach. The water from the stream was a bit brackish, just used it for cooking to conserve our drinking water.
We still haven’t found any grass to camp on yet.. Camped tonight behind the beach in the sand dunes, picked this spot because it was slightly damp to give the tent pegs something firmer to stick into! We camped near and filled our boots with water from Te Paki Stream, water tasted good, but a bit worrying that the the stream also doubles up as a road for all the fisherman and tour buses..
Haha Feeling well minging today. But luckily we bagged ourselves a sweet camp spot on the only piece of grass for miles around. Nice find Cookie!
We usually carry Meths to cook on with this super lightweight handmade stove. But our first section was actually one of the longest between towns along this immense beach. So to conserve fuel we decided to test out the special inner cone and pegs you use to convert it into a wood burning stove. Worked pretty well! Much faster than boiling up with liquid fuel. Although it gets the pans pretty dirty, it smells amazing cooking on proper fire :)
The stove is a Caldera Ti-Tri by Cascade Designs. It’s made out of a thin sheet of titanium that rolls up into a tube, very light weight. I think the thing I like about this stove the best was the ordering process! Got an email back from the bloke who makes them straight away, he apologised that he was on-trail, in the middle of a hike, but he would make my stove the following week when he was back in his workshop. Felt good to order from, and get it made by a real person.
Well this camp doesn’t look much, but I was super glad to find a patch of greenish sand to camp in. It generally means you get less loose sand and therefore less in your mouth, eyes, and hair when you’re trying to eat and dry off ;)
By Day 3 I had been starting to get rather hacked off with being a sticky human shaped lump of sandpaper :) But luckily we’d managed to camp next to a stream that night and get a bit of a wash, so technically by the end of Day 4 here we’re still ‘fresh’ ;)
We found some amazing flowers in this little oasis springing from a ground covering succulent plant. Big fist-sized lillypad-like flowers in pink and yellow. Really beautiful to see bright colours after days of beige ;) Although you can’t complain! Haha
Chilling on some firm warm concrete after a long stroll. Our first proper shower on the trail. Washed hair never felt so good! Cookie bagged the outdoor armchair… But not for long…. ;)
Utea Park had a great newly built common living space with kitchen and showers for all the campers to use. Brilliant to have a comfy sofa to sit on after sitting in the sand dunes for days :) And a tap with water in it – Yes!
Utea Park is a new campsite, just opened this year, it totally exceeded our expectations! Massive communal living room with sofas and dinning table, even electricity for charging our gadgets, and most importantly running water.
Easy to spot from the beach, just look out the distinctive mound (which the park is named after), when you come off the beach at the obvious exit, just turn left and you’re there.
Exausted and feeling rough as a badger’s arse, frankly I’d have been happy sleeping on the floor of Fabric’s base-enhanced dancefloor just so long as there wasn’t any mud or biting insects. As it was this was the only one horizontal piece of ground that was dry enough and wide enough to fit a slim tent in. So it would have to do…
One of the things we quickly learned about camping in the jungle – there aren’t many options for placing your tent. This is the spot we deemed most suitable, right in the middle of the path!
The riggers of coming down Taumatamahoe took the wind out of Nicky and the next section was supposedly ‘no camping’, so we treated ourselves to an early camp at the edge of the forest.
Keep your wits about you in the jungle.. You never know what’s peering at you through the foliage! We camped in the jungle 3 nights ( and one more nearby ) and once the sun goes down all sorts of mysterious things start to squeak, stomp, flap, trot, and heavy breath over your tent! I swore blind that someone crept past our tent at 2am the first night mumbling… A hunter maybe.. “Or was it a large bird? Or wait a minute there’s a horse print there.. Are there wild horse here?? Or was it a wild pig you reckon ?” Whatever it was it shit me right up! :D
The half asleep paranoid thoughts of all sorts of hoofed animals and hunters with guns roaming about at night swirling around my head made it tricky to sleep even after a full days exploring :) But the weirdest thing was these shrieking noises. I think they might have been possums. Only heard these one evening ( you’ll find it why in the Possum post )…
Update: When we finally got to town a few days later I kept hearing on the news how this school teacher from Kawakawa (not far away) had been shot in the head by a deer hunter a few days ago while brushing her teeth only 4 meters inside in the forest… Really sad news, and also pretty worrying as a tourist sleeping in the forest at night.
We’d decided to try and find a camp before we hit Paihia instead of blowing cash on a motel. And it turned out to be an awesome decision as it lead us to this phenomenal spot. I’m sat typing this in front of a wide gushing waterfall, surrounded by forest, giant date palms, and blue sky. And yet I can still grab a shower if I want. Perfect! I awoke in the night and stepped out to see spectacular starry sky set against the subtly illuminated falls. Beautiful. Olga and Andre the owners are really lovely down to earth characters. It’s a must-stay if you’re in town! :D Its lush. ( Thinking about trying my fishing rod in a minute… ).Found this amazingly situated campsite, right on the edge of the water overlooking the Haruru Falls. Kind of found it by accident (we were a bit off trail), but once we spotted it from across the river we made a beeline straight for it.
Bizarrely today has been the day of friendly Kiwi folk, this morning our motel manager kindly drove us to the bus stop in Kaitaia, in KeriKeri an old woman stopped us in the street and asked us if we’d like to stay in her house for a week while she was away (very tempting), and finally the guys at this motel drove us to the supermarket this evening to get some beers! We’re definitely in friendly central at the moment :)
