An amusingly named summit that’s annoyingly in our way. A vertical 500 metre climb at 7am was tough going for me! Once we were up and off though we found the track absolutely packed, with Maori families all jogging up and back down. Even the nannas were getting stuck in. Awesome! I don’t know if the hill had special significance or if it was a special day maybe, or if the local white kiwis just weren’t into jogging. Who knows, but it sure was a popular forest track :) Flippin’ windy at the top too.
Finally Wellngton is in sight! We knew we were getting near, the suburbs were slowly creeping up the mountain towards us, but we couldn’t quite see it until now.
So we’re off! Bye bye North Island… Hello South Island. After a bit of grey and miserable time in Wellington, what with weather, computer crashes, upset tummies, shops closed, and general knackeredness, in a way we were glad to be on the move. Wellington hadn’t been the all singing, all dancing, brazilian carnival of a celebratory finale that I’d imagined.
After feeling slightly underwhelmed by the achievement of ‘halfway’ while in Wellington, the boat ride across the Cook Straight was quite satisfying, it finally sank in that we’d done the North Island and we’re starting a new exciting leg of our journey.
So this is the Official Start to the “Te Araroa Part Deux… The Revenge”, the Cook monument. As you can imagine Cookie was excited to see a huge lump of rock with his name on. And with the sun out and surrounded by palms, ferns, and turquoise water, we felt much more in the ‘Half Way celebratory mood’ than back over in wet grey Welly. Part Two started to feel like it might not be all cold grey mountain despair, and might include some tropical summer sunshine and fun after all :) After a leisurely boat trip over, a good stint mucking about taking photos and dancing for the video, plus a few shots a-straddle-the-cannon, and some time reading the info boards, we’d left ourselves only a half day’s walking to do :)
Not sure how well known Captain Cook is around the world? But he’s pretty famous back home and here in New Zealand. The first European to set foot on New Zealand soil, plant a flag for king and country and all that. He first landed here at Ship Cove in January 1770 and by all accounts did a stirling job of mapping New Zealand’s coastline.
We loved this place! After a long hot and sweaty day’s walk there is nothing better when you are expecting a regular DOC type campsite to find something very special like this. Tony Madsen’s put so much heart and soul, and thoughtful touches into this garden-like camp. Tiered grassy spots with winding paths and solar lights, a hammock for snoozing in, the freshest long drop loo I’ve ever been in. He’s even made a special outdoor solar shower area so you can wash your hair whilst taking in the jaw dropping views high over the glittering blue water. Absolutely gorgeous. It made us wish we’d spent a rest day here rather than in the capital. We had two private beaches to ourselves, and wild Weka birds to play with. ( They love trying to seal your kit! So much fun! ). I had the best night’s sleep there, although that might have had a bit to do with our fresh rum and lemon sunset cocktails! A little dip in the sea and collecting handfuls of fresh mussels for Cookie to cook up in the pot was just amazing. Our first wild-caught food!
After walking across half of NZ, I think we can say this with 50% accuracy that Madsen’s Camp is the best campsite in New Zealand!
