Lots of vin yards to see along this section but on the whole not a super exciting detour :) Although we did get a bit short of water in the hot hot sun. Spotting a lady up a ladder pruning a tree, I nipped back to cheekily ask if we could ‘borrow’ a bit of water from her rain tank. Christine Morris turned out to be a bubbly girl who was in the middle of reconstructing and restoring an amazing kauri tree log cabin! Very envious indeed :) Gladly she filled our pouch with water to take us up and over the hill. And furnished us with her last two home-cooked shortbread biscuits ( which were absolutely awesome by the way! :) ), so thank you Christine! You saved us! :D
I’m ashamed to say we took a bit of a shortcut today.. Felt a bit weird heading north from Matamuka back onto the official route that curves around Warkworth, so we cut straight through town and out the other side.
On the upside it saved us about a days walking, also Warkworth was really nice, with a very pretty little town centre.
I like Warkworth back here in the uk. It has a castle at the top of the hill and a hermitage by the riverside. Many Sundayschool trips there. Good fun on the river hiring a boat.
Aaah, you missed out on the Dome Forest Track! That was a good one :p