“Hiking side effects include sweating, euphoria and general awesomeness.”
17km. The camp is still shrouded in mist as I wake up in another campground where I’m the only camper. This early season walking is quite a lonely undertaking! I take my time getting up and enjoy a hot shower and big bowl of porridge for breakfast. I pack up my tent, the fly still dripping wet from the mist. The sun finally breaks through so I switch my leggings for shorts. It looks like it’s going to be a nice day!
Gabrielle arrives to check me in. She has made me an excellent coffee! Gabrielle says they shut the gate to keep the wild horses out but that it shouldn’t have been locked. She is expecting a quiet summer due to the covid lockdown in Auckland. We chat a while longer but time is marching on and I really need to get going. I thank Gabrielle for the coffee, pay $20 for my tent site and walk back down the road to the beach. I find out later that there is a shortcut across the dunes. Why did I not know about that? I wish Gabrielle had thought to mention it.
I took an Ibuprofen tablet earlier for my painful left shin but it is still really sore so I take another plus a paracetamol tablet before I start walking. It’s still painful when I stop after for morning tea after walking 4.5km. I find a nice big log to lean against. Logs are rare on this beach and there’s no driftwood either. I take off my shoes and go for a paddle to cool my feet and soothe my shin. It works a treat and then the medication kicks in so the next 5km is rather pleasant walking.
The view doesn’t change much all day – just mile after mile of sand and sea. To pass the time and help my motivation I pick a certain curve of the dunes some distance ahead and keep walking until I reach it. Sometimes I try to guess how many steps it will take me to get there and then I count my steps. It’s always way more steps than I think. I pick out a lunch spot but before I get there a car pulls up at the exact spot I had selected to walk to and out jumps a family with their picnic lunch. No worries as there’s plenty of space on this beach. I eat a peanut butter wrap for lunch and take off my shoes again. The tide is right out by now so I don’t go paddling again. I don’t speak to anyone on the beach today although I wave at every vehicle that drives past. Most wave back or toot their horn.
The exit off the beach to Waipapakauri is easy to find as I see several cars drive in and out. There are some very nice houses just behind the dunes. I phoned the campground here several times this morning but there was no answer or any way to leave a message. I hope it’s open. I see a sign pointing to ‘Beachfront Accommodation’ down a side road so I go and check it out. It has a ‘No Vacancy’ sign at the gate. Then I remember that it’s school holidays. I walk back up the main road and find Ngapae Holiday Park. It is open although not very busy. I wander around inside the main building and finally come across the manager, Sandra. She shows me a couple of areas where I can put up my tent. There are no other tents here tonight, just three campervans and several occupied cabins.
As I unpack my tent a distinguished looking Māori man with a stick comes over to talk to me. His name is Ronny. He is wearing a 28th Māori Battalion shirt and tells me a story about soldiers from the Māori Battalion getting into Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest at the end of the war, pissing on the bed and shooting holes in a flag which they took as a ‘receipt’ for all the killing. Ronny wants to know why I am here and I explain that I’m walking Te Araroa. I also tell him that my great great grandmother was from Northland and I’m hoping to find out my about my heritage. Ronny becomes quite spiritual and tells me about the ancestors being part of the land, their voices in the wind. He has an amazing voice and his story telling is quite mesmerising. Reflecting on the interaction afterwards I had the feeling of being at the theatre. And I also felt I had been given a warm and hearty welcome to this special place.
You have to pay for the showers here but Sandra tells me to use the Accessible (Disabled) shower which is just as well as I don’t have any coins. I make myself some dinner and am joined by Frank who is Sandra’s grandfather. He has come to visit his granddaughter and to look at a portable home to buy. Another older gentleman, Luke, turns up and Frank offers him a beer. I eat my dinner and listen to their stories. Luke tells the story of the wreck of the Elingamite on the Three Kings Islands (off Cape Reinga) in 1902. He says it was lucky that his grandfather (arriving from Yugoslavia) could swim otherwise he wouldn’t be here today. Frank talks about growing up in the Hokianga and about the Chinese who came and learnt to speak Māori.
I manage to get the wifi code from one of the cabin occupants and spend the rest of the evening writing posts on Facebook and uploading photos. It takes all evening as I’m also listening to Luke tell me about his life – about farming and rounding up bulls, playing rugby and winning wood chopping competitions, how his wife of 41 years left him and how he had to give his 14-year-old cat to the SPCA. He tells me of his love of music and singing and then switches to a music channel on TV and begins singing along as he knows many of the songs. Luke has a really good voice and is very entertaining. When I tell him so he says he is too shy to sing in public. I tell him that he should definitely share his talent, that others would appreciate it. I hope he does.
