Te Araroa

Streams, Ferries, Beaches and a Tsunami Freak-out

We stayed a night at a caravan park in Paihia. It was expensive for not much but I did get to have a nice, hot shower. We resupplied at the big Countdown there. I was going to walk the kilometre there with Mum and Dad but Bruce, a local trail angel, gave the three of us a lift! He also gave us a quick tour of the town.

Mixing up a mega batch of sesame snaps. We’ll, not snaps exactly as it’s really thick and you have to eat it with a spoon.

If you want to learn how to make them I’ve written the recipe here.

We did meet Matic and Zala from Slovenia there. They were soon our new best friends and we spent hours talking to them.

River walking is slow but really enjoyable. And it’s so beautiful. I kept tripping over because I was looking around instead of where I was going!

Look how clean my shoes were after a few hours of walking in knee-deep water!

Not exactly welcoming…

Endless stiles! They really cause a bottleneck when there’s seven of you trying to get over them.

We got a small chuck of easy walking! It was so lovely and easy.

We went past Rainbow Falls.

On the ferry to get across the Veronica Channel.

My dad is obsessed with cows, or in this case, bulls. You have no idea how many photos of cows he takes!

300 km, that’s a tenth of the way! Now we only have to do this nine more times…

It was hot and muggy and the water looked so tempting.

Holli filtering water to cook our dinner in

We stayed the Night at Sandy Bay Camping Area.

In the middle of the night I was woken up by Holli coming into my tent and rummaging around in my bag. She was all freaked out and trying to find my iPod so she could listen to the radio. She and Asha had heard a siren and we were in a tsunami area.

It turned out to be nothing, thank goodness, but it took me a while to go to sleep again after that!

We stopped at Tane Moana, A giant Kauri tree. I spent ages trying to fit it into the camera but it was so big so this is the best I could do.

It really helps to remind you why you’re cleaning your shoes at all of the cleaning stations to help prevent the spread of Kauri Dieback.

Yet another cleaning station.

Coming into Ngunguru we all liked this fire truck sign.

I am already noticing changes in myself. I can now walk up big hills without stopping to rest. We’ll, not the short bit that had 853 stairs in it (it’s not like Asha counted or anything). I had to take lots of rests on that. But I’m definitely getting stronger.

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