Day 6: Ahipara to Herekino Forest
Distance Covered: 16 km
We got to have an intimate tropical forest experience today. Not the seductive intimate experience with a nice dinner and a moonlit path, but a down and dirty, sloppy mudfest slash bush whack slog. The one statistic that tells the story is that we averaged about 1 km per hour for 5 km. That’s about .6 mph. Even when we were shuffling on the beach we were going faster.
Today started in town with a leisurely breakfast, sharing stories with our new friends and packing up. After some last minute online errands, we were off, walking away from comfort at about 10 AM. The first section was a 9 km road walk to the start of the trail.
Cars gave us plenty of room. I kind of enjoyed it after the beach. Even the steep parts were nice, I thought, as it gave us a chance to stretch our legs. It took us about two hours to get through it, so we had a good pace. And the start of the trail was a pleasantly shaded section that was a good place for lunch.
While we ate, we reviewed the notes for the upcoming section. It said the first km was steep. This was true as it was essentially a kilometer of stairs. We wound our way up and found a small opening where we could see 90 mile beach. That was cool to see the area that had already begun to feel like a long time ago.
Then the mud started. It began as a patch here and there. We could skirt around it with a little effort. Then the patches got bigger. Then the trail became less… managed. It became more of an area that someone had cut through with a machete. Then it steeply dropped and climbed without stairs. The mud here was creating perilous situations.
Emily and I both took big spills, even with our trekking poles and an abundance of caution. I thought I might have broken my collarbone after one of them as I felt my left shoulder slide into my chest then spring back. Emily slid a couple of meters with her right leg bent back. I was really concerned with how awkward it looked, but she immediately reported she was okay.
Along the way we saw some unbelievable trail. Incredibly steep and muddy that we could only get up because of a few roots and you could push your foot into the clay type mud. Then we used our trekking poles to stabilize. Going down was much the same. Very technical, very messy. We both think it’s likely the most difficult “trail” section we’ve ever seen. Locals have said that no one hikes this trail except for Te Araroa hikers who use it to get from Point A to Point B and it now seems abundantly clear why they would say it. Also, we fully agree. Also, pictures don’t do it justice. This one shows us at the bottom and needing to go up. The sun washes out the fern leaves that are blocking the trail ten feet up and doesn't show how thick the bushes are that we pushed through.
After 5 km or so we finally found an intersection with an old logging road. But first there was a 5-meter-wide mud pit filled with water and no way to get around it in the thick vegetation. It was like one more stab at making sure you really want to commit to days of this kind of stuff.
On the logging road we were able to make good progress, although it clearly hasn’t been used for a very long time and had its own share of mud pits. Emily got the worst of it on multiple occasions! She stepped in one shallow looking pool and promptly sank up to her knee.
We stopped to camp where the trail splits from the road to dive into the forest again. The sign says to expect 4 hours for the next 6 km so that tells us we are in for a rough morning. It has also begun raining so that should make the trail nice and fresh for us!
We did see some cool, old Kauri trees. We enjoyed that. And the young woman from Cyprus joined us at camp so that was fun. And, really, even though we wonder about this “trail” section, it is giving us a good taste of really being in the back country of New Zealand.