Day 10: Puketi Road to Kerikeri
Distance Covered: 36 km
Somehow, in spite of the admonitions to each other that we need to go easy in the beginning, we keep busting out the kilometers. We finished today in a mad rush which left us feeling wiped out and sore. But we started the day in the best of moods! We got up at 6:30 and enjoyed breakfast with Barb and Chris. Cereal, peaches, yogurt, toast, and honey from the farm. I got to try Marmite. (It was okay… apparently, I used way too much, though). Barb even folded our laundry. After saying thank you dozens of times, we were off from that little miracle of a farm. We started up the hill on a 11.5 km walk on a gravel road (called a metal road here) through farmland. It was quite stunning how green everything was, with the recent rain putting a glossy coat over it all.
As we were walking along, a little brown and white streak of something sprinted past me without a sound. It went between my leg and pole, circled back after a few meters, then we realized it was a small dog. It rolled over for attention, which we gladly supplied, then it started walking up the road. It would go a ways, glance back to check on us, then continue on. After a km, we began to worry about it getting too far from home (she had a tag) and firmly told her to stop and go home. She seemed to do just that.
So Emily and I traveled on. We missed a turn by a km, so had to backtrack. We took it in good humor and saw that it was quite easy to miss. From there it was an open trek across sheep paddocks. The wind was stiff, the pasture was green, the sheep were white. I thoroughly enjoyed this authentic New Zealand experience!
At the end of the 3 km of paddocks, I heard a mysterious voice coming from behind a wall of grass. It was from our Cyprus friend saying we had a problem… We peeked over the wall to find that the dog left us, found her, and proceeded to follow her in spite of her stern rebukes. Emily didn’t seem to mind so much…
Emily and Cyprus would both love to be traveling with a dog. It would be fun, but dogs are expressly forbidden on most parts of the trail. Plus, there was that tag… As we were talking about what to do (perhaps walking the 20+km to Kerikeri then finding the vet) the postman drove up. Cyprus asked him for help and he pulled out a phone book with the line to the council (kind of like a county). She called the generic number, the woman asked for the tag number, and told her that the dogs’ name was Pebbles. The woman said she would call the owner right away. Two minutes later, the owner called and arranged to pick up the dog. Such efficiency! One number, a helpful employee, and prompt response from the owner. Like magic.
The owner pulled up a couple of minutes later in his truck. He explained the dog belonged to his daughter, that she would be devastated to lose it, and that it had tried to join hikers before. It must have gotten loose and thirsted for adventure when it saw us. He then gave us a package he said his wife quickly made for us. It had money and chocolate chip cookies. We ate the cookies and gave the money back. It was a great side adventure and a little sad to watch them drive away while Pebbles looked at us and wagged her tail.
So onwards we went. 5 km down a road that had peacocks and turkeys, finding a sign at the end of it that said “TA Fruit” that had free oranges for hikers. Delicious. Then we went along a farmer’s road, checking out sheep, climbing a little hill, and then seeing the Pacific Ocean at the Bay of Islands. From there we wandered through paddocks, climbed over stiles, scattered sheep and edged by curious cattle. The sheep run well before you get close, the cattle give you a few meters and their full attention. No sudden movements!
By this time, we were feeling fatigued. The long road walk from yesterday wore on us and we still had 10 km or so to go. We wound down to a stream and followed it for a couple of km, skirting an electric fence before coming to our first wire bridge.
After the bridge, we three collapsed on the inviting grass. The women reported intense foot pain and elevated their feet while snacking and we planned the next step. The trail continted on for 6.5 km, but nobody wanted to go that far. It looked like a public campground might be a lot closer so we called and made plans when they said they had open sites. Off we went, stumbling a little bit as we warmed up.
The trail followed the Kerikeri river and I very much enjoyed it. It was everything you could hope for with sections of beautiful forests, open grasslands, and a waterfall or two…
The only problem in paradise was that the map wasn’t quite accurate… yes, we were close to the campground, but it was on the other side of the river and the bridge we thought would be there didn’t exist.
The short story is we ended up hiking the rest of the trail to get to a very nice campground very near the end. As it was late, we had to double time it to get to it before 8 PM when they stopped accepting new campers. We didn’t quite make it… we showed up at 8:30. They were gracious, though, and got us in. The Pagoda Lodge and Campground is the place to stay if you’re in Kerikeri!
It’s a shame we had to nearly sprint the last few km as it was one of my favorite sections so far. I told Emily that I’d love to come back someday and walk it together while holding hands.
Now the plan is to stay here at least one day, maybe two. We’ve shocked our bodies into having to make big changes and we need time for it to do so. We’ve both got pains of various forms. It’s a long trail and there’s no need to beat ourselves up racing through it.