Day 22: Mangawhai Heads to Pakiri

Distance Covered: 29 km

Ah, road walking. So unforgiving on already weary feet. Today began with 12 km of it. 

We walked along through town, over bridges, beside traffic, and then through farmland and a pine forest before arriving at the beach. 

There were some highlights. We stopped at a store to buy “delicious things” like cookies and candy. Then a bakery for more “delicious things” like turnovers and sandwiches. And we found a public bathroom that talks to you and plays music for you. That was pretty cool and had us laughing.

At the beach, we saw people head for the water then come out of the water. It’s pretty cold still, kind of like refrigerated water. And windy. One guy asked us what was up with all the hikers so it was fun to explain. He seemed genuinely interested in learning more when he got home.

1 km down the beach was the first river crossing. The notes said it could be thigh deep. I’d say that was accurate. We searched around for the best site, which wasn’t necessarily the shallowest, but the most consistent in depth and speed. We packed all our gear up higher and waterproofed as well as possible. Then in we went for 40 meters of chilling and sandy water. Our Cyprus friend joined us for safety in numbers.

At first, the cold water felt good on our pavement pounded feet. But the longer we stayed in the more the pain built. All the vessels constricting on swollen feet sent waves of internal foot pain coursing around. Yikes. We stumbled around like we needed walkers until the blood started flowing freely again. Fortunately, our pants dry fast and our shoes do too so sand removal wasn’t too bad.

Next up was Te Ari point, a scenic rock projection and recreational area. Horses walked down the beach and we talked about how fun that would be. The trail over the point was confusing, though, with no signs anywhere and trails branching off in every direction. You'd think it would be simple enough to just head towards the beach, but trails would start that way before curving back. Through the GPS, we were finally able to navigate the maze, albeit with a few false starts. Then back on the beach for 12 km of beach walking.

Headphones in, the walking wasn’t too bad. Even with foot pain, once we get going in a straight line, the pain level is low. (You just can’t stop then start again, even for 20 seconds.) If you listen to a podcast and get wrapped up in the story, time and distance seem to just fly by.

We stopped for a break just before the second crossing and waited for our Cyprus friend. Doesn’t look too bad in the picture. This shallow angle, though, hides that the water is at least eight feet deep in some areas.

She showed up and we talked loudly over the wind. The water looked much deeper here. We saw a truck with an engine air intake pipe to the roof roar down the beach and approach the river like they were going to power through it. They drove up and down the river shore, gunning their engine, but turned around after a few minutes and retreated back up the beach. I went upstream a little bit myself looking for a better crossing point with low success as a bird sanctuary prevented much exploration in that direction. Cyprus went to the mouth and found a shallow sand bar for most of the distance. With no other option (everything else looked a couple meters high) we went for it.

The sand bar was knee deep in water and stretched out into the sea a little bit. But the deepest part of the river had cut a channel into it that was pretty deep. Hmm… Further we went along the bar and thus further into the ocean. We found ourselves paralleling the beach and the sandbar was fading. Our Cyprus friend was in front and she decided to make a break for the shore. She timed the waves and bridged the gap about waist high. Emily and I went to time it, but the wave we were going to follow in ended up being a big one. I blocked some of it for Emily, getting drenched to about my chest, and she got hit to above her waist. We made it across quickly after that.

It was fun, really. It’s not every day you walk into the Pacific Ocean with a full pack on and slosh around looking for safe passage. The foot pain was rough and sand was everywhere, but those are temporary problems.

Then more beach walking and podcasts. Then, right before the end of the beach, with 100 meters or less to go and everything dry, another river. This one was shallow, though, and only came up to our shins. Whew!

Camping at the Holiday park was just a few hundred meters up the road. $18 per person and no free WiFi or showers. The closer we get to Auckland the more expensive things are getting. One hiker going the other way said that one campground near Auckland is $30 per person to camp! It will be good to get through this more densely populated region and back to affordable wilderness camping.

Tomorrow we are going to take a day off. It’s (surprisingly) been 10 days since out last day off. Both of us have problems of different sorts… I can’t feel two of my toes and have more internal foot pain while Emily’s legs are feeling very fatigued and she keeps getting new blisters. It’s tough to watch our hiking buddies go on, but we have a long ways to go yet and should be conservative. It’s about 120 km to Auckland and we’ll take another rest day there.