Day 39: Old Mountain Road to Mount Pirongia

Distance Covered: 25 km

One benefit of camping in a sketchy place is your extra motivation to get up early; we were packed and walking just after 6 AM. So awesome.

Also awesome is walking up a dirt road above the valley with views as the sun rises.

I have an old smartphone with its old camera and a sometimes grimy lens. It never does the scenery justice.

Also awesome is walking at the top of the hills with clouds drifting across. It felt like what we imagine walking in Ireland to be like. We loved it!

The descent from the hills was a little rough with rutted out slopes from hundreds of sheep.

And then we took a wonderful little forest track down to the road. We’re not sure how this little gem came to be, but out in the middle of nowhere is the kind of forest trail that makes you smile.
Then it was another big section of road walking. You already know how we feel about this so fast forwarding, we found ourselves at the base of the Mt. Pirongia climb. We ate lunch and reviewed the trail. It was about 8.5 km to the top of the 1,000 meter peak and was expected to take hikers about 4-5 hours. Since it’s around 2 km per hour, we knew to expect rough trail. Okay. Bring it on.

Away we went, absolutely cruising through spectacular track. Wide, dry, scenic forest trail let us breathe and enjoy things. We passed a DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite area that had big grassy areas, pit toilets, and trash. We want more of that! But we were headed up.

The first 5 km were great. We did it in less than two hours and felt like we would beat the average time significantly with just 3 km to go in two hours. I think you have to appreciate our naive optimism at this point. Of course the trail fell apart. Of course it became a muddy, overgrown mess. Of course we not only didn’t beat the time, but it took us a little longer. (We did beat the upper estimate, though.) The mud and track was a lot like Herekino in the Northland forest with steep ascents in mud. Not as bad as Raetea, but getting close.

However, as the trail merged with trails from other directions it became nicer and nicer. (Made us wonder what the other trails were like.) Then, at the top, was the lookout. It was a really great scene all around.

Also at the top was a DOC hut. Two, actually, with lots of groomed campsites. The larger hut, in particular, was astounding with 20 bunks, a nice eating area, a kitchen, and water coming from a rain collection system. And all for $5 a person. Astounding.

We shared it with three other TA hikers, a French couple and a German, and had lots of room. We made dinner, chatted with our new friends and headed to bed. Tomorrow we head down the mountain and head in the direction of the famous Waitomo glow worm caves.