KiwiWalks

Paramata to Porirua

18/03/201027/07/2013 OJ

Just a quick walk today, to finish off the Te Araroa section I partly did last Thursday. It only took an hour or so to wander down from Paramata station, through the park at Aotea lagoon, through Gear homestead, which is open to the public, and down the road to Porirua station. I got a picture of the homestead, but that’s all there is to write about really – just tidying this section off.

Best part of the walk was seeing all the nice fat geese at the Aotea Lagoon. There’s just something about a goose – something so sleek and attractive… I love watching them, and not in a Tiny Tim, slavering for my dinner sort of way. Which is odd, as despite my vegetarianism a lovely waddling goose makes me think of Christmas. I get the urge to shove an orange in their beaks…

KiwiWalks

Feilding to Palmerston North

14/03/201027/07/2013 OJ

I didn’t get a very good look at Feilding while I was there, as I preferred to medicate my poor blistered feet with large quantities of wine. Went to bed very happy.

Next day it was past stok yards that were once the largest in the southern hemisphere, then there was a couple of hours road walking to little Bunnythorpe – cute name for a dinky little village. On the way, I met two of my Te Araroa friends from the maintenance team yesterday. They were biking from Bunnythorpe to Feilding and back again, so we stopped to compare notes – I let them know about the stile that needed building over the electric fence on the farm route yesterday, and they promised to let their construction team know.

It’s not a terribly interesting road to Bunnythorpe, although I did see a very old fashioned engine chugging along quite slowly, belching smoke and pulling a cart. Had to take a photo and wave at the drivers – you don’t see this sort of thing round much any more!

Stopped for an ice-block in the Bunny Village; saw no rabbits but had a fun chat with three small boys who were agog with amazement that I had walked all the way from Feilding (actually only a couple of hours away but then my legs are much longer than theirs are). They’d heard of Te Araroa though, so that was nice. Word’s getting out. Unfortunately, the pub was shut and so I continued on my way.

It was a stinking hot day to walk another 9 km into Palmerston North, but it was enlivened by a small detour through another farm (this one with very well made stiles over its electric fences). Particularly amusing was one miniature horse, completely adorable, who followed me around, snuggling for cuddles. I was quite sad about leaving her behind, but had to admit they probably wouldn’t have let me sneak her on the bus back to Wellington, so she’s there to make the next tramper happy.

The most interesting thing about this section of the walk is slowly getting closer to the enormous wind farms on the hills above Palmerston North. I approve of wind farms, very much – I know some people hate the way that they look but to me they’re beautiful as well as ecologically friendly.

Technically, once the Te Araroa tramper arrives in Palmerston North, they continue on with a riverside walk through the city, but I was completely overheated and sore-footed by this time, so gave it a miss in preference to catching a ride into the city centre and looking for something icy cold to drink. (The creepy, deserted Stepford suburb of Kelvin Grove, into which I arrived and wandered through for a good hour looking for sustenance, appeared to have no shops or service stations at all. The only possible explanation is that they’re robots and don’t need nourishment.) Hey, as far as I’m concerned I’ve walked to Palmerston North. That last little river section can wait until the next time I’m here.

Bus back to Wellington tonight.

KiwiWalks

Bulls Bridge to Feilding Summer Route

13/03/201027/07/2013 OJ

I went for a little walk this weekend, looking to knock off a bit more of Te Araroa. I thought today I’d take the bus from Wellington to Bulls (about two hours away) and walk from there to Feilding. (On the trip up, I discovered why the Flax Pathway is so called – after I left it to trek over Taua Tapu last Thursday, I missed the part of the path whereon there was a veritable explosion of flax, and very nice it looked too. I love flax bushes, they always remind me of home here in NZ.)

Bulls, where milk comes from in a very old joke round those parts, has reinvented its small farming town self as the home of puns. Everything has a bull painted on it and a pun – for example, the police station which is ConstaBull. Yes, I know, but I’m easily amused. Take a look at the town signpost.

Heading out of Bulls I crossed over the Rangitikei River, the big waterway in this part of the world. The track then looped around to cut through private farmland along the river bank – much more interesting than road walking. This is known as the summer route because the farmer closes access to the farm off in winter, which of course they have every right to – it’s very good of them to accommodate us trampers in the first place. The track was rather overgrown in some areas, but I encountered in a timely fashion a group of four Te Araroa volunteers, who had given up their Saturday to come help clear it out again. We had a nice chat, and I continued on my way – the bits not yet cleared were a little confusing but common sense helped me to keep finding markers. A very pretty walk by the river, complete with what looked like a rusting old caravan in the middle of nowhere.

Unfortunately, ran into an electric fence along the way. Now I can’t say that it’s ever been an ambition of mine to find out what an electric fence feels like, but now I know – unpleasant, but not as bad as the time I accidentally stuck my finger in a light socket.

Now this is where I got a bit naughty – sorry, farmers. By some oversight, the trail led over an electric fence. Nope, I thought to myself, not again, so I cut across the fields, going quite severely off-track and making my way through fields full of cows. Luckily, animals don’t bother me. Sorry, TA people, but no way was I trying that fence more than once (did try it, briefly, got another shock, swore, and gave up).

After this excitement it was a long afternoon’s road walk to Feilding, another small farming town. I have to say, though, that the Manawatu people were some of the friendliest I’ve met on the trail thus far: so a big thanks to the four volunteers who gave me a round of applause for attempting the track; the lady who leapt out of her shower when she saw me looking a little puzzled after the lengthy electric fence detour, and dripping, ushered me into her kitchen and gave me directions, topped up my water bottle, and refused to let me leave without an enormous slice of homemade carrot cake (yum!); the gentleman at Mount Biggs school who offered to let me use the facilities and get more water; and the lady in Feilding who couldn’t give me accommodation (she was full up) but rang round until she found me somewhere to stay. Lovely people, all.

KiwiWalks

Pukerua Bay to Paramata

11/03/201027/07/2013 OJ

Alas, there are no pictures to go with this, because I stepped off the train at Muri station, the start of this section of Te Araroa, only to discover that the battery in my camera was dead.

I’ve recently moved to Wellington, and will be here for the next few months at least, so decided – as it was a nice day – to go for a walk. I was grateful to see that, after a short time, I was to veer away from the horrible State Highway 1 (not particularly nice for walking) and onto Araharakeke (the Flax Pathway, used as a combined walk and cycle way). This, admittedly, goes alongside the motorway but although you can still hear it, the ugly thing is out of sight. I’m guessing that Araharakeke is relatively new, because the flax bushes planted along it were still quite small. There was more gorse and blackberry around than anything else! (Not that I minded the blackberry, as the fruits were out and ripe so of course I stuffed myself.) Still, it’s obvious that a lot of effort has gone into it and a few years from now I’m sure the flax will look lovely.

After a while I left the Flax Pathway to do a bit of cross country over the hills, along the Taua Tapu track. Cutting through what is now farmland, Taua Tapu follows an old Maori route over the hills down into Plimmerton. There were amazing views from the top, where I suddenly realised that I had a spare camera battery on me! Great excitement, until I discovered it too was flat. (They’re both charging now.) I went down over 300 steps, down a delightful little bush reserve track into the seaside village of Plimmerton, and walked along the coast to Paramata.

Now technically this section of Te Araroa finishes a bit further on at Porirua, but a sudden, nasty southerly (Wellington at work) descended, just as my flatmate rang and asked if I wanted to go to the movies. It was no contest – I skittered out of the rain to the train station, and zipped my way back into the city. Can finish it off later.

KiwiWalks

Hamilton City Traverse

13/01/201027/07/2013 OJ

I’m in Cambridge at the moment, working at a summer job – oh, the delight. But I got today off and so went and did another section of Te Araroa – the Hamilton City Traverse. To be difficult, I did it all topsy-turvy.

I started at the Taitua arboretum – a gorgeous wee place that I’d not seen or heard of before, and what a nice surprise it was. I’d definitely go there again. The place was full of birds, especially chickens. The arboretum is built around farm land, and there are two paddocks in the middle of it, so the arboretum and the farm are merged. Anyway, at several strategic points around the paths (and I spent an hour circling the place, because it was early and I had heaps of time and it was just too pretty to miss) there are chicken coops. The fat friendly chooks obviously expect human=food, and so I ended up trailing chickens, looking like a demented Pied Piper. Alas, the chooks were disappointed. There were also lots of pukeko: a native bird about the size of a chook, with truly enormous feet.

After leaving the arboretum I made my way to Till’s lookout, and then into Hamilton city centre. Here I stopped to have lunch and go to the movies. I saw The Lovely Bones, and lovely it was too. Then I took the bus out to Pukete – the other end of the HCT, and walked back to meet myself in the middle (city centre) of the walk again.

The track from Pukete was all along the Waikato river; it was very well done, although my feet were getting tired of pounding pavement by the time I’d finished. Still, I took the time to end the day on a short detour, to see the Riff Raff statue. Richard O’Brien, creator of and actor in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, spent (or misspent) his youth watching B horror films in Hamilton, and I love that they’ve commemorated this with a statue of an alien transvestite (along with instructions for doing the Time Warp).

It’s just a jump to the left…