Tag: Te Araroa

KiwiWalks

Northern Walkway 1

OJ

The Te Araroa Route between Johnsonville and the city centre is, for all intents and purposes, the Northern Walkway of Wellington City. Yes, it detours a little bit here and there, but it always goes back to the path, so that’s what I’m calling it. It seems simpler that way.

Anyway, I stumbled out from beneath the duvet at a very, embarrassingly late time today, after a late night marathon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I’ve a friend who’d never seen it before, can you believe it?). So late in fact that I didn’t get the whole walk done – not only was I late starting, but it was nearly all uphill and I am very slow going uphill – so I’ll finish off the NW when Wellington looks less like the gale-force nightmare it’s about to be tomorrow.

I took a trip up to the top of the cable car, where one of the start/end points of Te Araroa is. I was a little surprised to see that there’s more km to walk in the North Island than the South – I would have thought it was the other way around.

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I wandered down from here through the botanic gardens and into Thorndon, before hauling myself up Tinakori hill. It took a long, long time – I had to stop every few minutes. I must be more unfit than I thought, but consoled myself with the thought that after this, would be a teeny-tiny little bit less unfit. Also relieved my feelings by swearing at the hill for being so high. Of course it didn’t do a blind bit of good, but once I got to the ridge track along the top, the relatively flat track through the bush was lovely.

After wandering through Wadestown, I undid all the hard work I’d done on Tinakori by following the track down to the very bottom of Trelissick park, to the stream at the bottom of the Ngaio Gorge. This was a particularly pretty park – it acts as a wildlife corridor between the green belt and the sanctuary at Karori. Lots of people were out walking their dogs – I met the most cowardly dog on the planet there, a big black thing called Jess. It had to be dragged past me on the track by its owner – stared at me like it thought I would gut it. Was a little miffed, as animals generally like me, but was saved from thinking I’d suddenly turned into something demonic that scared furry critters by the simple fact that I met three more dogs over the next 15 minutes, and all were happy to see me. Scared one of the owners, though (by accident! was not my fault…).

I also saw a totally fearless tui, who sat a few metres in front of me and sang its little heart out – I stayed watching it for several minutes, as did some other people, and it was serenely unbothered.

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By this time, I was over walking for the day, and when I reached Ngaio station, and looked up to see Mt Kaukau squatting ahead like a great big lump, I decided that I was a bigger lump for not wanting to climb it and went home for the day. What can I say – there was more Buffy to watch.

KiwiWalks

Paramata to Porirua

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.

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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

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!

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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

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.

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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.

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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

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.