Hamilton to Te Kuiti

• Start: 08:00 @ km 760
• End: 20:15 @ km 798
• Hiked: 38 km

We still had to do our resupply grocery shopping, because the shops were closed the day before (due to the Christmas holidays). So we started our day as soon as the first Countdown supermarket opened at 7 am. All the shopping was fairly done quite quickly; only the hunt for a new little gas canister for our cooking turned out to be difficult. The supermarkets and also three fuel stations that we checked did not have it.

The trail started with some road walking out of Hamilton and to Whatawhata. In the fuel station, we finally found the gas canister and could stop worrying about only having cold food for the next section. After having a break in Whatawhata we continued along the Waipa River Track, mostly on small back country roads and over some farms. On one of the fields the young bulls were a little bit more interested in us than we felt comfortable with. They followed us over the paddock and pushed each other to get closer to us, which felt a little intimidating. We were happy once we could leave over a stile and be safe behind the fence. (Mathias wrote this section and has completely downplayed how freaked out Leah was... and Julia... but Leah more. He stepped it up and tried to make us feel more at ease. He also went last, so was closest to the bulls. Thanks, Mathias!)

At the end of the day we arrived at a little campsite right next to a stream where the girls were already waiting for us. This would be a good starting point for climbing Pirongia Summit on the next day.

• Start: 7:15 @ km 798
• End: 20:15 @ km 823.5
• Hiked: 22.5 km

After getting ready and filtering water at the river, the trail started with some easy walking through the forest. During this stretch we missed the 800 km mark and taking our traditional picture. We decided to instead do a 802 km picture, because we wanted to be accurate, but also didn't want to walk back.

The accent to the 959m high Pirongia Summit was not as steep as expected and was quite fun, because the path changed a lot and as times it was so overgrown that you couldn't even see your feet or where you stepped. On the way up and from the summit we had beautiful views, which do not seem to be typical, as the mountain is apparently more often than not in thick clouds. The last bit before the summit was basically rock climbing - we had to use our hands and feet to get over some big bolders. Leah obviously loved it.

We had a long break at the summit hut together with Julia + Sarah, a french mountain guide with his friend and two Swiss brothers and used the time to dry our tent. We would have loved to stay at the hut as it was really beautiful and cozy inside with a nice view (and even some games inside), but it was too early to call it a day, so we started the descent over a boardwalk.

After the short boardwalk section to the next peak, the boardwalk disappeared and the downhill went mostly through pretty bad, slippery mud. It was not fun. After slipping once, Mathias walked looking at where to place his feet so carefully, that he didn't see a thick branch and walked with his head right into it - Plonk! He was not feeling it and only held it together because Leah was in an even worse state, having a little meltdown as the muddy mountain didn't want to end. Finally we made it down, had a little cry and rest and finished the day with some road walking to the lovely place of trail angels Casey and Jon where we pitched our tents for the night. Casey even made a colorful salad for us with lots of flowers and a very tasty dressing.

• Start: 8:50 @ km 823.5
• End: 19:50 @ km 854
• Hiked: 30.5 km

It had rained through the night and the tent was wet, cold and heavy when packed. We had a slow start with coffee and granola in the courtyard. 

The section today started with quite some road walking along country roads with almost no traffic. So it wasn’t too bad. We where in front of the girls until we got lost in the forest after some confusion because map and trail notes were wrong. We should have read the comments on Guthook. So there is always a lot of information, but sometimes at too may different sources to read it all. After walking in circles twice and finding our way through some thick bush, we found the right way and continued. We lost the lead though. 

The track continued over some nice farm and forest tracks over lush hills with lots of sheep. It had a lot of up and down but was also very beautiful. 

We were happy to find that some farmer put a tap out for drinking water for hikers. Mathias didn’t expect it to have the pressure of a fire hose though and got a free face wash / shower when trying to fill up the bottles. Leah could not stop laughing. We wish showers would have that pressure sometimes. 

The track turned into forest paths again and we had more of the usual: small river crossings, drying the tent. At the end the trail switched back and forth between parts that were also used for horse riding and pretty uneven and slick clay and some parts that were the perfect, soft, even forest ground that we love.

In Waitomo, which is famous for its glow worm caves, we stayed at the Auckland Caver’s hut and were allowed to stay in little bunk rooms for the same cheap price as camping because outside it smelled like rotting dead animals, because the neighbors seems to have dumped some dead possums close by. We met Pete who looks after the hut and also - like is son - after parts of the trail. And later at night we also saw Yoni and Noah again who had done a glow worm tour and thus stayed a little longer. We won’t have time to do one now, but hope to do this after we finished the trail. 

• Start: 9:50ish @ km 854
• End: 15:30ish @ km 871
• Hiked: 17 km

Last night was challenging. It started nice. The Auckland Caver‘s hut had normal bunk beds, but also double bunk beds, probably 1.20m wide, that allowed us to connect our sleeping bags and snuggle up. But Mathias knee was hurting and waking him up in the middle of the night. And Mathias moving woke up Leah as a consequence. Half asleep we both were irritable and soon having a big discussion about whether to keep the sleeping bags connected or not... Well, at some point we slept again and the Ibuprofen did it’s job. 

In the Morning we got up and walked into Waitomo town to the only cafe that was open that early, had mediocre breakfast there and did some planning for the upcoming section after Te Kuiti. We saw another TA hiker from Korea that we already heard about. He was wearing a shirt that he had stitched an orange triangle (the typical TA trail marker) on and soon also the girls came in for a coffee and gifted us an apple. They are probably worried about our diet. 😉

We left the cafe and walked a little together, first up and down some hills which seemed easier than expected - as always at the end of a section the backpacks are quite light because of the almost empty food reserves. At some point we lost the girls as they took a break and later the hitched a little part that was supposedly badly marked and hard to find.

The rest of the day for us was more of the up and down through farmland and finally over a steep hill into Brook Park hat lead us into Te Kuiti - as we learned - the shearing capital of the world! We are honored. We had a food break at Bosco Cafe. Leah had a veggie breakfast and Mathias got a Burger that even with trail hunger was almost impossible to finish.

With full stomachs, we went to restock our groceries and on the way got offered some free strawberries... perfect dessert. Did we mention, that people here are awesome? The girls had organized camping at a nice backpacker on top of the hill and the owner picked us up from the grocery store. He said, that he had to start picking people up, because TA hikers were not willing to climb an additional hill at the end of the day. It was really steep and high up. That gave us a nice view over the town. And they catered perfectly for us hikers: free towels (awesome, because packing a wet microfiber towel is no fun), shower gel, nice kitchen and even clothes you can wear, while you do laundry, so that you can wash everything you have. Thanks 😍