North Island - last words

On one of those days when we were trudging along a road with nothing better to do, we compiled a list of all the types of accommodation we had stayed in during this journey:

Tent, cabin, holiday home, motel, hotel, hostel, gypsy caravan, caravan, beneath a beach bach balcony, friend’s house, family’s house, lodge, DOC hut, convent, scout camp and woolshed. Never under the stars – maybe the South Island will lend itself to this.

I stumbled upon this peculiarly apt quote by Suzanne Aubert when we were staying at the convent in Jerusalem on the Wanganui River:

        “Life is a journey by road
        On the way we travel the dust is thick and the shade is scarce
        Let us know how to select the best place to halt,
        To bathe our eyes
        To shake off the dust that covers us
        And to wash our sore feet”

And I thought this was perfect for the day toiling over Colonial Knob:

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass;

it's about learning to dance in the rain."

So that’s the North Island, Cape Reinga to the south coast of Wellington. Have we really walked all that way? It seems unreal.

We couldn’t have got this far without those angels who helped us along the way – you were all absolutely brilliant and it has been awesome to have you share in our journey. Thank you each and every one of you.

On to the South Island we go in January. Until then, take care and follow your dreams.

Homeward Stretch

Scrambled home-grown free range eggs for breakfast! Ah me, just wonderful. Rob decided we had some km credits, having earlier walked all the way into Levin – so our wonderful hosts Kev and Linda kindly dropped us down at the Waikanae supermarket for resupply. 

Raumati Beach (photo - Helen Griffiths)

The trail from here was a delight; along the pretty Waikanae River, through the Otaihanga Reserve, past some houses and onto Paraparaumu Beach. Tony and Helen Griffiths from our tramping club, The Kaumatuas, met us and for the first time on this section we had someone to walk with for a while. They took us to their charming home, where we chatted away, drank many cups of tea and ate indecent amounts of delicious home-baked muffins and ginger biscuits (we seem to have developed insatiable appetites). Tony and Helen joined us again for a short while as we headed south, then it was time to say goodbye and as it was getting late and the wind was cold we stepped up the pace a bit. We enjoyed the beach walking, and the up-and-down coastal walkway through Queen Elizabeth Park and so on to Paekakariki Holiday Park for the night. It didn’t rain on us today; that must be a first.

It was kind of fun to walk down State Highway 1 along the Centennial Highway next day – I’d always wanted to, it’s such a brilliant rocky coastline and the tide was high with the waves crashing against the sea wall in places. The footpath was adequate and actually the traffic wasn’t too bad. Then it was down on to the beach past the baches at Pukerua Bay, up the appropriately named Goat Track, along the Ara Harakeke Walkway, up the Taua Tapu track, then down 300 steps into Plimmerton where we gratefully slid into the Big Salami café for lunch.

On we went, over bridges, around the Aotea Lagoon complex (a revelation), through the lovely Gear Homestead grounds and past the astounding Adrenalin Forest. We’d never seen anything like it – massively tall pine trees with a sort of high wire adventure playground winding through it. People were up there, hooked on to wires with carabineers and climbing along ropes and on to skinny platforms – they’re crazy!

On to Porirua where we bought an obscene amount of food and promptly lost ourselves in a carpark building while we were trying to find our way out of the shopping complex. We had to carry all this extra weight up to Elsdon Camp where we had the entire 26 room lodge to ourselves – almost spooky. We couldn’t even eat all the Snickers bars we’d bought – that’ll teach us to be so greedy.

Stunning panoramic view from Colonial Knob

Our penultimate day turned out to be
one of the hardest. First there were the never-ending steps of despair climbing towards Colonial Knob – renamed Coronary Knob by Rob – then it started to rain, and as we climbed higher ferocious winds from hell battered us while the mists of doom swirled menacingly around us, hiding the marker poles. We were later told the wind gusts were over 100 km an hour – and we believed it, I got completely knocked off my feet twice, and had to hang on to Rob or handfuls of tussock for dear life.


Things didn’t improve as we climbed the Old Coach Road to Mount Kaukau, where the huge TV mast was all but invisible and the wind tearing through it was as loud as a jumbo jet engine. I got blown off my feet again; it was insane up there and we decided to bypass the Skyline Walkway and detour through Khandallah instead. A wise decision especially as we had the chance to drop into Café Villa in Johnsonville for a hot drink and a chat with the owner, Warren. It was a bit embarrassing as we created pools of water all over the floor as we sat there dripping wet. Our misery wasn’t over though - we had to head back out into the rain – the track followed the Kaiwharawhara stream and then we had to climb up arguably the steepest street in Wellington to the Town Belt, where the track wound around the hillside forever. There was a vague sense of wonder when we spied the Stadium, and realised we had actually made it to Wellington.

Our friend’s Nick and Lisbeth restored our spirits with their wonderful hospitality, and we enjoyed staying with them in their lovely home full of fascinating treasures and intriguing books.

We had the pleasure of Lisbeth’s company for the start of our walk on our last day until she had to detour to work - it's alright for some. We had to carry on along the City to Sea Walkway, which drove Rob crazy. He thought the trail should take walkers along the wonderful Wellington waterfront. I guess he had a point, but it was interesting discovering all the parks and pathways and patches of forest scattered throughout the city.


By the time we got to Berhamphore he was in a total grump – a sore knee didn’t help – so to cheer him up we detoured to our favourite chocolate shop, L’affaire au Chocolat, where the owner, lovely Jo Coffey, shouted us her delicious hot chocolate.

I managed to persuade Rob to rejoin the trail for the last haul to Island Bay - he wanted to walk straight down the road - but sloshing through a boggy golf course and climbing yet another steep hill plunged him back into muttering gloom! However, when we saw the final destination below us and we realised we’d made it, a slow smile crept over his face....

It was a moment of quiet triumph when we saw the Te Araroa Trail plaque marking the end of the North Island – we high-fived and jumped on a bus for home.

Day 21: Waikanae to Paekakariki Holiday Park. 22.5 km
Day 22: Paekakariki to Elsdon Camp, Porirua. 28.4 km
Day 23: Elsdon Camp to Tinakori Road. 29.7 km
Day 24: Tinakori Road to Island Bay. 14.5 km