There’s something special about waking up to the burble of a stream near your tent. A primitive ‘human in nature’ feeling.
Today we found ourselves hauling uphill through lovely bush on a wide trail to start with. A sign marked the nominal site of ‘half way there’. 1500+km from the top of NZ, and the same to the bottom. Makes you want to sing the Bon Jovi anthem!
We pressed on, and were surprised to find a whare shelter with carved panels, including the Te Araroa emblem. This area is known as Moturimu, whereby an area of rimu were felled and milled. Now the dominant tree is pine.
After a cook up feed of soup and noodles, taking time to ponder the whare structure, we headed onwards along the forestry road. Bad mistake. We never checked direction and signage. Almost 2k Karl noticed we were well and truly off the trail. There was no way to correct this error as it was a dead end road. A 30 minute grumpy with ourselves return walk and we were back at the whare. A sign on a pole clearly pointed the way we should have gone. Mistakes.
We encountered a few narrow passes across slips. The drop from these a good 20 metres to the rocky river. Some were crumbly under your feet. You felt the small stones trying to roll. All you could do was to use any vegetation nearby to hold onto, and get past these difficult spots.Thankfully we did.
We stopped for a rest at a site to which James Burtton pioneered from 1908 - 1941. As the story transpires, James lived in the bush alone and worked on trails that created access to farmland. He constructed a swingbridge for access across a river. However, in the March of 1941 he fell 8 metres from the swingbridge and landed on rocks below. He broke his leg and had other internal injuries. He managed to get help 12 hours away and was hospitalised, only to pass away from his injuries. Sad, but true.
While Karl rested, I tried to capture close-up photos of nature.
Onwards again. Then, just as you thought the valley trail would go on forever, a large silver tin shelter emerged.
Karl pushed on the shelter door. A rustle of sleeping bags and quietly spoken voices called out ‘hello’.
Kathy and Ivet were also southbound walkers. They were in ‘rest mode’ after their walk from Moturimu shelter this morning . We exchanged stories about how the trail had treated us so far. We left them to the shelter and pitched our tent on flat ground out the back.
Before the days light faded completely, we foraged for nearby blackberries and placed them in a ziplock plastic bag, ready to go with our morning feed of Weetbix.
At days end we had walked 28k. Which included 4km of ‘mistake’ walking. May our sleep quality make up for it.
A wind turbine above the pines near our camp spot.
The first stream crossing of the day.
Bush trail… love it!
A view to a wind farm on the horizon.
Halfway through NZ!!!
A style that reminds us we are still heading towards Bluff.
A de-antlered stag watches us calmly from his paddock.
Forest meets bush.
Carving at Moturimu Whare.
Moturimu Whare. 8 km into the days walk.
My close up photography attempt of a dragonfly.
And striped bodied butterfly.
Karl at rest near James Burtton’s dwelling.
Another attempt at close up. A common copper butterfly, on a ragwort flower.
