Paihia - Helena Bay Old school
We walked as a group of ten today- Luke and I, Renee, Ollie, Eleri, Doug- US, Kevin- US, Anna and Robert- Slovakia, and Pavel- Poland.
The walk through Russell forest was so fun- knee deep in the river for 4km and gentle forest track for the rest. We had broken off from the group slightly by the time we left the forest which was great because we had stopped in a Mauri's driveway to check the maps and got invited in for squash and tea! Camping up with a big group is lovely but sometimes these little treats are far more likely when there's fewer in the party. He offered us a bed but we decided to push on for a bigger day and hit our longest yet at 32km so we could finish up with the rest of the group.
Just before we decided to pitch up at an old school for the night we decided to stop for water. Luke took the bottles from our bags and, in true Luke style, tried to jump the barbed wire fence. He caught both his legs on the spikes and fell face first onto the field the other side. His shin had been friction burned from top to bottom and cut open in the middle. I tried to clean it up with an antiseptic as best I could but he insisted he was ok and continued walking... I think he was probably glad to finish come the evening too.
Helena Bay - Whananaki camping
Luke and I started out nice and early today. We climbed the steep roads out of Helena bay until we met with the forest track a few kilometres up and followed the reasonably straight forward trail through pine forests and along well formed track until we reached Whananaki. While most of the team decided to push on further, we decided taking a shorter day to rest up was better so pitched up in sunshine and dried our tent and our shoes, and relaxed on the grass.
At the camp we met a man called Tom from Manchester. Lovely and very generous but my oh my absolutely bonkers and makes conversation out of anything! He gave us some fried hash browns and a bag of crisps knowing full well the best gift for any hiker is food! He escorted us from the campsite to the start of the next trail along what is the longest footbridge in the Southern Hemisphere. He waved goodbye until we were out of site- must remember to send him a postcard from Wellington as promised.
Whananaki - James' at Ngungaru
After the steady walk to Ngungaru we met James on the estuary. We took off our boots and waded to the boat where he pushed us out of the shallows and took us across to his campsite on the other side.
He has hand biult some treehouse-esque campsite with a composting toilet and hot outdoor showers. It's by far the best spot I've found yet with it's amazing views of the estuary out front and a big shared kitchen with games and stuff at the back. It was bonfire night at home so James built a big fire on the estuary at low tide and gave us marshmallow to toast as we watched the fireworks go off around the water. Robert (Slovak) played guitar and it felt like something out of a film! - any TA hiker should definitely visit this place!
I would have loved the Milton's to be there-it's the sort of place we'd treasure as a family retreat or something and I especially know how much Dad would love every minute of being here.
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