Te Araroa Episode 1 | Days 0-4: Taupo to Ahipara

well it's finally here I have arrived at Atia park and I will be staying here tonight before I head off Fleur Catriona tomorrow morning to stop my hopefully through hike of Tierra Dora it's been an incredibly long day I think I'm operating at the moment on about 40 hours on the go so about five or six hours worth of sleep about 13 hours on a bus and in another hour or so to be shuttled up here by Paul one of the lovely owners here at UT apart it's such a shame that this place is going to be closing down as of January next year and it's really a very cool little spot and they have done such a great job here but unfortunately circumstances change and they are moving on but hoping to provide a similar service I think there are two cabins here at the moment there's a couple of beads in this cabin here that I'll be staying in and then a Kevin directly next door a lovely communal area to cook and clean and just generally hang out with people some showers and toilets and a barbecue area outside so they really asked it up here for thru-hikers but also for people in camper vans and just generally other tourists and people who are enjoying the trails in this region I've been going through a little bit of anxiety in the last couple of hours I really have no clue why I'm doing this and I do feel a little bit alone at the moment there's nobody else here tonight with me at the moment but I'm sure that they'll be people turn up later I did meet a few hikers on the bus up here and so I'm hoping that I will be able to catch up with some of them at Twilight beach the first campground tomorrow night but certainly questioning a lot of things right now but I'm just trying to stay positive and just look forward to what lies ahead all right guys until tomorrow I will say goodbye for now [Music] [Music] today everybody I'm here I have made it to Cape Reinga and I am not too sure how I'm feeling at the moment I pretty much have the Cape all to myself today so there's only a very few other people actually here as an absolutely stunning of a day the sky is crisp and blue Sun is not too hot at the moment so I'm keen to stack and there's virtually no wind in the air at all either so yeah I'm a little bit overcome with emotion at the moment I'm just really excited to start and just to see how far I can go in yeah after a bit of a nervous night last night a little bit of a sleepless night - and just feeling like I didn't want to do anything at all I just didn't want to take my first steps at all yesterday - actually going to feeling amazing this morning has been a really good experience so so I'm not putting any pressure on myself there's no distance that I want to complete I'm just going to carry on for as long as I can carry on and try to enjoy the journey so here is to the next 3,000 kilometers [Music] [Laughter] [Music] the reverse climb oh let's make a down-home pop until the White House so you have to walk back up with 15 kilos a new pack Bieber mind this is only a very small hill in comparison to some of the ones that are to come beautiful absolutely stunning keep pushing on [Music] okay so for those like me who weren't really sure where these rocks are that you need to time your departure from caitriona perfectly on these are actually the rocks so you can see how if I don't get down there pretty sharpish that tides gonna be nearly all the way up to them and I don't really want to be scrambling over them when tied us up so high tides at about two o'clock and it's now probably 10:30 ish so yeah I am an eager to get down there as quickly as possible [Music] all right so that's where I've just come from merged somewhere over there round all the way down around and yeah managed to get around these rocks without getting taken away by the sea if I go down this Beach which is he would are he Beach I think that's how you pronounce that [Music] all right so I'm at the end of the two it ahi beach and this stream here is that T were talking stream does look like I've got to go up and over there so looks like there's a little track over this side maybe to get up the steep rock cliff faster there's also an orange triangle over here somewhere and I think maybe a slightly easier way to get out that side so that's where I'm hitting oho so made it to a kilometer five oh that's the T word ahi Beach done and I just climbed up that little trick there wasn't too bad has a little bit tracking you better got up there I was desperately trying to get across the T word I hear stream without getting Mike neatly at first I was antics useful now I'm just gonna have a big drink of water before hitting out the hill here I'm looking right now hit the lighthouse just peeking out from between the hills over the back there so already come a good little way so I'm really happy such a beautiful day yes they keep bringing a lighthouse there in the distance and what looks like a couple of TA hikers getting towards me [Music] I've ID with a huge [Music] [Laughter] [Music] oh my goodness so far day one has been horrendous I guess in terms of the track itself that's not too bad it's just that there's been some horrible juni hills to go up and over like this one that I'm coming down at the moment which when it's blazing hot sunshine outside and there's no wind is really really tough so yeah I found myself getting a bit panicky at one point and there have been more than a few moments when I've thought I can't do this but going to be at camp very very shortly [Music] you last night sleepless night to be honest lots lots of opossums expense that's after I actually we need just showing them away my team it's been the other four hours I'm sorry I'm not sleeping very well for fear that they might come in so they don't be a different experience tonight and today is involved I struggled yesterday was really difficult pills and dreams and things to climb which I made even more difficult by affect that I had 15 odd kilos on my back maybe slightly more and also just the blistering heat it was so so hot today so we decided we get up early this morning and start earlier hopefully hike about 30 yards before lunchtime so that it doesn't get too hot but thankfully woken up this morning and it's actually quite overcast so as long as it doesn't burn off too quickly there should be an okay day of hiking so yeah I'm just finishing off my breakfast scramble [Music] we really do it justice how steep this is [Music] all right here we go first footsteps on 90 mile beach home for the next two and a half days julia is already powering along [Music] so I've not really been in the mood today to talk to the camera too much it's been a pretty tough day today although hearing stood there it's not going to do too bad so then we're coming up to about halfway into our hike for today and this is the first day on 90 mile beach so it's basically just flat sand which is long and monotonous and when you think something's close it's actually about three times as far away from you the beach itself was actually a road or a highway so it is used by traffic here's a bus now and especially tourist buses and thanks and bring tourists up to this region it is a beautiful place to come with you I represented New Zealand yesterday day one what can I say about there well it was exciting but also incredibly difficult if I had to use one word to describe day one it would be baking because they literally felt like I was being cooked from the inside out the hike down T what our he Beach was really quite good and at the end of the beach we had to hit up over some sand dunes and that was fine I got up and over there but from the earth Brite until the campsite at Twilight Beach there was no shade except for one specific shaded spot which we stopped out for some lunch for a good 40 minutes or so so it was incredibly exposed and there were a few times where I thought I was coming very close to collapsing but I managed to meet a couple of hikers the end up to what our he beach and they ended up being a gone seed and really because they really helped me to get to her so so that was Joe from America who hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2014 and Julia from Stuttgart in Germany who I've been hiking with since we meet passably so we'll see how far we get to do that so today we're heading to MonaVie blood the campsite the air and that makes this a twenty eight kilometer yeah it's really quite tough going not just because of the monotony of walking and walking and not feeling like you're getting anywhere but also because of the ground underfoot my feet so fat hardwood doing relatively okay but certainly no blisters or anything yet but everything is starting to ache a little bit so looking forward to stopping a little while Steve a bit of lunch and then pushing on for the last ten or fifteen kilometers to the block and making camp for the night oh please she's coming to say goodbye good morning it's day 3 and I've got my feet strapped but today Peter showing a little few signs away from yesterday this heat rash spot here that I get every time I go hiking now I'm not too sure it comes from I think I was getting a little bit of plantar fasciitis yesterday so I have tried to strap my feet although I have no idea how to strap up for that so I've got one long piece of tape coming up here and then some going around the bottom there for a little bit more out of support so I'll just see you know my two little foot toes at the top there they always get a bit blistered so so far I mean no blisters so I can't complain should we make it we're not sorry at all well Keota everybody and it's day three what can I say about day two we walked he walked and we walked and then we walked someone and it just seemed to be never-ending we stopped sort of every two hours or so for a break but I think in hindsight it probably wasn't quite enough for me to do the longest day have you ever done with a backpack and only stopping every two hours was was quite tough so certainly the last 10 kilometres yesterday were really really difficult and I couldn't turn the internal chatter off of my head there was a lot of negative stuff going on in the air and and we eventually go up to the Molyneux a black campsite I timed the crossing around a little rocky outcrop a little bit wrong that ended up getting wet feet from the sea so I was already angry and turned up there stood up my teams just sat down in the shade and burst into tears and he was just really overcome with emotion about the whole thing and I wanted to quit and I wanted to give up writing in the air and all sorts of thoughts were going through my head so I seen a message to my parents and no I don't I was ok and it made camp for the and then just got chatting to the other people then did a little bit of laundry as much as they could and how a myself needing to go to the toilet so I ventured into the toilet and lo and behold flushing toilets so immediately my mood was left and and you think that just made me realize that you know even on a bad day out here you can still rebel and the things that are good so today we started out relatively early it's taking me a little while to break camp in the morning I think because I'm trying to have breakfast before I head out because I know that I'm just not going to make the distance unless I do that but we were gone by about quarter past seven stopped about two hours later for a cup of tea and the remainder of the Snickers bar I didn't finish yesterday because I just felt so sick that I couldn't finish it so we've now just passed the halfway point so it's now a little under 15 kilometers to a park where there are hot showers and Tanya's famous blueberry smoothies and I actually have a cabin there so at least I know that I've got a proper bed tonight still a little bit anxious today and I'm just going to wait and see what I feel like her duty apart I've been thinking that I might even take a zero-day beer just to leave my body recuperate a little bit because this is by firing away the the biggest distances that see Verdun I think I've got a tinge of plantar fasciitis in my foot my left foot and so I've tried to tape it up today as best I know how which isn't very well and I've been rolling it out whenever we stop using the Maya chuckling calls but the fun today has been in leaving little messages and sand for Marcus who's behind us Marcus is a Kiwi guy from kitty-kitty he polices heart just decided to do the trail and I don't think he was particularly well prepared but every day he seems to make it to camp with the rest of us so thought we'd give him a little bit of inspiration and motivation by leaving him some reason to today [Music] [Music] finally the flag of route to the park really yeah [Music] good morning everybody that's day for sitting off from OTA Park this morning and I am just really really really hoping I make it to our he powder tonight there is a stop about halfway on the 17 kilometers out today called white papa Cody Beach and I suppose that if I'm really struggling I can't always camp there and then um but I think the other guys are going to be heading to our he putter so I really really want to make it there tonight but my feet probably will be ok I'm just a little bit concerned about some muscles and things in my legs so just be nice and slow probably take at least a 1 1 and a half hour break in waipapa Cody Beach fill up some water so I've only got about a liter at the moment and then push on the last 15 or so to our he putter but it's a beautiful morning so I can do this and I'm gonna do it [Music] well it's been a long morning so far probably only down about 12 kilometers or something so far is Julia and the background just plodding along listening to her audiobook yeah it was a bit slow to get started this morning and a little bit of pain in the old feet in the carbs I've tried to strap my feet up specifically for plantar fascia and I'm not too sure whether it's helping or whether it's doing anything but keep in mind I mean it's definitely walking through the pain today it's the whole goal of today but there's the halfway point today a little bit further down the beach and maybe another six kilometres or something like that so it'll be a good place to have a good decent rest up and get ready for the neck stretch which there's going to be a little bit shy of 15 kilometers I think into a he pada so last night was good because I was able to finally update all my family and friends as to how I'd been going obviously there had been no cell phone coverage for the last three days so outside of the messages I was able to send on the satphone they didn't know where I was up to so it was even able to speak to Mum for about half an hour which was really nice sort of talk over some of my plans for the next few days and yeah have a good long chat with her about that funnily enough at some point during that conversation she said to me and I hope she doesn't mind me saying this but she said this is gonna sound really awful Michelle but I just didn't even think you would start I didn't even think I thought you'd get up to Cape Reinga and just decided you couldn't do it and turn around and come home so I'm so proud of you for the pet that you've made it three days I think she thought she was being awful saying that actually it made me feel really good about myself because this is probably one of the very few things in my life that I've actually wanted to do and I've done I said I would go and I would try and I did and I didn't turn around hit the Cape and just come home and I have done that previously you know I've set myself goals and then I stopped before I even started so for me as small a thing as it seems in certainly walking around some of these people who just seem like inexperienced to me even just sitting off for the Cape and spending their first night at Twilight Beach was a mess of thing and I hadn't really thought about it until that point so thanks mum for reminding me that so I'm not going to make any decisions until I get to wherever I end up tonight but at the moment I pretty much decided that I will be skipping right here forest I'm just trying to listen to my body and what it's telling me and it's sort it's in pain and it needs some recovery so I will have probably one or two zero days at some point in the next day or two and just take a little bit of time to regroup and evaluate and do a bit of research on this tree just to come of course I would love to go through the forest and of course I would love to do one continuous through hike but I've realized in the last few days there for me this isn't necessarily about being a purist this is about doing something that is so far out of my comfort zone and even if I get a thousand kilometres or even if I just get to Auckland or got even if I only get to kitty-kitty you know that's a big thing for me so I don't see the point in putting my body in my mental health and more stress than it needs to be under by forcing myself into a forest that I know is going to be difficult for me but I know it's going to be horrendous it's going to bring out the anxiety it's going to physically exhaust me mentally exhaust me there are gonna be challenges to come so I'm not particularly fast about putting that pressure off myself right now it's gonna be hard to send these guys off into the forest without me but I'm sure we'll meet up again sometime somewhere along the trail and yeah it'll be nice to see them all again I do wish them all really really well in case we can't talk when you come you need so lots and lots of pain you [Music] Rachel I am laying in a whole bunch of dog food and urine right now but that was the only shade I don't care [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'm so good [Music] yeah good freshmen chefs a jillion yeah yum yummy [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Long White Gypsy

Views: 4,149

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: long white gypsy, te araroa, te araroa 2019, te araroa thru hike, thru hiking new zealand, te araroa trail, te araroa 2020, thru-hiking for beginners, thru hiking for beginners, long distance tramping, new zealand hiking trail te araroa, te araroa trail new zealand, gear for the ta, te araroa trail gear, long distance hiking gear, thru hiking gear, gear for the te araroa trail, gear for te araroa, te araroa gear, cape reinga, ahipara, ninety mile beach

Id: UrjIT8-oxeE

Length: 30min 50sec (1850 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 05 2019