Te Araroa Episode 20 | Days 79-81: Paekakariki to Island Bay Terminus

[Music] got everybody good morning that is day 79 today and I had some vague aspirations of hopefully finishing the North Island and a nice round 80 days but unfortunately that's not going to happen but that's okay I don't mind I have potentially three days worth of hiking left so today I tackle the escapement trek which is a little daunting this morning I'm not necessarily for the elevation game but more because my feet are really suffering today after that lovely long walk along the beach yesterday afternoon but this morning I do have some errands to run I stayed with my friend begin last night in Petaluma and I've got my resupply box here that I had sent to her a couple of weeks ago which I've now filled up with everything that I absolutely do not need it's hopefully allowed me to lighten up my pack a little bit and hopefully it'll make the next three days a little bit easier but yeah I'm getting very excited for the end of the trail now it's gonna take all of my strength not to hop on a train down to Island Bay and a bus to finish off okay so I've arrived back in Pike I could inky which is where I left off yesterday and I am about to head straight up and out onto the escarpment Trek my ministry pick up some NYX kheer blister plasters fingers crossed that works so far touchwood they are feeling a lot better let's go and tackle this a big hill all right lots of warning steep exposed on the edge sounds like my favorite kind of trail it's gonna give us a go [Music] oh this state but it's beautiful absolutely stunning totally recommend this one [Music] [Music] and to see some people making their way up over there you know think although I'm not sure if you look down there the track continues over that side [Music] [Music] ominous it's halfway [Music] getting a little bit nervous just seen coming down there to help to know whether my legs on my stomach and given up first it does very state he ins a it is very exposed but I'm just taking it nice and slowly and I've reached the halfway point and about I don't know an hour and a half I'm gonna be not even quite there so you don't need to rush this section really don't so I'm just trying to take it nice and slowly unfortunately my blister classes are coming off with the sweet it's a bit of a shame you have to try and find another solution and the next couple of days [Music] I'm almost afraid to go around this corner [Music] yeah doesn't look too bad and there's the first swing bridge there just try and get over this nice and easy [Music] [Music] holy crap okay first one down there's the second one sorry there's no filming across the island it was pretty scary for me anyway I don't know why you seem to have developed this irrational fear of heights in the last couple of weeks anyway only about three kilometers now to the end of the track so I am sweating buckets it's ridiculous so I'm just excited to get to the other even now and be done with this track I was thinking at the start that this would be a beautiful new writer window my family know that my mom would do it but now I'm like okay I've done it I don't have to come back anymore and Donegan not done it now [Music] [Music] the end of the escarpment Trek nice [Music] okay so just arriving here now at the poker table a train station trains just arrived do a quick check for any others oh good so I was checking Facebook this morning I saw that yes who I cycled the second part of the temperature at worth had posted a message up there that she was in or around Pato Pato you move a couple of days ago so I made a comment on the air and said hey Jess I think I might be around about the same area as you and she said yeah sure our heading to Polydor today I said no way meters she's still with McHale so he walked that second 42 kilometers of the timber trail when we cycled it but yeah it's just stopped there for lunch at the dairy here at Puppy to obey and they wandered up and meet me there so that was really nice they stayed in high Kakariko last night at the campground that I was considering staying it like I said we're both heading for the same place today and then it sounds like they're gonna try and push all the way into Wellington City tomorrow it's about 32 kilometers I might do that with TM or I might just take a slightly shorter day to nioh others see how my feet are feeling so would have ceased I think I'm only about 500 meters from the plummeted Township at the moment where I'm probably just going to stop for another 30 minute break or so but I've been following since booky to obey the other had a kicky pathway and which basically means the Flex pathway it's just been so hot not really an awful lot of shade and basically the entire pathway has been Tomic Dover or it's an actual path like this one here and so of course in the heat of the day the Sun is hitting it and that's reflecting back up at me again put thankfully at the moment is a little bit of a breeze so hopefully that sticks around for a little while well I think I've only got about seven kilometers left to do to put it all over I just could not walk anymore fetus so saw and there's boots the soles of my feet incredibly saw from the hard hard soles on the shoes it's gonna be hard to do 32 tomorrow if I decide I want to and I think my heat rash is coming from the sunscreen on my legs I think it's just not allowing them to breathe properly because it's flaring up again and has been for the last couple of days and the last couple of days have been the first couple of days that everyone's on screen in a little while anyway I'm gonna stay here for 10 minutes or so I reached out my feet a little bit more and then push on for the last 7 kilometers to Polydor [Music] I'm struggling with the heat today just all parkways like this today as well except for the escapement rekt I can see the township of pottage onl and it's still about two and a half kilometers from when I actually get into the town to the camp that I'm staying at it tonight so I think I might just stop at the supermarket and grab some more food don't tell them a little bit hungry and enjoy have a little bit of a break before I go and do those last well I couldn't take it anymore so for the first time in 79 days I'm hiking in my camp shoots pain was just so bad from the bottom of my feet the heat rash is spreading out my legs so I'm hoping that my practice of the last few nights rubbing aloe vera into my legs at nighttime mainly to moisturize them after the heat exposure of the day but I'm hoping that that's actually also helping the heat rash - I only got two more days maybe even a day and a half I'm not ready for this trail to beat me salvadore might be done with me but I am not done with it yet my body is tired I'm weary and the end is definitely no you know it's been an amazing experience I've really enjoyed your pre single day although some more and reach her speak than others but it's definitely time to not get up and walk every day now [Music] you good morning everyone let's stay 80 today it seems crazy 80 days of walking on teredor and today I am beginning my day with a climb up to colonial Knob today is going to be filled with hills and I think some of it is gonna be relatively difficult most of it being tramping tracks and things today and then tomorrow hopefully I will finish my journey on teredor at the Highland Bay southern terminus of the North Island despite repeated efforts even though I managed to leave by 7:30 this morning Jason Mikkel I still just managed to beat me out the door so I'm gonna be playing catch out for a little while I mean I'm not actually walking with them or anything like that but I think today it would be really nice just to have some other people around that's deep today why is he always a mess of Hill Climb first thing in the morning we've got make some water in all your food still got to go up there endless stairs [Music] [Applause] they don't call us the Windy City but nothing you're off some very dark clouds sweetening the moment I am just enjoyed and rambling and the cold we the freash wind Oh feels so good feel so good after that really hot walkies today so far today I'm enjoying myself but this is how used to they started out as well so see how long it continues [Music] [Music] you just have to sign a little further back they're saying that Mount Coco is ten kilometers and five hours away we're all hoping that that is not the case but it's so beautiful this morning just walking on a high today like this is the best way to finish out the trail I think just some beautiful beautiful hiking through lovely farmland and not too hot weather still enough sunshine to illuminate the hills just gorgeous don't want to be anywhere else today [Music] I just love it when there's clear signage for the trail here's the opposite sign up there Teodoro to Mount Coco this way it's gonna be a climb [Music] [Music] there is a mast up there behind those clouds wind is still blowing because you can probably tell sometimes strong hey guys my new friends you see why they put a wooden fence over there and there does first glimpse of Wellington Wow amazing a little iPod from here and you have a little way further to go before you stop and I think I caught sight of teeth actually ahead of us there were two options here an easier gradient and a steeper gradient I considered the steep version myself and I think Jace must have taken it because I'm sure I said wear it disappear hop over there a little while ago [Music] deeply blows the cobwebs away [Music] time for lunch Wow and I picked this up yesterday from New World [Music] I'll just keep my goodbyes to Jason McHale I feel kind of crappy about leaving them after having hiked the first 20 kilometers today but they are having a very nice leisurely lunch it's about quarter to 2:00 now and I'm just conscious of time ticking on I have decided to splash out on a private room in a very swanky looking hostel and I've also booked my bath back home but tomorrow yeah I'm just filled with I don't know hint as a patient for what tomorrow will bring and also I guess a little bit of hope for rejoining Seattle or next year as well and completing the South Island I'm really quite looking forward to that but I'm still struggling a little bit I would much rather be pushing on south I still consider myself a thru-hike a close to 1,800 kilometers is a pretty amazing achievement for anyone and just because it's not three thousand and six kilometres doesn't mean that I should be any least proud of myself so next year I get to pick up the trail meet some new people and enjoy the wonders of the South Island but for now I am just totally focused on getting to Island Bay and touching that final stone [Music] [Music] okay slow to a crawl down the hills painful so much pressure on my feet and my knees I can see where this ends I mean going uphill is tiresome that just sets all your energy but coming down there's just excruciating so the trailers make me come all the way down to the bottom not the Botanic Gardens so that I can climb back up to the top and then come all the way back down again that just just seems unnecessarily cruel there's a really big part of me right now that just wants to skip it I just I can't let him walk all this way to skip the last six kilometers lose the city literally hobbling now okay you guys [Music] I'm just too tired and too much pain to be following got hooked properly so it must a couple more turnings but I did eventually end up in the right place outside the Beehive which is our Parliament buildings here in New Zealand I do want to follow the trail as much as possible and like I could have pretended like I'd walked through the Botanic Gardens and not let you know that I hadn't but I wanted to try and be as honest as possible so anyway there's a tiny tiny little bit of this trail that I have skipped sir my bad but I can come back and do it later with the rest of it right [Music] [Music] I'm just gonna give up today still I have a bit of a walk through to the hostel tonight anyway so I think I'm just going to cut through the city go straight there and race my legs out ready for tomorrow [Music] small little worm builder oh I made it to my hostel and I have been successfully lying here my wonderful double beard for the past hour and a half this is such a fantastic place I am so glad that I decided to spend a little bit of extra money the showers are amazing here they are one of those like rainfall rows type things and I just stood under at 14 minutes just letting the vigorous flow wash over me and cleanse me of the stickiness of the sweet and salty disgustingness that had a mist today a little bit disappointed actually that I missed the section through the Botanic Gardens it's just a little bit unfortunate that I had taken that wrong turn because I would like to have shown you guys what that was like through the air and also to have shown you a little bit more of what they the walk along the key is like as well but I was just in so much pain by the end of the day and the wind was so incredibly strong and brutal that I just couldn't do it anymore so I hope you'll forgive me for that so I'm planning on heading away from here by 6:30 and that will give me a good three hours excuse me oof a good three hours to get to island babe and I'm hoping that that's gonna be plenty enough and I can't think about it right now because if I do I'm gonna start to get emotional and today is not the time to start getting emotional so I can take that for tomorrow okay good night everybody and I will see you tomorrow for the final day [Music] 6 a.m. and I am rejoining the trail lead 1.4 kilometers it's all lies between me and the end of my journey on Teodoro this year got a couple of Hills today and I'm glide until May with all the pomp and circumstance of somebody who's just spent the last two and a half months hiking the length of the island I can't wait [Music] you [Music] so that is Island Bay over the year and they still have to go over the hill actually within sight to Mia [Music] well I've just crossed the marker that signifies five kilometers to the end of the trail I suppose now would be the time for me to come out with some profound words about what my experience has been like so far I have to say I just I don't have any but I can't tell you how much I've fallen in love with the trail over the last kilometers I still cannot believe that just 81 days ago or roughly two and a half months ago I was taking my very first steps stepping away from the lighthouse at Cape Reinga and hoping and praying to the universe that my feet would carry me and yet Here I am now after having walked pedaled or biked to the southernmost tip of my journey today at kilometer 1793 point six I honestly can say that I am incredibly proud of myself and I'm just hoping that in some way I can hang on to bed that hopefully I can remember that life doesn't have to be about all the trivial stuff it doesn't have to be about hitting targets and making budgets paying bills and struggling you can be being free and trying your best to make the most of absolutely every single day regardless of what the day throws at you [Music] [Music] would be the end without a bit of wind [Music] here it is [Music] Oh [Music] you

Channel: Long White Gypsy

Views: 1,004

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, hiking new zealand north island, paekakariki escarpment track

Id: OD7LX6T4pcQ

Length: 35min 17sec (2117 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 19 2020