A Dangerous Business

I won’t be starting Te Araroa on the 28th.

That’ll probably be obvious when this post comes out. To tell you the truth, I made the call during the coach ride up to Kaitaia. At 11am, an updated forecast came through which included an orange warning for all of Northland, estimating potentially 90mm of rain and 130 km/h wind gusts on Sunday. I know that this track at times is going to throw up some bad weather, but this is too much. As much as I like to laugh at the silly decisions I make while hiking (see the 3 discs currently stuffed in my pack), I can’t take chances with my safety. If it was just raining, it would suck but I’d probably go. But not with those winds.

I will now begin walking on Monday the 30th of October. It’s frustrating because I’m itching to get going, even when I know this is the best decision for me. On the plus side, I’ve finally met up with some other TA hikers! There was a bunch of us on the coach up from Auckland, although it took us until Kaitaia to realise we were all up here for the same reason. I didn’t get everyone’s name, but I did spend some time chatting with Melly, Vicki, and Tom, who are from Germany, England, and the U.S., respectively. Melly and Vicki are far braver than I and will be starting this Saturday. It sounds morbid, but I am interested to hear how they cope with the weather; if it’s a complete dud I’ll be fuming. Tom’s doing the same thing as me and waiting out the storm until Monday. We met up with Ron at the backpackers who’s offering his car to hikers needing transport, so Tom, myself, and another hiker coming up on Sunday will go with him. I also met Elliot and Ruth from Canada and Tsewang from Christchurch who had just come from the beach. Annoyingly they all had decent-ish weather, so I’m kicking myself a bit for not starting a bit earlier (granted I’d be hitting the Northland forests when this storm hits).

Waking up on Saturday to splendid walking weather was agonising. I would’ve loved to have walked along Ninety Mile Beach today, but I don’t want to take any chances this early on. Okay, that’s a bit of a lie. Before the official weather warning came through, I was heavily considering starting today, despite the awful walking conditions the following day. No matter, I’m now locked in to a Monday start, which still doesn’t look that great but is far better than Sunday’s forecast. There wasn’t much to do in the meantime, the only job that needed doing was putting a small load of laundry through the wash. Otherwise I spent time walking around town or relaxing in the hostel’s common room chatting with other hikers. There’s two very distinct groups of people staying at this hostel. Either you’re a Te Araroa hiker or a seasonal worker employed by the farms around the vicinity of Kaitaia (at least I assume so, I haven’t bothered to ask). There hasn’t been a great deal of intermingling, but everyone’s friendly enough.

We were joined today by Steven and Diana who had just come up from Ahipara. Diana had quite a rough time on the beach, picking up some very nasty blisters that forced her to recover at Hukatere Lodge for several days before continuing her hike. And now there’s a storm coming in, meaning more down time in Kaitaia.

Sure enough, I woke up on Sunday to the sound of strong winds battering on the sides of the hostel, although not much in the way of rain. I spent the morning at the church just across the road, not really knowing what to expect. When I walked in, it was quickly evident that I was the youngest person there by several decades. I was welcomed warmly by the small congregation, spending some time after the service talking about the adventure I was going on, much to their amazement. The rest of the day was just as uneventful as the last, hunkering down in the common room and trying not to think about the conditions I would have to walk in the next day. It’s not looking great. The wind appears to be peaking today, but the rain is going to continue through most of tomorrow. This is gonna seem really petty, but my biggest concern with that is going to be putting up my tent at Maunganui Bluff this afternoon. I’m not sure what the best strategy is for putting a tent up in the rain. Most articles I’ve read have recommended stringing up a tarp overhead. But I don’t have a tarp. Or trees to hang it from. Either way, come what may, I will commence Te Araroa tomorrow.

Finally…