A Dangerous Business

Date: 16th November 2023

Start: Ocean Beach (km 378.4)

End: Ruakaka Beach Holiday Park (km 404)

Distance Travelled: 25.6 km

Total Distance Completed: 404.3 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: In This Ocean by Kings Kaleidoscope

(Have I made it obvious that I really like Kings Kaleidoscope)

Opinions on Stairs: humanity’s greatest invention

Another day, another early wake up, although this one was different. It was 5:30 and I was expecting to hear the sounds of people packing up their stuff and getting ready to head out for a long day’s walk, the reason for the early start being the need to reach Whangarei Heads at an agreed upon time with the water taxi that takes us across the harbour. What I had missed was that we had booked the water taxi for 3:30pm and I had all the time in the world to get there.

Oh well, at least that meant I didn’t need to frantically rush around and could enjoy my morning coffee. It’s the small things like that that keep me going, especially knowing today’s walk will be a hard slog.

I was away by 8:30 and immediately greeted by some threatening signs from DOC.

Unlike the Puketi Forest, I had mentally prepared myself for a hard, slow day in advance so I felt confident that I could avoid a repeat of the headspace I got into on that track. That confidence was tested immediately as there was no nice flat bit to warm up on. No, the climbing began straightaway. On the plus side, it was nicely mown grass. Still slow going – I was stopping every minute or so to catch my breath – but nice, helped by a great view whenever I turned around.

The top of the grassy track (which I’d hate to descend on) was a WWII era radar station, very similar an installation I visited on Magnetic Island earlier this year. There wasn’t much to see, just some out of place concrete foundations and signs explaining which building was on each foundation. After leaving, I got to understand the time estimates seen on the signs down on Ocean Beach.

We had entered a forest and the track – I don’t know how – had gotten steeper and was lined with tree roots and rocks that were desperately to trip me up and make me have a bad time. It w a very Kiwi-esque track; if there’s a hill in the way, you go up it, whatever its gradient. Every now and then, I’d get a bit of relief in the form of a staircase which I was very grateful for. As expected it was hard going, but I stuck to my strategy of taking things slowly. There was zero need to try and go fast, I wasn’t pushed for time, the weather was perfect and wasn’t going to change anytime soon. This way I could look after my body because there was a lot of track to go after this first climb. As such, it took me 1.5 hours to trek the 2 km from the beach to the summit of Bream Head.

From here, it’s just a matter of traversing the ridge across to Mt Lion/Matariki and then descending towards Whangarei Heads. Nothing about that would be easy, of course. I only had 5 in left of this track but it could potentially take me another 4.5 hours to do it in. Upon leaving Bream Head, I found out why.

Steep, slippery, stair-free. Each step had to be thought out and carefully executed. Yet again, I went back to the lessons I learnt from previous tracks; it’s ok to go slow. I embraced the challenge and by doing so it became an enjoyable experience, still very much appreciating the moments when it flattened out or the roots had been replaced by stairs.

Ironically (or logically if you’re a tortoise), by going slowly I was making good progress along the track, breaking for lunch just below the summit of Mt Lion, summiting it just after 12:30.

Yes, it was all downhill from here. Steeply downhill. On the plus side, it was all stairs, and I’m kicking myself for not counting them (after some research, it looks like it’s around the 1300 mark). It wasn’t physically demanding in that I wasn’t exerting a lot of energy, but I was putting an awful lot of trust in my knees, stopping frequently to give them a break from the punishment I was bestowing upon them. All the while, I was getting some great views over Whangarei Harbour towards the Marsden Point refinery, which apparently closed down in 2022 but a ship was docked there? I don’t know what the deal is there. Once I caught sight of the kauri dieback cleaning station at the bottom of the hill, I swear I could hear my knees audibly cry out in relief that their torment was over.

Sadly, my day was far from over. A 6.5 km road walk to the boat ramp now welcomed me. To make matters worse, it wasn’t flat, adding on another 100 m of climbing onto my very tired body. But it was all worth it, as when I arrived our boat driver (pilot, captain, what do you call someone who operates boats?) recommended a cafe a little walk away, giving me an excellent excuse to get a big ol’ scoop of ice cream.

Walking back down to the boat ramp, the 7 of us got a ride across the harbour to Marsden Point, at which point we were back on the beach, thankfully with firm sand under our feet. Walking with such a big group is a surreal feeling considering so much of my time on trail is spent alone. It was good fun, helped by Jamie finding a good ball, adding some much needed levity to a rather dull part of the track.

After hitting it with our hiking poles didn’t work, we resorted to kicking it down the sand for close to an hour. At this point we were beginning to spread out a bit as everyone found their comfortable pace, all coming together again once we reached 400 km.

At this point we diverted off the beach and made a quick stop by a supermarket in Ruakaka, with the holiday park a 4 km walk further south. I was feeling pretty sore by the time we arrived. It was now after 7pm, so I had spent 10.5 hours in my boots. They were the first thing to go when I finally got my pack down, followed by a rapid tent pitching and a more relaxed meal before tucking myself in, resting up before a much shorter day tomorrow.