A Dangerous Business

Date: 28th November 2023

Start: Drury (km 651.8)

End: Bombay (km 664.3)

Distance Travelled: 12.5 km

Total Distance Completed: 664.3 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: Duel of the Fates from Star Wars Episode 1

Number of Dogs at Farmstay: I lost count, at least 5

A little over a month ago I flew into Auckland and then headed north. Today, I enter what is basically uncharted territory. On the way up to Kaitaia on the coach I could catch glimpses of some of the places I’d be going through. I don’t have that luxury after today.

With that said, I’d be starting very easy. After yesterday’s monster, I was ready for something less intense. I’m very glad I made that decision, it allowed me to sleep in a bit and have a slow morning at the hostel as I packed my bags and got ready to leave, doing so a bit before 10am. From there I moved down Queen Street picking up some last minute supplies before heading through the doors of Britomart.

In summary, Auckland is alright in my books. I still don’t think I had stomach living here, but it’s a lot nicer than the image I had in my head. But I’m not going to complete this trail by just sitting in Auckland, so I hopped onboard my train back to Papakura, then a short bus trip to Drury, finally hitting the trail at 12:30. Ron passed me just out of town, sounding like he was aiming for a campsite between Bombay and Mercer. Otherwise I was completely alone, and not particularly enjoying all the added weight I’d avoided since Saturday.

There’s a gravel path leading out of Drury towards a new industrial development south of the main town. It looks quite recent and I don’t remember reading about it on some of the blogs I read when I began planning this hike. Just goes to show how much Auckland is expanding and the need there is for housing and places to work. The same thing is happening over in Brisbane, although that’s mainly being caused by a swath of Sydney and Melbourne residents finally coming to their senses and figuring out Brisbane is just a far better city.

Once last the estate it was back to the roads, going past Ramarama before turning onto a road alongside SH1. Keep in mind this is the same road that was a busy single lane carriageway up in Kaitaia and at the Dome Cafe.

One rather steep climb up this hill later and I was in Bombay, albeit with another 2 km to go before reaching my stopping point for tonight, a B&B run by Kerryl and Tom. I was “warmly” welcomed there by one of their dogs (read: he barked at me for 5 minutes straight), then properly welcomed by Kerryl who showed me round the place and where the best spot to pitch my tent would be. As the weather wasn’t looking too great they’d opened up their shed for me to use for resting and cooking before going to bed which was very much appreciated. Inside their shed was another pleasant surprise, a group of 3 ducklings!

From what I heard it sounds like Kerryl found them by the side of the road a couple days ago and took them in.

With time progressing the weather closed in with strong westerlies and threatening rain. It also appeared that I would be the only one coming here tonight. I was mildly surprised by that considering the number of hikers I had met so far, but my guess is most people continue onto Mercer and just pass through Bombay. Fair enough, it is very close to Drury, but they do miss out on a lovely spot to spend the night. Speaking of which, getting to bed before sunset was a nice change from the last few nights in Auckland. A good thing to, with the rain finally arriving with some force an hour later.