A Dangerous Business

Date: 2nd December 2023

Start: Ngaruawahia (km 747.3)

End: Backpackers Central, Hamilton (km 768.7)

Distance Travelled: 21.4 km

Total Distance Completed: 765.3 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: nothing playing, too much anxiety over the Pirongia Traverse

Amount I’m Overthinking the Pirongia Traverse: a really unhealthy amount

Wake up time today was 5:15am. Let me rephrase that, Matt’s wake up time was 5:15am and he happened to have his tent next to mine, so his alarm became my alarm. He was hoping to get to Hamilton early to meet with his dad and go to Tauranga. Ah well, no worries, I dozed off again for another hour before waking up properly, only to find out most people had already gone. This was somewhat perplexing as I figured everyone was going to Hamilton which is only 21 km away on a sealed bike path. At least that’s my plan, to have a slow morning before hitting the trail again.

After coffee and a toastie in town, I stepped foot on the bikeway at 9:15. Vicki and Sonja had decided to use the bikeway as it was intended, by hiring bikes to take into Hamilton and then walking onto Whatawhata. The thought of completing 21 km in an hour instead of 5 was very tempting, but I hadn’t considered it an option much to the chagrin of my feet.

On a positive note, it was a lovely path. Mostly flat, not crazy busy, just a nice peaceful walk along the Waikato.

I had to stop a little after crossing this bridge to put a blister pad on my foot. I’ve worn them for most of the trip so far as they provide a bit of extra padding and protect them from infection, but with no open wounds after Auckland I opted to just go for the hikers wool. Trouble is I was now wearing 3 day old socks so I wasn’t getting the padding I’d normally get. Once it was on I felt a lot better, but I was still chafing a bit so I made a mental note to pick up some anti-chafing cream in Hamilton.

With my foot remedied and some Kings Kaleidoscope playing in my ears, I started walking at a stonking great pace. There wasn’t any need to go that fast, but it felt comfortable so I kept it up. The sights didn’t change all that much throughout the day, the river always in my peripherals and countless cyclists passing me in both directions. I really should’ve taken up the bike option…

The overcast conditions kept everything nice and cool, unlike the weather reports I was getting from back in Brisbane. It had certainly been a cool start to “summer”, but if the meteorologists are to be believed, El Niño is supposed to make everything hotter and drier than usual. I may have to deal with a wet crossing of Mt Pirongia, but hopefully some of the other big crossings will be nice and dry (looking at you, Tongariro).

Uh… yeah I’m struggling to come up with things to talk about. It was a lovely walk, don’t get me wrong, but nothing much happened. Frankly I don’t think I got to enjoy it as much as I could’ve because my thoughts were dominated by what was to come. To give you a summary of the Pirongia Traverse, it’s a roughly 800 m climb with large parts of the track smothered in mud, and with a rather moist forecast for the next few days. I talked a bit about this in yesterday’s post, but that sort of tramping is incredibly taxing for me, not so much physically as mentally. Mud in and of itself I’m fine with, I just don’t want to fall over and break anything, either in my kit or in myself. I’m a chronic overthinker, always fretting over the smallest “what if’s”.

I desperately needed a distraction, so once I got to Hamilton I went shopping for the next leg, getting enough food to get me to Te Kuiti plus a bit more if I get stuck in the hut. That evening in the hostel, my feelings around the traverse began changing, caused by a few things. First things first, I talked them over with mum and Grams (my grandfather from Palmy who’s comments you’ve seen at the bottom of every post. Hi Grams!). Family and friends have always been a great source of encouragement for me and this time was no different. I also checked the NIWA forecast and saw that the worst of the rain was coming on Sunday and would be easing off on Monday afternoon. The mud would still be there but I wouldn’t get as wet as I thought I would. Finally – and most importantly – I just accepted that I would be walking slowly for the next few days. Seeing the kilometres rack up on big days of road walking has probably skewed by expectations of how fast I can go and how much distance I can cover in a day. Perhaps a more permanent mindset change will come in the future, but I’m at least at peace that going up and over the mountain is going to be a long, hard, dirty slog. I may have also bought an audiobook of The Lord of the Rings narrated by Andy Serkis to help distract me.

At least tomorrow would be fairly easy by comparison. Well, to be honest I’m really not sure where I’ll be by the end of tomorrow. Ideally I want to get as close to Pirongia as possible if I want to summit on Monday. Whatawhata is a common camping spot for TA hikers but it’s only 14 km from Hamilton, leaving 32 km to the summit. It’s certainly doable in one day (and if I decide to take that option I’ll be hitting the mountain at its driest) and there’s always the option to hitch it if possible, but it will be long. The difference between this and a couple days ago when I went across the Hakarimata Range is that I’m ready for a long, slow day. And I’ll have Andy Serkis making all sorts of voices in my ears.

At least I hope so. The only way of knowing for certain is to walk it and find out.