A Dangerous Business

Date: 12th December 2023

Start: Ongarue (km 1016.6)

End: Taumarunui Canoe Hire (km 1046.6)

Distance Travelled: 16.8 km walked + 13.2 km hitched (30 km total)

Total Distance Completed: 973.5 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: O Come All Ye Faithful

Cost of Groceries Bought in Taumarunui: you really don’t want to know

Our night in the shelter was thankfully without interruption, and despite the early alarms we had all set no one was keen to get going. Outside was cold, sleeping bag was warm, therefore stay where the warmth is. However, with a shuttle to the canoe hire place leaving at 3:30 and a big resupply to do beforehand, I needed to get going, thankfully without the need to put away a dew-soaked tent. All I had to do was drag myself out of bed, make a coffee, and wait until the sun did its job and warmed up the air a bit more.

I had around 25 km to walk to reach Taumarunui, all on roads. In other words, boring but not technical. A day like this every once in a while is never a bad thing, it’s just when it becomes the same thing over and over again. As with most things in life, moderation is key.

I caught up with the girls not long after setting off, marking yet another day where I wouldn’t have any other male companions alongside me. By no means is this a complaint, they all make for fine company, it’s just a peculiar circumstance that I’ve found myself in, not walking with any men for quite a while now.

The road followed the path of the Ongarue River, as did the NIMT railway and SH4 on the opposite bank. It didn’t make for the quietest day, with a steady stream of vehicles going down the latter and a disappointing lack of trains on the former. Granted I didn’t pay either much notice, my focus being mainly taken up by watching for traffic and listening to my LOTR audiobook. It was pleasant enough, nothing really taking my fancy but also nothing making me overly concerned either.

The road passes over the railway twice at typical rural level crossings. Just a simple stop sign and classic x-shaped Railway Crossing to tell passing motorists that maybe they should show some level of caution for any approaching trains. Today, however, we didn’t see any cars go across the tracks, but rather a herd of cattle.

My guess is the farmer had discussed his plans with KiwiRail and gotten confirmation that no trains would be passing through at that time. Kinda cool to see some proper farm operations happening in front of us.

We continued on the road at a steady pace, aiming for a cafe around 16 km into today’s walk. Vicky and Snacks went ahead of the rest of us although they stopped for a break shortly after the cow crossing. I pressed on, the gravel road becoming an asphalt one after passing underneath the interesting combined road-rail bridge at Okahukura.

The cafe was a few hundred metres after the bridge, pulling off the road at 11:15 excited for an early lunch. Nothing big today, just a toastie and an L&P. Vicky, Snacks, and Sonja joined me soon after for a break. They were then planning to head over the bridge we’d just passed to try and hitch a ride off SH4. Personally I didn’t like their chances, hitching seems to be – paradoxically – more likely on quieter roads. I walked on… for about 2 km when pulling up beside me is a red SUV with the three girls inside being driven by the wonderful Andrea. And they had space for a fourth. I was happy to walk the road into town, I’m happier to get a lift there if it’s available.

Dropped off at the New World in Taumarunui, we now had 3 hours to do our shopping before the shuttle arrived. In theory that should be plenty of time, although we needed to buy enough food to last us 4-5 days until National Park and for the 5 days on the Whanganui River. I won’t bore you with the details… but it was incredibly expensive.

Outside, we now had to play the waiting game. The New World backs right onto the railway and a yard containing a tonne of old Auckland passenger coaches.

Before 2014, Auckland’s railways weren’t electrified, services being run by a combination of diesel railcars and loco-hauled coaches. The latter of these, once the wires had been strung up, were ceremoniously dumped in a yard outside Taumarunui station. When I drove through here on a family trip in 2015 they were still in decent condition. Since then it seems like they’ve just been left to rot. A few coaches got a second lease of life, being refurbished for the new Te Huia service between Hamilton and Auckland, but it doesn’t look all that promising for the rest of them.

We each did a little bit of shopping in town whilst waiting for the bus, picking up a small gas canister and a coffee. When I returned to the New World I found that our little band of six had exploded in number, including the likes of Victoria, Steph, Mirjam, and Matt! The short version of Matt’s journey since Auckland is he walked from there to Te Kuiti with his dad, then walked over 60 km on the track we skipped in a single day, completed the Timber Trail earlier that day and got a ride into Taumarunui. Absolute mad lad.

The bus came a little after 3:30 and we all piled on with our bags and groceries. It ended up being quite a tight squeeze, there must’ve been well over 15 of us in there. When we got to Taumarunui Canoe Hire, we entered a meeting room where we got briefed on how to book, well, our canoe hire. Whilst waiting we were offered freshly baked bread which we all found absolutely delicious. Except Sonja. See, Sonja is Austrian. Austrians (and Germans for that matter) are born with bread in their veins. They. Love. Bread. But with that passion comes some very strong opinions on what makes good bread, and according to Sonja – in her own words – this wasn’t proper bread. Some lighthearted ribbing followed as I downed slice after slice, commenting at how delicious it was.

Back to business, the seven of us (Matt has now also joined our party, I’m no longer the only man!) decided on a start date of the 19th of December, arriving in Whanganui on the 23rd. With these dates set, the staff helped plan our stopping points for the first 3 days as this is on the Whanganui Journey, a Great Walk that has to be booked. We now had 6 days to walk to Whakahoro, a little under 200 km away. That meant we’d have some seriously big days ahead of us, including 38 km through the 42 Traverse and 35 km over the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. The terrain over both trails wouldn’t be easy, meaning that I’m gonna have to drag my sleepy, cranky, cold body out of bed stupidly early for at least 2 of those 6 days.

But that’s really the only option we have if we want to reach the river on time. If you couldn’t tell I’m really not keen on starting early, especially on cold mornings. It does help that I’ll be sticking with our fellowship over this time and last I checked we’ll have decent weather over Tongariro. Just trying to find the positives in an otherwise daunting situation I’m about to put myself into.

Once booked, we headed down the hill to our camp shelter, grabbed a barrel each and started soreting through our groceries, what we’d be taking on the walk and what we’d be leaving here for the river. Knowing that weight is much less of an issue on a boat, I’d packed a few little treats for myself.

Once that was all done, I called my family down in Palmy to discuss my plans and back at home too. Tomorrow’s walk to Owhango shouldn’t be too bad as it’s all on roads, but after that is when it gets challenging, slow, and hopefully also rather beautiful.