A Dangerous Business

Date: 28th December 2023

Start: Palmerston North (km 1484.3)

End: Te Whare O Moturimu (km 1514.4)

Distance Travelled: 30.1 km

Total Distance Completed: 1354.4 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: Rhythm Inside by Löic Nottet

Wind Turbine Rotation Speed: much faster than it looks

This morning was filled with a lot of grief. There was no time to savour it, all I had to focus on was getting ready to leave. And I really didn’t want to leave. Grams gave me a lift down to the Manawatu River where I stayed in his car for every second I could spare until I saw the faces of Matt and Melly appear. Trying my best to hold back the tears, I bid him farewell and rejoined my friends.

Vicky was waiting for us over the bridge, as was Ryann, a Kiwi hiker from Christchurch, although he zoomed off pretty quickly after our meeting. The path briefly followed the bank of the Manawatu before turning left towards Massey University, my dad’s alma mater. A very pleasant track took us round the back of campus and it soon became clear that a lot of work has been put into the pathway out of town by the local council. Everything was very well signposted, the tracks were in good nick, and there were plenty of locals out for a morning stroll on this fine day. I say it was fine, but the mountains we were walking towards were threatening us with a bad time.

For 10 km we sped over a mixture of roads and walking paths next to peaceful creeks that had been blazed by the council. Outer suburbs turned into farmland, asphalt roads became gravel, and we started climbing. It was gradual and on a road, but after 4 days (well, 9 technically) of not carrying my pack I wasn’t as toned as I used to be, making the climb a bit tougher than I may have found it had I done it before Christmas.

The roads continued at the top of the climb where we got a nice lookout over the plains south of Palmy. I’ve driven through them many times but never had the chance to see them from this perspective. It was only farmland, but most of the farmland I’ve come across so far has been on rolling green hills. This was dead flat all the way to the Tasman Sea.

1500 km was passed along this road too, but we didn’t stop to celebrate this milestone as technically it isn’t halfway on this year’s trail. Lunch was eaten at a campsite next to the Kahuterawa Stream. It also seemed to be lunchtime for the local sandfiles, most of whom fancied Melly more than the rest of us. Continuing down a narrow gravel road after lunch, I couldn’t help wondering why such a small road had a lot of traffic going down it. I was expecting this to be a local road connecting a handful of rural properties, but it turns out that it led to a very popular and rather nice looking park.

It looked like a new development, but I was still surprised that in all my years of coming to Palmy I had never heard of this place. Many of the visitors appeared to be mountain bikers. Our path leading up the hill would have been a much tighter ride than the Timber Trail but I can see how a more experienced cyclist would enjoy the challenge. Our challenge came in the form of the heat. There were very few clouds in the sky and the Sun really wanted to make its presence felt. My European brethren were struggling, to be fair so was I. Thankfully most of the trail was in a forest, popping out of the trees once to give us a glimpse at part of the massive Te Apiti wind farm.

The hills east of Palmy are covered in turbines. I can’t remember the exact figures, but it is the biggest wind farm in the country by a long shot. It was a bit breezy where we were so I can only imagine how windy it must be on the hilltops where the turbines are.

Right, remember how I said the 1500 km marker on this year’s maps isn’t the true halfway point? Because of various route adjustments and detours the total distance is a bit of 3028 km. These changes occur every year so it’s impossible to have an official halfway monument. However, a nominal halfway marker (to signify the halfway point of the 2016/17 season) has been placed just past the wind turbine lookout. It’s only roughly 4 km short of our halfway point, but it seemed like a good enough place to celebrate.

I think that bears repeating. In just under 2 months I have walked over 1500 km. For reference, Brisbane to Sydney is around 950 km. I’ve basically walked to Sydney, realised it’s a rubbish city, and walked halfway home. Before I started the TA, before I even did my two warm-up hikes, my longest journey was 60 km around the Kepler Track. I’ve now done the equivalent of 25 circuits. And I’m only halfway. In the moment it didn’t feel quite as surreal, it was just an important milestone. I suppose my view of what is normal has been warped slightly by being in this TA bubble since late October; the vast majority of people would never consider walking that far even for a large sum of money.

But as the sign alluded to, we’re not done yet. There was still a little way to go before reaching tonight’s camp, a shelter set up in 2019 for Te Araroa walkers by – you guessed it – the Palmy council. Descending down a pine plantation, we arrived at this shelter, I believed designed in the form of a Maori marae.

I thought we’d have to camp here, but as it turns out two small sleeping platforms had been provided which I was all too eager to use. Any excuse to not put up my tent. A few other hikers opted to camp, preferring the privacy a tent provides. John and Laur, last seen going NOBO at Helena Ridge, were here, as was another Kiwi by the name of Callum, who had just started his journey in Palmy. The hut was very nice, with ample lighting coming through a big window at the back of the whare and via several skylights in the roof. The toilet was similarly nice, probably the cleanest long drop I’ve come across.

We had been really lucky with the weather today, but as the Sun began to set, a taste of what we’d be dealing with tomorrow rolled in. The forecast that I saw when leaving Palmy painted a poor picture for the upcoming couple of days. In short, lots of persistent rain. To be fair I really haven’t had to deal with much rain on the trip so far, but it appeared that streak was coming to a begrudging end. Tomorrow’s track was also going to be much tougher: 15 km in an estimated 6-7 hours. Yikes. I’m trying not to look too far ahead as I find it makes me overly nervous, but this goes against my instinctive desire to know and mentally prepare for what lays ahead of me. From the information I’m gathering, I don’t think tomorrow is going to be all that fun, but I hope to be proven wrong.