Te Araroa Day 65, Pakawau to Aorere

Starting km: (1747)
Finishing km: (1785)
km covered today: 38

My first full day on the South Island got off to an early start.

Joel and Owen were keen to accompany me for the majority of my day's walk, 21km of which would be on the Kaituna Track. They were (not unreasonably) less enthralled with the idea of walking the 17km of road from their house to the start of the track.

Since their mom had offered to drive us all to the start of the track, I woke nice and early to ensure I'd be out of the house and on the road before 05:00.

Despite it being within days of the summer solstice it was still dark with brilliant stars in the sky when I set out.  But this meant that most of my walk was spent with the sunrise and the first rays hitting Whanganui Inlet to my right and the mountains beyond. Though it was all on road pretty much at sea level the views were superior to those from a lot of tramping tracks up in the hills.

I arrived at the start of the Kaituna Track a mere eight minutes before my companions. After some breakfast and a bit more rearrangement of my pack (it was a one-way track, so it would be possible to leave most of my load in the car and have it meet me at the far end!) we were off.

First stop was Knuckle Hill, only 506m high, but the highest thing around by a long way, so it had views out over everything I'd spent the morning walking alongside (and most of what we'd spend the rest of the day walking through.)

The track was a little bit rough in places, but generally well marked and easy to follow. And the variety of the land it went through was amazing. Towards the north end the soil was very acidic, so it varied between manuka bush and sub-alpine-looking tussock (even though it was only a few hundred metres asl). In the middle it was valleys and ridge tops covered in mixed forest of beech and rata (including, off in the distance some truly spectacular cliffs surrounded by scores of brilliant rata trees at the peak of their crimson bloom.) And towards the end (after a knee pounding descent and crossing a river that, while low at the moment looked like it would be truly scary in flood) fern and nikau palm took over.

It reminded me of a shorter (and tougher) version of the Heaphy Track, which I'd be tackling in the not too distant future.  Walking it with Owen and Joel was great.  Aside from just enjoying their conversation and company, they're both super knowledgeable (or at least well more than me) about NZ native plants and spent lots of time pointing out or discussing/debating the things we were walking through.

After the aforementioned knee pounding descent we finished the trail with an easy stroll along the Kaituna River.

At the end of the track we sat and waited for Owen and Joel's ride home (and the delivery of my extra gear.) After Owen ran down the road to a point with mobile reception he and I both went for a swim in the river, his long and relished, mine quick and squeal-y (the water was pretty cold!) but not regretted.

Steve showed up with the car and I said my goodbyes and gave my final hugs to my trekking companions.