Days 51-55: Pureora Forest

Back on the trail! Well, sort of, and only temporarily. Liz rested her foot in Te Kuiti with Donna and Brett, while I headed out to hike about 80km through Pureora Forest, ending up in Taumarunui. It was a great forest - possibly the best so far. I was sad that Liz missed it, but happy to have something to do for a few days.


I split up our gear and the five days of food we've been carrying around since Hamilton, and my pack was surprisingly light, considering I was carrying a two person tent and two person sleeping bag. Luckily I was able to leave quite a bit with Liz - things like chargers, the phone, and half the first aid kit.

Donna and Brett offered to drop me off at the start of the forest, skipping about 60km of road walking - awesome! All four of us drove out on Sunday morning. I had to say goodbye to everyone - Liz only for a few days, but Donna and Brett possibly forever, since I'd be meeting Liz on the bus and heading directly to Wellington after I finish the forest. Another awesome pair of Kiwis that we're sorry to leave behind!

Packing up - our gear was all mixed up after 2 weeks of living in civilization

Liz and I with Donna & Brett at the beginning of the trail

The morning of hiking was pretty uneventful, and a bit lonely. From the parking lot, trail headed directly, but fairly gently, up to the summit of Mt. Pureora, my tallest peak on the trail so far at ~1100m. I walked part of it on a gravel road, and part on a mountain biking trail. The trail notes and maps didn't really agree with each other, and reality was a mix of the two - it turns out I should have taken the mountain biking trail (referred to as the Toitoi trail, but now called the Timber Trail) all the way up. Oh well. Either way it was an easy morning, with nice views starting to show up behind me as I climbed.

A "historic crawler tractor" abandoned in the forest along the way.
Rather than move it, DoC decided to build it a little hut.

Mountain biking trails are like a superhighways compared to some of the other forests!

Just as I was thinking "it's about time for a snack break," this bus stop appeared

Very easy, well maintained trail for most of the way up

There were lots of gnarly Totara trees in this forest - gave it an eerie feeling at times

Closer to the top, off the mountain biking trail,
the trees shrunk and a boardwalk appeared

At the top I found two great things - the first was an amazing 360 degree view that stretched for miles in every direction. The second was Ben! He was just finishing up his lunch, but decided to wait for me. I was glad to have some company.

Awesome 360 degree view from the top! In this picture you can (sort of, barely) see Lake Taupo on the left, and Mt. Ruapehu, a snow covered volcano, in the middle, partially obscured by the clouds.

Ben, descending from the summit

Pureora Forest, which starts around km 960 of the trail, is only the second place where you encounter DoC maintained backcountry huts (the first hut is near Pirongia, which is a section we had to skip). From here they start to become a bit more common, and on the South Island it sounds like you can stay in huts almost every night. This is great, because the huts are amazing!

Even the "basic" huts generally have bunks with mattresses, running water (usually from rain barrels), and wood stoves complete with chopped firewood and coal if you're lucky. They are all "free" to stay in if you've purchased a backcountry hut pass. Not only do they provide shelter, they also make packing up in the morning really easy, with no tent or sleeping pads to pack up.

Pureora has three huts, and they're spaced a bit awkwardly for faster walkers - closer together than you really want them to be, but far enough apart that skipping one means a looong day. Ben and I stopped early at Bog Inn Hut, and met a few other TA hikers there - Tom & Nic from England, and Gerald from Germany. They are some of the first people we've run into that have similar gear to us - we all have the same brand of tent (TarpTent), and 3 of us have the same type of pack (Osprey Exos).

Bog Inn Hut from the outside

Inside the hut - not bad, but not nearly as nice as the other 2 huts in Pureora

Tom has the same pack as I do, in a smaller size.
His has seen about 3000 more miles than mine has though - compare the color of the straps!

Dinnertime stickpic - (clockwise) me, Tom, Gerald, Ben, Nic

We all cooked up some dinner, traded some food, and hung out for a while. A bit later, Dave and Alicia, more TA hikers, showed up, making us a party of 7! Unfortunately the bunk only had 4 beds, so a few people had to set up tents.

The totaras are pretty cool trees

Once the sun went down ("hiker midnight"), we all went to bed. One downside to huts is that, once one person gets up in the morning, everyone is awake, no matter how quiet everyone tries to be. So we were all up early the next morning. We psyched ourselves up for a long day, aiming to skip the second hut and make it to the third - 29km down the trail.

Ben, Tom, and all the other tall people had a tough time in this forest.
I wasn't sure what they were complaining about though.

The trail was a bit more rough than the day before, but still easier than the average forest so far. I walked with Gerald, barely keeping up, and Tom and Nic were not far behind all day. Ben, Dave, and Alicia decided to take it easy and stay at the second hut.

A second "summit" with not much of a view, even from the top of the sign

We made great time in the morning. We stopped for lunch at a great campsite about 2km short of the second hut, and had a very cold, very brief swim before eating. This forest had a surprising number of really nice campsites between the huts - it's almost a shame to have so many nice spots so close together, after so many days of searching for flat, public spots up north. From there the trail got a bit more steep until we reached the second hut, which was much nicer than the Bog Inn Hut.

A log crossing, with our lunch spot way in the background

Big, rotted kauri (?) tree

Waihaha hut had 10 bunks and was awesome, too bad we didn't stay here!

We pushed on, and were pretty much at the end of our ropes by the time we reached the third hut around 6:30 pm, almost 12 hours after we had started that morning. When we got there, I met Jeff, yet another TA hiker. He's from Collingswood, NJ, which is really close to my hometown! Tom and Nic showed up shortly afterward. We made a fire in the hut and cooked some dinner. We were all pretty wiped out - most of the dinner conversation consisted of the phrase "Boy that was a long day" or variations thereof. Later, we realized we might have gone a bit overboard with the wood stove, and turned the hut into a sauna. We opened the windows and doors to let some heat out, and in the process let some bugs in. I guess even staying in a hut takes some practice.

Hut #3... I could get used to these sorts of accommodations

Nice sunset at the hut

The next day, We had about 40km to go until the town, Taumarunui. I was not really in a rush to get there - it was Tuesday, and I was catching the bus with Liz on Thursday afternoon. At the same time, everyone else was taking a day off in Taumarunui, and I didn't really want to camp on the side of the road by myself. So Gerald and I walked together again, and made it all the way into town. It wasn't bad - the roads were not at all busy, and the countryside was very pretty. But we were still ready to stop walking by the time we got there. Luckily. the first thing we came across in town was a McDonalds, and I recharged with the hiker deal of the century - a small soft serve cone for $0.60.

This fence is no longer an effective barrier 

Not all road walking is bad

Gerald, Jeff, Tom, and Nic all ended up in town with me. We did some shopping, then caught rides to the holiday park. In the grand scheme of holiday parks, the one in Taumarunui is pretty great. It's clean, right next to the river, has big planters with fresh herbs for everyone to use, and even has free BBQ grills (most holiday parks have coin operated grills, a concept I've never seen outside of NZ). We cooked up a feast of sausages and vegetables, had a few beers, then headed to bed.

Nice picnic area at the campground

Intruder alert! A hedgehog found its way into my food bag!
When I discovered him,  he tried to escape, very slowly, by crawling under my tent.
I couldn't stay mad though, he was pretty cute.

We spent the next day in town, shopping, using the internet at the library, and eating. Taumarunui is a large small town, so it had everything we needed.

At least they're honest, unlike our dollar stores

On Wednesdays, New World runs a shuttle for elderly and disabled shoppers.
I guess we were hobbling around enough to qualify as disabled, so they gave us a lift back to the holiday park.

Later that day, Ben, Dave, and Alicia showed up, so we had a record crowd of 8 hanging out at the holiday park that night.

Happy hiking crew enjoying some beers:
(left to right) - Jeff, Ben, Dave, Alicia, Gerald, Tom, Nic

6 TA tents (4 of them TarpTents) all clustered together at the holiday park

On Thursday morning, everyone went on their way. Jeff, Gerald, Tom, Nic, and Ben all continued down the trail. I was a bit jealous to see them go, especially knowing that they would be doing the Tongariro Crossing (billed as the "finest day hike in the world") in a few days. Dave and Alicia are also heading to Tongariro, but skipped ahead a bit on the bus so they could make it to the Whanganui for their canoe reservation on the 23rd. It was a lot of fun to meet so many new walkers - unfortunately, I doubt we will catch back up to them - they'll all be at least 2 days ahead of us on the river trip, and walk faster than Liz and I will when we first get started again.

Liz and I are still holding out hope for coming back and filling in all of the trail we're skipping, but the more we hear about the ~250 km stretch between Mercer and Te Kuiti, the less motivated we are. It sounds rough and fairly unpleasant, without much of a payoff. We will, however, definitely come back up and do Pureora Forest (it was worth a repeat for me), and continue on to Tongariro, which is a major highlight of the north island. That will be a nice 10 day section that will fill in about half of the mileage and probably abut 90% of the scenery that we had to skip.

Thursday afternoon, I met Liz on the bus, and we headed down to Wellington. The plan is to hang out there until the 27th, then head back up to start the 5 day Whanganui canoe trip with the Brits, Ben, Lance (another TA hiker), and 2 others. Another group of 8 - should be an awesome way to spend New Year's, especially because we can bring heavy food & drink in the canoes (think boxed wine). Liz's foot continues to improve, so we're still planning to walk on from Whanganui - fingers crossed!