On TA you can be alone one day, and have a new group of besties the next. Which is what happened today! At exactly the right moment, because I was starting to feel a little alone after leaving all the familiar faces behind in Auckland.

The Swiss Marie, Kiwi Grace, German Robert and I walked together for the day, which involved a mixture of roadwalking (more specifically, dangerous highwaywalking), hilly farmland dotted with sheep, a bit of forest and a long stretch of overgrown stopbank along a flooded river.

After a long day of walking we finally reached the depressing little place that is Mercer. It's basically a large truckers' rest stop / gas station, with a closed down Irish pub, a closed down tavern, and a deserted but open McDonald's. Guess where we had dinner.

A fantastic day! I hiked with Grace and Marie, which made the flooded Waikato river walk a hilarious experience instead of an otherwise scary endeavour. We waded for kilometers through farmland that had turned into a big pond, including large carps and eels (ewww). This resulted in many girly screams, especially when said creatures swam a little too close to our legs. Speaking of scary animals, during lunch we were suddenly surrounded by a bee swarm, that thankfully left us unharmed.

When we eventually exchanged the flooded trail for some roadwalking, we went for a coffee at NZ's biggest race track. A weird place to be for a bunch of dirty hikers!

For dinner we had some award winning pies from our local Rangiriri host, which were indeed verrrrry good. Treating ourselves as always, after dinner we went to the pub nextdoor for a drink and a laugh. We ordered 'shots of the house', a tradition invented by Marie, and then crawled into our sleeping bags right before sunset.

We've hiked more than 700 km now!

We started our hiking day with a flat white 💕 as soon as the neighbouring cafe opened its doors at 7 am. Filled with a decent amount of caffeine, we were ready to face the trail and the predicted bad weather.

For the first hour, we stayed dry, walking through paddocks on a small dyke. And then... it started to pour, hard, with thunder. We hid in a cow shed and had a snack, then stepped back into the rain when the lightning was gone.

Another 8 km of rain- and roadwalking brought us to Huntly, where a big supermarket brightened our day. Armed with chocolate and crisps we checked into our cabin and spent our afternoon chilling, eating and chatting while rain and wind were raging outside.

Bought new shoes! ✅

Ate nice foods! ✅

Trail admin! ✅

I've been walking for more than a month now, but it doesn't feel like it. By which I don't mean that it feels more like a day or a year; I mean that I don't feel any measure of time at all. Time has become fluid, even non-existant in a way. It just is (or isn't). It's a peculiar sensation, but a nice one. I wonder if this is what living in the moment is like. If it is, the gurus are right: I love it. 

Wowowow! ☀️ December is here and summer has started. We enjoyed a very sunny walk along the Awa river towards Whatawhata, where we camped in a trail angel's garden and, of course, drank our mandatory #shotofthehouse at the local pub.

Another sunny day, perfect for a gentle ascend through hilly grassland. Beautifully similar to Switzerland, the landscape made Marie feel a little homesick. We stayed at a nice free campsite next to a river, where we lit a small bonfire and saw glow worms at night.

Conquered our first (small) mountain, Pirongia! Still walking with Marie and Grace, I think we can now officially be considered a 'tramily'; a trail family. We have our weird traditions, a shared playlist on Spotify and will be spending Christmas together. So, that's pretty much as family as it gets I guess :)

Today was a long but beautiful grassy forest trail with great views over New Zealand's typical hobbit landscape. After a few days without rain, a lot (but definitely not all) of the bush mud has dried out - lucky us!

Despite all the beauty it was a tough walking day for me, because my lungs hurt. Probably a combination of allergens and a minor cold. I'm looking forward to stocking up on vitamins in the next supermarket. 🍊

A short but lovely hiking day through farmland and along forest ridges. Beautiful purple flowers are blooming everywhere, although Grace keeps reminding Marie and me that they are 'just weeds'. We're lucky to sleep in trail angel Steve's garage house tonight, because from tomorrow onwards it is going to start raining again... 

A loooong day of roadwalking, accompanied by intermittent rain. It's all gravel and turmac, slowly ascending and descending, and curving around endless grass hills. Highlight of the day was being able to pack and later pitch our tents dry. And eating crackers with brie and chorizo in the tent while it rained.

With a weather forecast warning for both heavy rain and thunder storms, we decided to backtrack 500 meters and rent a cabin for the night. Rest day!

Wow, I felt so strong today! Yesterday's rest has completely restored my legs. Without any problems I tramped the first 38 km's of the Timber Trail, including a very wet hike up to the highest point so far (Mt Pureora 1165 m). Multiple rain showers soaked us to the core, but couldn't destroy our happy moods.

Before we set up camp, we had a pizza overloaded with cheese at the Timber Trail lodge, which came with a sneaky hot shower at the toilets and free tea + cookies. All that warmed us up enough to walk the very last kilometer of the day to our free campsite and crawl into our sleeping bags as soon as we could. 

On the second day of the Timber Trail, we continued the beautifully maintained path through forest and fields. The weather turned to perfect and we got to enjoy another few spectacular suspension bridges, hung high above river, trees and cascades.

After walking the 35 kilometers we had planned for today (and passing the 1000 km mark!) we discovered that the campsite we had in mind did not exist. So, we decided to walk an extra 8 km to reach the next camp, resulting in a personal record 43 kilometer day ✔️

It wasn't easy to push forward but the trail was beautiful, especially towards the end when the lowering sun made everything golden. And just when I was getting exhausted during the last 2 kilometers, I spotted my favourite New Zealand bird for the first time since coming back here - the fantail 😁

... And as if I hadn't been rewarded enough already, when I woke up at night and looked through the mesh of my tent, I was surprised by a million brilliant stars staring back at me. The first starry sky I was able to witness during my hike, and it was a glorious one for sure ✨

Just an easy day of roadwalking into town, stopping at a quirky roadside shop for an overpriced flat white from the machine. Basking in the morning sun, we enjoyed our break a little too long to avoid the rain. Not a problem though, as we were on our way to lovely trail angels Dale and Kelvin, who offered us a place to sleep inside.

Arriving at their picturesque pensioner's cottage, we were immediately treated to Dale's phenomenal baking. Ginger cookies, shortbread, a fruit loaf fresh out of the oven... 🤤 Combined with a bunch of cats and kittens, I couldn't wish for a better place to recover and immediately decided to have another rest day here. Feeling like the luckiest hiker on the planet!

One rest day well spent, by visiting the local alpaca farm 🦙🦙🦙❤️ and doing the usual trail admin / resupply

Tonight Marie and I will do some Dutch/Swiss fusion cooking for amazing angels Dale and Kelvin! 💃 

Today was an uneventful roadwalk, the only noteworthy thing being a lonely ostrich, that walked with us along its fence and tried to seduce us with a sensual wing flapping / mating ritual.

We camped at a beautiful spot next to a river, where I had a great cold dip right before it continued to rain for most of the afternoon.

We started the day by backtracking 2 kilometers, so we could get a large flat white at the cafe in Owhango. So worth it! ☕😍

Then we started hiking the 42 Traverse, which wasn't exactly an interesting trail for hikers. More like a polished off-road experience for four-wheel drives.

But thanks to the obscene amounts of rain we've been having, the trail did turn into a bit of an adventure when we reached a humongous slip that washed away 150 meters of road. We climbed over many fallen trees, wrestled with roots and stumbled through the sand to reach the other side, where the trail continued.

After following a slightly more interesting 4x4 road, we crossed two rivers and found a great place to wild camp, right after the second river. The perfect place for another ice cold bath 😄

Not a long walk today, but a steep and slippery one. Clambering up a wet ATV track reminded me of trying to climb up waterslides as a child. Although this time the result was slightly more succesful, being able to actually reach the end. And I only fell once.

From the next little trail leading through an area with lots of Maori history, I could see the first views of Tongariro National Park. The exhilarating volcanic landscape that I'll be hiking through tomorrow!

But first it was time to rest the legs a little at Tongariro Holiday Park, which features a spa pool that can be rented per 30 minutes. Thanks to no other customers wanting to use this facility, we overstayed & soaked for 2.5 hours. Excellent bathing time! 😁