Author Archives: zillainthewild

I made sure to be ready at 6:30 because the lovely woman I camped at, drove me the 2 km back to the official trail plus 1 kn further. To the house of Dee. An absolute sweetheart who let us camp at her place last time. I say we because we were with 7 inContinue reading “Day 13”

I think my new time to wake up is 5 o’clock. Bit too early so I stayed in bed a bit longer. Today will consist of road walking and road walking only as the beautiful Russel forest is closed to protect the Kauri tree from the Kauri dieback disease. I applaud DOC for the drasticContinue reading “Day 12”

I slept very well in a bed again. In the morning I heard the pilot (Maurice) getting up and although I probably could have slept a little longer, I wanted the start the day so I would have plenty of time to wash, resupply, and eat in Paihia. I said goodbye to Carol and lookedContinue reading “Day 11”

Today would be 25km to Kerikeri and another 8-ish km to stay and the brother of the Kiwi brothers. I was really excited to eat. So I hurried today. Again a group got up at 5! And unfortunately not very quietly. So I just did the same. I was down to 5 oatmeal bars andContinue reading “Day 10”

Today will be such a lovely hike! Last time I loved it, but thought it was quite challenging. Especially the middle part where you walk on the slope next to the river. The trail would be small with little detours up and down because of fallen trees or landslides. I also remember that halfway thereContinue reading “Day 9”

Today wasn’t an extremely interesting day. A road walk to start with. A road walk to finish with and a road walk in the middle. We would walk past a small shop that was happy to serve me fries at 10:30 am. So while the rest ate pastries I ate fries. The road was firstContinue reading “Day 8”

It rained during the night and I thanked my lucky stars that I waterproofed my tent! It holds the rain pretty well, but I’m not 100% convinced that it will hold much rain. So I need a new tent. When my alarm went at 5 am, another rain cloud floated passed our campsite. I snoozedContinue reading “Day 7”

There was a slight drizzle in the night, but before my hopefully waterproof tent was put to the test, it stopped. This time I started packing at 7:30 with 1 item that still needed a waterproof coat. So I packed up everything else and then another light shower passed. I brought my backpack to theContinue reading “Day 6”

I let myself sleep in till 7 am. Still early but I wanted to get up. So I started packing everything except my tent because I was staying another night. You might wonder why even pack at all because not carrying a pack would feel like cheating. The others were packing up as well, butContinue reading “Day 5”

The final day of 90 mile beach. It remains such a milestone to complete it and I was looking forward to a change of scenery, although the thought of the following road walks terrified me. To complete the beach, I had the same game plan as yesterday. Get up in the night, walk as farContinue reading “Day 4”