Suddenly, John and I were almost alone on the trail. Where did all the hikers go? Because of the trail’s reputation for leading along many roads in the roughly 140-kilometer stretch between Auckland and Hamilton, many hikers skip that section and either hitch a ride to Hamilton or take public transport. Following the slogan “Hike your own hike (HYOH)”, we decided on a continuous footpath and walk every kilometer of the trail. If we skipped the road-walks there wouldn’t be much left to hike, especially in the northern parts of the North Island, and we would miss out on some exciting scenery and encounters along the narrow backcountry roads.
Yes, there is some road walking along this stretch. Still, a lot of the country’s historical places, you’d miss out on: early Māori settlements, locations of wars against the invasion and takeover of land by the British Crown, and the modern king of the Māori still resides in Ngaruawahia.
The trail itself is sometimes just ridiculous: routed between electric fences and barbed wire fences over privately owned farmland, one bashes through the dense bush and questions not just once WTF you’re doing here? But it still is rewarding as you learn something new every day: cows are basically very skittish, climbing over an electric fence is not comfortable, but doable (and sometimes inevitable, especially if you otherwise would encounter a herd of young bulls), going slow will also eventually bring you to your destination, and also the dull parts are important parts of the trail.
Overall, you meet encouraging and sometimes also inspiring people along your way every day.
