Te Araroa (day 11) - Whangarei Heads to Mangawhai / mile 267

Thursday, 30th November 2023

Late start to a decent day of hiking.

I was all packed up and ready when Blair rolled on to Reotahi Beach driving mini tractor attached to a boat, he reversed submerged the boat half way in and asked me to jump in. Within 5 minutes we were speeding across the Reotahi Bay. I was the only person taking the ride, it cost me 40$, others grouped in 5 were paying 12$ each. Blair stopped on the other side of the bay, ride only took few minutes, he noticed that my pack was very light compared to others and I think it was because there was no food in it!

Next section was going along the beach, I found few cool shells here, including a black Camino style shell which I'm planning to replace with the one on my backpack. 

After an hour I took an alternate path going through Ruakaka and next to a supermarket as it was time to resupply. Store was called Fresh Choice, they had a good selection of products, slightly above the regular prices, for a three day resupply and a breakfast I paid 53$ - that with the ferry fee added to a very expensive day.

On the way back to the beach I met Steve, trail angel of sorts. He stopped his car on the side of the road and handed me his homemade cookies, an egg and two cereal bars. He was was wearing two pairs of glasses one of which was half broken with glass misplaced, half of his index finger was missing. He was asking me a lot of questions about plans for the trail ahead. I thanked him for the food (his cookies smelled really doughy and were quite undercooked but I took them anyway) and carried on walking. After 10 minutes I saw his car again, he stopped right next to me on the street and he started to explain what sections of the North Island would be good for me to skip so I would have enough time to explore South Island in time. Steve was definitely a character, I love people like that but I guess they can be 'too much' for some, especially people who never hiked before.

After another long stretch of the beach and road walking I arrived in town called Waipu, this place had a lot of little shops and restaurants. I got myself a bottle of coke, two snickers and the longest sausage roll I have ever seen, lunch was sorted. Last ten miles of the day was mostly roads, at around 4:30pm I've arrived at the brand new campsite which wasn't even yet on the Far Out map (but people were talking about it in comment section). It had a gazebo with a wooden table, pair of bluebirds nested in it's roof, self composting toilet and a water tank with a sink. What else could I ask for.

I kept on disturbing the bluebirds while eating my dinner at the table, they were sitting next to the gazebo on the wooden sign looking at me unimpressed. A pair of kingfishers was also scanning the area and sitting at the outskirts of the campsite screeching along. I really liked the atmosphere of this place, everything seemed to be where it belonged.