I legged it into town this morning, about 5 or 6k, and ate a humongous breakfast, washed down with a couple of flat whites.
Yesterday was tough going and this morning, cold soaked oats or an OSM bar just wasn’t going to make the grade. Seriously. I felt like I was eating for Australia.
Afterwards I was stuffed full, but I knew that feeling wouldn’t last! Hiker hunger is a real thing people!
Today was still a bit wet. I’ve been reading the weather reports and closely tracking it, not just for where I am now but also for where I will be a few days down the trail as I need to keep informed, particularly about water that could come down river. I see the South Island is still being hammered. I hope everyone on trail and already in the backcountry and alpine regions are travelling ok.
I waddle off out of Waitomo and past some great farm scenes and on to a track that is steady but still a bit steep from time to time, with 150m ascents and descents. It is a little rugged out here. (Oh, the understatements in this blog...)
I passed some massive boulders that had apparently been displaced from the Mangakina Explosion around 1.6 to 0.9m years ago (and thrown from around 60 kms away!)
Once past the suspension bridge over the Mangapu River, I walked through Pehitawa Forest, one of the remaining strands of Kahikatea trees.
I hiked (with permission) through some private farmland and detoured to a site of historical pohutukawa and holly trees.
The story goes that in 1883, Maori Chief Mahuki seized a railway survey party which included a fella called Wilson Hursthouse. Mahuki was furious of Hursthouse’s role in sacking the peaceful village of Parihaka (a major centre for non violent resistance to British occupation).
The survey party peered from their prison shed to see Maori writing their names on pigs and then slitting their throats.
The door of their cell flew open and there told their rescuer, Te Kooti, himself an outlaw. (Te Kooti was a Maori leader and guerilla fighter raging against colonisation).
Whitinui Joseph (great grandfather of All Black Jamie Joseph) and a kinsman of Mahuki, celebrated the ensuing peace by planting two trees, a British holly and a Maori Pohutukawa.
This tree has deep spiritual meaning for Maori, connecting the beginning and ending of human life. The red flowers represent the blood of the warrior Tawhaki, a spirit Ancestor who showed the way from earth to heaven but fell and died in doing so.
I know I have diverged somewhat from the trail with this story but l love these reminders of the past and the threads of the earth’s tapestry that connect us still.
I headed back to the track, over another bridged stream, through a paddock and on to farm track, back through to farmland and up to the trig point before hiking on to the Brook Park Reserve Trail and into Te Kuiti.
I linked up with a trail angel here and camped in her backyard. Thanks Sue. I also used her washing machine. THANKS Sue!
Pohutukawa flower
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