After saying goodbye to Nora, I spent a couple days camping in Turangi, then caught a hitch to Lake Taupo with a cool Mauri guy. He dropped me off on the main promenade along the lake, and I booked a few nights at the Haka Lodge hostel.
Then I took the bus as far north as I could go, and caught a hitch with a nice woman into another small volcanic lake town of Rotorua, famous for all its hot springs. She was a Jehovas Witness, and it was fun hearing about what she believes.
From there, I booked a room at the Funky Green hostel, hit the supermarket for some fresh food, and went there to crash into bed for some more R&R.
While there, I met a girl named Maureen who had just finished the Appalachian trail in November, and had been in Hawaii for 2 months. She had just arrived in New Zealand before heading back to the states to hike the PCT in April. We decided to partner up and go do the Terawera trail to Hot Water Beach on Terawera Lake. We spent an evening with Aaron and his family, who she had been traveling with since arriving in the country a week ago. Together, we visited the Redwood forest in Rotorua, and then stayed up late talking about everything under the sun. Aaron was a lawyer in Tillamook, Oregon, and it was nice to talk with someone who knew about my old home.
The next day, Maureen and I would’ve caught the bus a few kilometers out of Rotorua, but it swerved past us without stopping, so we just walked to the road to the Trailhead instead. An old fella on a bike gave us the tip to walk into the woods and pick up a nice walking trail off the highway. Once there, we got an immediate hitch in the camper van of this guy from South Africa, who was living in the Terawera village with his wife there.
He took us all the way to the trailhead. Along the way, we passed a hitchhiker that was just a hundred meters up from us. We laughed, because we probably took his ride, hah! I’m sure he ended up making it.
We had lunch and then set out on the 15km Terawera Trail to Hot Water Beach. A few hours of nice smooth forest walking and we were there, with our feet in the springs. There were two streams flowing into the lake that were practically boiling, at around 70 and 80 degrees Celsius. This makes for incredibly enjoyable swimming, as there are little pockets of hot and cold water all about the shore, that you can mix and meander around to find the temperature pocket of your liking.
We met the fella that had been hitch hiking ahead of us as well, his name was Joe, an 18yo student from England who had just finished high school. It was fun watching him cook his pasta dinner in the boiling stream. The camp warden, Jason, was super talkative. He told us he often slow cooks roasts at the spring over the course of 12 to 24 hours. He lives on a boat there at the hot water beach, which sounds like paradise.
The next day, we took a shuttle boat back to Terawera trailhead, and an older woman was nice enough to give us a ride all the way back into Rotorua. Maureen, Joe, and I bought some food and drinks at the supermarket, and then walked down the road to the bus stop, where we said goodbye to Joe. Maureen and I took the bus as far North out of town as we could go, and then we stuck out our thumbs, looking for a ride an hour north to the lovely beach town of Tauranga.
Within ten minutes, a big ol dirty logging/landscaping rig pulled off the road. The two guys inside, Ben and his boss Tony, were nice enough to give us a ride right into town. Ben was a younger guy who was super into motocross and dreamed of competing in the american league, despiite that he had broken some 16 bones in his practice of the sport. What dedication! Or maybe stupidity! Oh well, you often can’t tell the difference in the aftermath. Tony had moved to New Zealand from Mexico some 30 years ago, and had just started his own arborist company. They were both super nice, and Ben even gave us some drinks on the road. We were dropped off right in the middle of Tauranga, and hopped on the bus to the beach below Mt. Maunganui, the most commanding mountain in this region at about 1,000 feet above the ocean below. We booked a night at the holiday park there (we probably got the worst possible spot and it was super expensive) and then we had some drinks at the beach, before jumping in the hot pools right next door to our camp for the following 2 hours.
As I said, the pitch was not ideal for campers, as we were put right next to basically a big air conditioning unit that was literally running allllll night. It sucked. I was hardly able to catch a few hours of sleep with earplugs despite the noise.
The next day, we ran up Mt. Maunganui and got all the great views, and then ran back down to camp and packed up. We hopped on a couple of buses to make it most of the way out of Tauranga, and then within a few moments of walking down the highway to hitchhike, a car pulls over and beckons us on! We weren’t even hitchhiking yet, and we already got a ride, haha, what! The guy and his girlfriend who picked us up said they loved hitchhikers, and they were headed to Auckland after a pleasant evening taking their car to a “skid” meeting, where apparently people try to get the best skids. I don’t pretend to understand the appeal of burning up your tires, but hey, I can’t complain about the ride! They helped us all the way to Waihi, the beginning of the Coramandel Peninsula, a beautiful section of the North Island complete with beautiful coastal mountains, forest, beaches, hot springs, and all the other stuff that hikers like us love.
In Waihi, we waited about an hour for a ride on the scenic coastal highway, and then took a break for lunch in the gas station there. The second time we tried, we walked farther down the road out of town to the East, and after a half an hour, an older man circled back around and offered to take us to Whangamata! I was super sleepy during the ride, but apparently Maureen was interesting enough in talking to the old guy, and he offered to let us stay at his beach house in town for a couple nights! I was skeptical at first, but he turned out to be a really nice guy who had retired from a life working Logistics for Old Spice in Auckland. He lives at this beach house with his wife Sue and son, Jeremy. Oh, and when he wanted to say “a lot!” he would say “Choccalocca!” Lol!
We had a splendid time meeting them and really soaking in the relaxation on the Whangamata beach, going swimming and body boarding through the waves. They took us out for dinner, and their son really impressed us with his extensive knowledge on every possible topic. He seemed to have a photographic memory.
Finally, Jeremy offered us a ride all the way an hour north along the peninsula to Hot Water Beach, our next target destination. We really couldn’t thank them enough for their hospitality and kindness towards these two absolute strangers that they picked up on the highway.
At Hot Water Beach, we walked along the beach and found the spot where everyone was digging holes to try to make enough hot water come in to make a spa bath. It seemed like a lost cause in many of their cases, much like the gold rush, haha. A lot of people were digging in the wrong places, or all their hard work was washed away by the tide. A few people had some really nice pools going, but it seemed unworth the effort, and Maureen and I were content just watching and comandeering some of the abandoned pools dug by others. Of course, the shovel rental business was booming there!
Later that evening, we caught the beach bus further up the Peninsula to the Ferry Landing, where a short ferry takes you across the river to the town of Whitianga. Of course, the camping rates were outrageous ($20 per person to camp) so Maureen and I decided to hike up a nice trail on the forested side of the river, and we ended up finding a perfect place to stealth camp.
The next day, we caught the ferry and spent lunch in Whitianga. Around 2pm, we walked out of town and caught a ride with a fella going to Coromandel, the principle touristy town of the peninsula and the gateway to the gravel roads that lead to the most unspoiled of the natural resources on the Peninsula.
We booked a room at the Tui Hostel there, and us splitting the private double room actually cost less than individually buying a bunk in the 8 bed dorms! Score! There’s definitely a host of benefits of traveling with a partner or two, especially if you’re trying to travel budgetwise.
At the hostel, we met an older guy named Reg, who invited us to ride with him up the dirt roads to the tip of the Coromandel peninsula, where the greatest beauties of this region lie. So we joined up with him, and spent the next few days driving up the Peninsula, walking the Coromandel Trail, and camping at Port Jackson, a gorgeous campsite straddling a beach (our site was just a few meters from the ocean at high tide), with views of New Zealand’s Barrier Islands looming in the distance.
Finally, we drove back to Coromandel, and then an hour south to the town of Thames. We thought about doing the hike to the Pinnacles, but it seemed a little overblown for tourists and we decided rather to spend a pleasant evening after dinner in town at the Dickson’s Holiday Park, where we had some beers and played cards (Gin Rummy, Delicious Barbeque, etc) until late.
The next day, we ran into Thames and enjoyed their Saturday street market, and then said goodbye to Reg, as he dropped us off in Kopu on the highway to Auckland, before he headed down to Tauranga for a week of Woofing before going to pick up his son for holiday.
Within 10 minutes, we got a ride from a local Auckland farmer and industrial real estate guy, who drove us as far as 35km outside of the city center.
Then, within a few moments of sticking out our thumbs, a Tongan fella named Steven pulled off out of his way and gave us a ride all the way into downtown Auckland, while giving us history lessons on the Tongan islands and telling us about his business carving whale bones. He even bought us drinks and wouldn’t accept gas money. I was really blown away by his kindness and his genuinely nice personality.
Back in Auckland, Maureen and I spent one night at the BK Hostel before she caught a plane down to the South Island in Queenstown, to start the real part of her New Zealand adventures.
And as for me, I spent another night at the hostel before catching a bus to the Auckland Airport, from where I have typed this last blog post. I said it best on Social Media, so here’s an excerpt from there:
Flying back to the States tomorrow. Goodbye to everyone I met along the way, you all made the journey more memorable, fun, bearable. Farewell to the Pyrénées, the Alps, and the South Island, where pieces of my heart will forever remain. So long to all the storms of lightning and thunder, the snow, hail, and driving winds, the freezing rain and the intense sun, you showed me some of what a water-based Earthling can endure. Au revoir to all the surging river crossings of New Zealand and the glacier-laden alpine cols of France, you thrilled and adrenalized and pushed me well beyond my hiking comfort zone. Each strife was rewarded in turn by the most spectacular scenery I have ever borne witness to. I’ll never forget the kindnesses of strangers, the sunsets, the sound of the ocean, finding happiness with relationships, friendships, and experiences, rather than material goods. This is the end.
