TA Day 108

TA Day 108: Saturday 5 April 2025

Orewa - Moir Hill Road

Started the morning with banana bread and biscoff spread for breakfast 😂 Guess you do whatever you want when you're hiking, who needs to be a responsible adult!? Was nice though.

Today the weather was much better than yesterday. Sunny and pleasant. Along the way we stopped to talk to some people, but other than that, not much happened as we road walked to Puhoi. Puhoi was as far north as we'd ever been in New Zealand, as we drove there before the hike to meet up with Peter Bergström, who hiked SOBO this season.

This part to Puhoi is normally not a road walk, but that is only if you: walk SOBO and canoe from Puhoi to the sea, then time the tide and walk along the waters edge from Waiwera to Hatfields Beach. Then from there, you follow the beach through Orewa.

Because of where our accommodation was located, we missed the beach section in Orewa. The next part we passed while the tide was high, and then we didn't canoe. So all was roadwalking for us. But that's normal for us now and we don't really mind.

After leaving Hibiscus Coast Highway and entering Puhoi Road, suddenly a car stopped beside the road. It was the trail angel we had contacted about accommodation for tonight! We were a bit confused at first, but it was nice to at least say hi to him, since he wouldn't be home but was kind enough to let us stay in his woolshed anyway.

In Puhoi, it was just as lively as the last time we were there. Live music and lots of people at the pub. But we also realised that both this time, and the previous time we'd been here, had been on a Saturday! So perhaps it was just a Saturday type of thing?

We sat down at the pub, inside where it wasn't AS loud as outside, and slightly less crowded. Here we had some really, really nice food - fish and chips and a BLAT (Bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato) sandwich.

We had a relatively short day today so we tried not to stress and just take it easy. When we were sitting there we also looked at different options for how to get home, and finally found a good option. Buying plane tickets isn't as easy as you might think when one of you need extra legroom to make the journey, and the other would preferably like to sit in the seat beside!

When we flew here, our tickets cost 32 000 SEK! One way. This time, we managed to find tickets for 26 000 SEK, with a 3 hour connection in Singapore. The only other cheaper option for us on the 7th or 8th May was to connect in Doha and wait 11 hours during the night. Not worth it to only save 1 000 SEK.

When we continued, we walked up the Puhoi ridge. Very cozy trail at first, and we could still hear the live music from here.

Kim also helped Lukas film a video for Lundhags, as Lukas is trying out their prototype of the new Lundhags Padje Ultralight 45L.

As we continued, suddenly we had a bit of rain, and passed through a part that was a bit overgrown with gorse. Ouch.

(Later we read that they were literally here the day after and maintained the trail! Dang!)

Then the sun was back again.

Lukas jumped over a creek and Kim spent a looong time taking her shoes on/off to stay dry. Then we decided to walk the road for a bit instead of continuing on the trail through another forest part. Mainly to save some time as the sun was about to set soon.

We reached Moir Hill Road just when the sun was setting, and passed a funny goat on our detour to get to the trail angels woolshed. It had toilet, a sink and mattresses so that we could sleep inside, so we were happy.

After some snacks and a Wettex-wash outside, it was time to go to bed.

Today's:

Distance: 26.75 km

Ascent: 891 m

Descent: 607 m

Tent nights: 53/108

Weather: Mostly sunny