Seb on TA

Otaki forks. Up before sun. Above the clouds. Airplane mode. Mt. Crafford 1462. Can see it all: Mt.Taranaki, Wellington, ferrys, south island with snowy mountains in the distance. My eyes explode! I am so grateful! Down into mossy trees, lovely beach forest, Waikato river - clear as. Brown trouts. I take a bath and wash my clothes. Onwards through the forest. Still every few meters I have to use my hands. Finally less steep and rough. Parawai Hut? Nah, I prefer my tarp. Morning dew, tui singing, foxglove flowers. Up and down through forest, then four-wheeled track, road, street. Guy stops his car and hands me six muesli-bars! Decline five ride offers. Kiwis are awesome! Find a hat with broad rim. Ditch the old one. Push on to Paraparaumu to catch up Rob&Tris. Beach walk, holiday park, shower, delivered pizza! Just another perfect day! Porirua: Once more along the beach. Coast guards practicing. Escarpment trail, very scenic. We get free chocolate bars! Confess to the boys tha...

Leaving Wanganui. Musik on, umbrella up. 20km on state highway3: Here we go. Only hate the road when you're missing home. Big fast truck. Windblow breaks my umbrella. Now I get sunburned. Nice campground in Koitiata. I get free dinner and have good conversation with a German couple! Sunset at the beach. Bulls and Mount Rees. Beach again. Black sand, soft as flour. Then gravel, then asphalt. Cabbage trees flowering. Sit in the shade near Bulls' McDonalds to steal WiFi. Truck driver stops, buys me an icecoffe and drives off. Again free dinner from a German girl! I'm in love with live and live is with me! Palmerston North: Boring roadwalk. Easy until I get lost. Fight through blackberrys higher than myself, tramp through a river. Stop at the post office. 110g tent pegs and guy lines go back to Auckland. 5 pegs are enough. Kids ask me to join a human pyramid. It's fun. Shopping hungry at Pak'n'save. Damn, I bought too much! Leaving Palmerston North. Still to...

In Lord of the Rings they had canoes, right? So I can do the same. 8 days food, a German girl, Anna, plus my friends Rob&Tris. No more sore legs. Leaving Taumarunui the rapids are quite exiting. White water squirting into the boat. Some would call it rafting. Campsite on a meadow. Rabbit chews through my tent and through four more layers of plastic - firstly to piss me off and secondly to eat my peanut butter. Bastard! Scenic waterfalls. Car in the water. Steep rocky shores. A wild goat trapped inbetween walls of rock. Out of the boat. Grab it by the neck, pull it down. Kill it and grill it. Nice smoky meat. Finally get over ditching my bow. River gets calmer. Impressive rock formations. Logs in the water. More goats, strong wind. We tie canoes together and let us float. Glowworms in a little cave next to the campsite. Bridge to nowhere. Short walk off the river. Jetboat, guided tour. High walls of rocks. Few sidearms cutting through them. Camp at Tieke Kainga, Maori place....

Leaving Hamilton. Roommate from the hostel - Maori guy, missing teeth, rastas - decides spontaneously to join me. Hasn't even a waterbottle, no rainclothes, no tent, while I carry four day's food. Not sure if backcountry pro or just crazy. Still don't know. 13km later he gets a call. Someone found his purse. He's off. Alone through a paddock. Herd of bulls runs francticly - away from me. Camp in the pines. Good camp. Into Pirongia forest. Crossing five more paddocks with bulls. I'm singing. Nice walk through forest. 900m climb. Vine tips are the asparagus of the bush. I collect lots for dinner. In Pironga it's raining almost 24/7, but not now. Mud is deep as. Sunset from the hills top. I feel privileged. Out of Pirongia forest. Kids play "the floor is lava". I play "step onto a root or sink more than ankle deep into mud". My speed is 1,5km/hour! Mudline just below the knee. Back at the road: 6km/hour. Sun's out. Young lambs, young c...

Leaving Auckland. 20km later: Do I shurely have all my gear? Yes. But I also have the hostel key. I call my friends. Half an hour later: key is going north, I am going south. With me Tobias from Canada. We stumble into another German hiker. He started straight from the airport, jetlag and untanned. Hiker party with delivered pizza, then sleep behind a public toilet in the park. Clevedon and Hunua Ranges. Early start, easy roadwalk. Soft rain keeps everything wet. A car looses control and slips into the fence 5 meter before us. Tyres smoking! Wow! Young Asian driver is happy to be unharmed. Own route to the Sunday farmers market in Clevedon. Whitebait toast. Google it! More rain and finally a muddy forest. Pleasant soft mud, then unpleasant, then boring. Finally the hut we pushed forwards to. No mats, but rainwater! Muesli and nuts. Have to focus not to devour the plastic bag as well. Towards Mercer. Rain non stop, but less mud. This path hasn't seen many footprints yet. Steep...

Road, beach, road, cute girl with a bike, camp in the forest. Fantails as neighbours. Towards Mangwhai Heads: Clouds of sandflies in the grass, yet peacefully. Eroded cliff walk or busy, winding car road? Hello asphalt my old friend, I've come to walk on you again... Beside the road the scum of mankind thrown away by the scum of mankind. Not caring about nature seems to come along with not caring about health: alcohol bottles, cigarettes, junk food and soda cans. Anyhow it's much less trash than what I'm used to from Europe. Pine forests behind the dunes make a good camp. Broken branches are the better tent pegs in the sandy ground. Along the beach until Pakiri. I introduce another German fellow to the taste of potato flakes and conserved salmon. Then school kids stop me and I end up giving a lesson in class about Te Araroa. So much fun! I feel proud about what I'm doing. Kids give me their home made lip balm - as if they would have know, that it was the thing I was...

Towards Kerikeri, across meadows and farmland. Sheep's and Turkey and bulls. Shoes off I feel like Frodo in Lord of the rings, when I walk barefoot through a landscape that looks like the shire. Paihia. Finally back at the sea. Sun is strong. My umbrella helps to prevent me getting  sunburned. I dig some Tua Tua shellfish from the beach for dinner. Peanut butter into zip locks. Ready to leave town. The next 13 km are leading along the bay. The car-ferry is transferring us to the other side onto a peninsula for just one dollar. Some locals offer to stay in their caravan. Russel forest. River's are the highway in the jungle. However 3km walking upstream take time. Moreport track. Lot's of work going on to bring the trail in good condition. Occasionally there's even gravel put into the mud pits. Paradoxically everything humans do to the ground to build better roads makes it worse to somebody, who is walking barefoot. The mud feels alright. Feet keep getting wet a...