The owner of the 90 Mile Beach Holiday Park told me that rather than walking all the 15km to Ahipara on the beach, I could walk about half the distance through the woods that ran behind the beach, if I should so wish, as there was an actual track there. I looked hard on my map and found that he was indeed right, I could walk the first 6-7km walking parallel to the beach, hiden from the Sun and wind and, more importantly to me, not on the sand! The track was easy to find and a welcome break from the monotony of the 90 Mile Beach. I had been walking quite happily for only perhaps 1km when I met a man with a wheelbarrow coming the other way. He stopped to talk to me and asked where I was heading. I said the bottom of the south island and he couldn't stop laughing! "Oh I'd call ahead now and book your place in the hostel down at The Bluff!" he advised jokingly "They'll keep the light on in the porch for you and expect you before sundown!" he continued howling with laughter and making similar comments about how I'd be there in no time, then stopping to wipe the tears from his eyes he looked at me more seriously, placed a hand on my shoulder and I could tell he was about to give me some real advice. "Now, when you walk down this path, after about 5km you'll get to a sharp left turn, down that way you'll find a lot of pine trees (every tree I could see was a pine tree at this point) as well as a lot of cut down pine trees. Further up that way you'll come to a swamp on the right with a fork in road, now naturally you'll head off to the left, but it doesn't matter if you go right either, d'you know why?" he asked "Beacuse they end up in the same place?" I guessed "That's right. They both go nowhere." he replied with a beaming smile. "Umm, they both go nowhere?" I said "That's right, you don't want to go that way at all. Back at the left turn you wanted to go right!"
I took a good couple of minutes extra to confirm with him what he had and hadn't told me and established that most of what he'd told me was irrelevant information, but that I did need to go right at the first sharp left in about 5km. I thanked him for his words of advice and carried on my way. It turns out I was rather lucky to have met him, since when the sharp left appeared, I realised that without his advice I would never have gone right and would in fact have gone about 3-4km in the wrong direction. The right hand turn lead me back onto the 90 Mile Beach and I instantly remembered what I had come to hate about the beach with its unending Sun, sea and sand. My pack felt heavier, my shoes felt sandy and gritty and my enthusiasm went way down. I was listening to my iPod at the time, and just as I was about to put the pack down and rest unprecedentedly early, a song by The Beatles came blasting on "Boooyy! Your're gonna carry that weeiigghhhtttt. Carry that weight, a looooonngg tiiiiiiimme!" So carry that weight I did, inspired by the lyrics I carried that weight for another two hours before stopping for lunch. To my absolute joy, I saw Ahipara appear round the beach within a few minutes of starting to walk again. I knew from my track notes that once in Ahipara, it was about two hours to the start of the next track into Herekino Forest, which was an eight hour hike in itself, so I decided I'd stay in Ahipara and set off for Herekino in the morning.
I stayed at the Ahipara Campsite, but this time just rented a tent space instead of a room and was pleased to hear there was a rugby game on in the evening, New Zealand's All Blacks versus Japan. I asked the lady at the office how far to the shops. She sucked the air through her teeth in a way that would have put most plumbers to shame and told me they were about 15km away. This I just could not believe, my track notes said there were full ammenities here, how big could this tiny town be if the shops were 15km away? She showed me on a map and pointed to Kaitaia indicating that this was where the shops were. I said surely there's a shop here in town somewhere. "Oh yes" she replied "There is a shop and burger bar at the end of the road. I thought you meant the big shops, like a supermarket!" I told her all I was after was some more porridge and maybe a steak for dinner. I was only joking about the steak but she then very kindly told me that she had a spare t-bone steak if I wanted it. No charge. Well this blew me away, of course Iäd love a t-bone steak! I went to the shop and got some muesli since they had no porridge (surprisingly nice with just water) and made a note of the burger bar's takeaway facility, I'd come back and get some chips to go with my steak and cook it up in time for the rugby game. I was absolutely divine! Never has steak and chips tasted so beautiful! The All Blacks beat Japan by an embarrassingly long way, but it made for a great atmosphere in the lounge (which, by the way, had the biggest most roaring fire I've ever seen by a long way). All in all, a fantastic night had by all and I went to sleep happy.
I took a good couple of minutes extra to confirm with him what he had and hadn't told me and established that most of what he'd told me was irrelevant information, but that I did need to go right at the first sharp left in about 5km. I thanked him for his words of advice and carried on my way. It turns out I was rather lucky to have met him, since when the sharp left appeared, I realised that without his advice I would never have gone right and would in fact have gone about 3-4km in the wrong direction. The right hand turn lead me back onto the 90 Mile Beach and I instantly remembered what I had come to hate about the beach with its unending Sun, sea and sand. My pack felt heavier, my shoes felt sandy and gritty and my enthusiasm went way down. I was listening to my iPod at the time, and just as I was about to put the pack down and rest unprecedentedly early, a song by The Beatles came blasting on "Boooyy! Your're gonna carry that weeiigghhhtttt. Carry that weight, a looooonngg tiiiiiiimme!" So carry that weight I did, inspired by the lyrics I carried that weight for another two hours before stopping for lunch. To my absolute joy, I saw Ahipara appear round the beach within a few minutes of starting to walk again. I knew from my track notes that once in Ahipara, it was about two hours to the start of the next track into Herekino Forest, which was an eight hour hike in itself, so I decided I'd stay in Ahipara and set off for Herekino in the morning.
I stayed at the Ahipara Campsite, but this time just rented a tent space instead of a room and was pleased to hear there was a rugby game on in the evening, New Zealand's All Blacks versus Japan. I asked the lady at the office how far to the shops. She sucked the air through her teeth in a way that would have put most plumbers to shame and told me they were about 15km away. This I just could not believe, my track notes said there were full ammenities here, how big could this tiny town be if the shops were 15km away? She showed me on a map and pointed to Kaitaia indicating that this was where the shops were. I said surely there's a shop here in town somewhere. "Oh yes" she replied "There is a shop and burger bar at the end of the road. I thought you meant the big shops, like a supermarket!" I told her all I was after was some more porridge and maybe a steak for dinner. I was only joking about the steak but she then very kindly told me that she had a spare t-bone steak if I wanted it. No charge. Well this blew me away, of course Iäd love a t-bone steak! I went to the shop and got some muesli since they had no porridge (surprisingly nice with just water) and made a note of the burger bar's takeaway facility, I'd come back and get some chips to go with my steak and cook it up in time for the rugby game. I was absolutely divine! Never has steak and chips tasted so beautiful! The All Blacks beat Japan by an embarrassingly long way, but it made for a great atmosphere in the lounge (which, by the way, had the biggest most roaring fire I've ever seen by a long way). All in all, a fantastic night had by all and I went to sleep happy.
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