I waited until 6:30 to get up, thinking I'd give the enlisted lady a chance to shower before I got in there. Went I went to go she was still in there so I busied myself packing up my gear. After a shower I dressed and had some of Pete's weetbix and Milo cereal and a banana for breakfast. I feel like such a bludger!
We stopped at a bakery to grab a sandwich for lunch and then Alyse dropped me off in Porirua. Just as we were saying farewell she got a call--she has a job interview tomorrow afternoon! We had a brief celebration before I set off down the riverside walk and she went about her day, no doubt with a bit of a spring in her step.
The river walk doesn't last long before the trail diverts through town to the Raiha St Walkway. The sign for this is on the corner of an intersection backed by a vast expanse of park-like grass. Trouble is there didn't seem to be a walkway in sight. Two kids in school uniforms were making their way up the grassy hill however do I followed, and sure enough, up the hill and round a corner past the school a rough pathway led off into a patch of woods.
The walkway skirts some industrial precincts before emerging on Raiha Rd as it runs along the back of Porirua, across the lower slopes of Colonial Knob. This TA climbs via a walking track that starts just across the road. Onward and upward once again! Thankfully there was a bit if a cold southerly so even on a gloriously sunny day slogging up the hill didn't get too hot.
Actually TA follows one of a choice of tracks at this point. For some reason I don't have the notes for this bit so I could either follow the TA map or find my own way up using a map of the reserve that duely presented itself on a billboard on the other side of the road. Seeing that the route on the billboard would get me where I needed to go I set off, eventually meeting up with the official TA route on a high shoulder of the hill, before following it to the summit. The slopes of Colonial Knob are grassy and only lightly grazed, and there are impressive views of both the coast and the Porirua Valley, for miles in both directions, all the way from Kapiti Island and Paraparaumu in the north to the outskirts of Wellington in the south. And there, out to sea, the surprisingly high looking hills of the Marlborough Sounds. There it is! The South Island!
Heading down from the summit I was walking through lovely golden grassy fields that were shimmering in the wind. I met a guy on his way up for a day walk who is keen to do the TA next summer. I offered lots of encouragement and wished him all the best.
From Colonial Knob TA drops down and follows a zig-zag path out through Spicer Forest (pines) to the Ohariu Valley. There very last bit of track before the road was awash with blackberries (and the sign of people harvesting them) so I helped myself to a tasty morning tea treat.
Trundling down the road for a few kilometres I passed a trio of women out day walking who stopped to chat. They were impressed at my doing TA and astonished at my doing it alone. One women in particular sounded like she thought I'd get snatched into a passing car at any moment. Happily getting into a car while wearing a monster back pack, let alone quickly, is damn near impossible...
Around the next bend was a long straight, at the far end of which I spotted two guys ambling along with largish backpacks, at a pace that suggested they expected to be walking all day. Good grief, could they be TAers? Southbounders even? I haven't seen any other TA-SoBos since meeting Tom all the way back in Bulls. Still, while I upped my pace I didn't flat out try to catch up with them. Fortunately a couple of kilometres up the road I came round the corner to an intersection and there they were, taking a break.
At first glance they look like chilled out types, and chatting to them does nothing to dispel that impression. Billy from the UK has long messy blonde hair, and Mario from Sri Lanka the same in black curls tied back. They're both career backpackers, working seasonal jobs as a means of travelling. And they seem to have made a profession of travelling on a shoestring...and I mean a shoe string, tied up in whatever way suits their needs. I soon discovered as we walked up the back of Mt Kaukau together that their plan to get across Cook Strait in a couple of days time is to hide in someone's boot to avoid the $55 or so dollar walk-on passenger fare. Entrepreneurial, I thought, and unlikely to work in NZ unless they were very lucky with who they picked to approach with the scheme. But I said nothing. They seem to have got by on such enterprises before now so who am I to comment. Me, I plan on doing the honest (and easy) thing and paying the fare, although it's going to be an expensive two days between that and a $50 water taxi to get to the start of the trail in the South Island...oh well, that's not even tomorrow's problem (it's at least the day afters!)
We three stretched out after a while as we each went at our own pace up the winding farm track that slowly climbs to the summit of Kaukau. There's an elevated viewing platform up there but you don't need it. Standing on the curving crest of the hill the ground falls away below you as a vista over greater Wellington opens up and stretches all the way to the horizon. I sat on a bench taking it all in. I also txt a few friends to see how they were going and arranged to meet up with Kyla and Josie on Friday night. Kyla's also able to put me up for the night so at this stage it looks like I'll finish the North Island tomorrow, have a day off to prep, then jump on the ferry to begin the South Island. I'm nervous and excited about this. Also, somewhat irrationally, I'm anticipating feeling..."safer" isn't the right word, but something in that line, because from then on I'll be within driving distance of home. I feel like, if anything bad happens, there's no longer a plane ride or a ferry ticket involved in getting home. Mum would be able to jump in the car and come and get me. Not that I would ask her to! It's a hellova drive! But I find comfort in the imminent circumstance of such back-up or assistance being logistically (if not realistically) possible. This is completely irrational as I've already had and been offered so much help from friends in the North Island. But there definitely something comforting about soon being on the same island as home.
My next few days thus organised I took my sandwich up to have lunch on the platform and chat to the others. Turns out Mario is very into rocks, claiming to have married one at a music festival last year. I'm not sure how serious he was about this but was pleasantly amused when he described how excited he was when he found out what kind of rock it was--conglomerate. They asked me how it might have formed, so I told them (in a nutshell: by the erosion, transport and redeposition of other rocks as rounded fragments and sediment, which is then then compressed by burial to form new rock, which may then be uplifted and exposed at the surface...beginning the whole process over again). Billy and Mario were impressed and fascinated by the amount of time contained in such a process, and thus, in Mario's happily wedded rock. They asked me what the oldest rock I'd ever seen was...this caused me to reminisce a little before answering. What sprang to mind was my time spent at ANU zapping zircons (technically a mineral not a rock, but oh well). Back then one of the zircons I zapped came out at 4.1 billion years old. I remember sitting back and thinking about that for a minute. The Earth is 4.6 billion years old, and the little grain of sand I'd just lasered had been in existence for nearly 90% of that time, going through numerous crustal cycles. We humans by comparison have only been around for less than 0.001% of that time. The things that zircon must have seen! Probably a load of magma and then a whole lot of nothing much while it was bound up in one rock or another until finally being eroded into the sand of the Australian desert...where someone collected it amongst loads of other sand grains and it wound up on my desk in a tiny paper envelope and baggie, from which I selected it under a microscope, stuck it to some tape along with numerous others, coated them in a disc of resin and then zapped them each with a laser. Unfortunately the laser proved to much for the enduring little grain and I only just got enough data before it exploded into dust. But of all the grains I analysed (some 800 or so) that's the one I remember. My very, very very old microscopic zircon.
But I digress...
Mario and Billy seemed to like the ancient zircon story, but our chat soon drew to a close as we all went to fish jackets out of our packs--that southerly was cold! So cold in fact I soon packed up and got back underway. The boys lingered for a bit but said they'd see me down the hill.
TA follows a track along the ridge before turning steeply down at a saddle to zigzag down through low scrub to emerge in the hill suburb of Ngaio. I got as far as the library and neighbouring town hall and public toilets before stopping to use the convenience and top up my water. Though I could have gone further, in my heart I felt like I was done for the day. Stopping now would leave 21.5km to do tomorrow to finish the Nirth Island--perfectly doable.
It was nigh on 4:30 so I txt Alyse to see how she and Pete were tracking. They were 20 minutes away so I sat down to wait on the ramp up to the door of the hall, resting my feet and soaking up the sunshine. Billy came past. Apparently he and Mario were stopping at the library, I presumed to print the final maps of the route through Wellington, or else investigate the upcoming South Island (I'd asked them if they were going the food parcel/bounce box route or planning to hitch off trail to resupply to which they had rather confusedly asked why it was necessary; I cautiously explained that TA doesn't go through near so many supply towns in the south as it does in the north, sometimes only crossing a highway between long sections. They decided some investigation was necessary before they left Wellington).
While I waited for my by now very generous and yet already routine lift, I returned a call from Richard Owen. He's my ex-boss-come-friend's Dad, whom I saw when I went to stay with them in Hawea at New Year. Richard lives in Nelson and is keen to help me out with my adventure. I gave him a quick run down of my plan for the next couple of weeks, which happily seemed to fit in with his schedule nicely. We agreed I would call him when I was closer to Nelson to arrange to meet up when I divert out of the Richmond Ranges to resupply. Stoked! One difficult section of the South Island just got a whole lot easier! Thank you Richard!
I also rang Mum--no answer. Must be gardening.
Soon enough a familiar white car pulled into to the parking lot and I bundled in. We headed back to barracks via the Upper Hutt Bakehouse for dinner (having got stuck in 5pm motorway traffic). I polished off a plate full of roast pork and veges which hit the spot just nicely. I also took advantage of the post-4:30 sandwich special again ($2.50) to have something for lunch tomorrow. Back at barracks I got clean and then we all sat down to play a game of Risk. I'd never played before and my board game tactics are bad at the best if times, but luckily for me Alyse and Pete got so fixated on competing to occupy most of North America that I was able to complete my own mission of occupying any 24 territories. This still took a long time and only really happened as Pete began forfeiting his turns once it got past his bed time (he has a 5am start every morning so I sympathise).
Fun had, game over, it was well and truely bed time. Tomorrow to reach the 1790km mark and finish the North Island!
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