Cape to Cape in The Time of Covid

 


In 1963, aged 86, Alfred Reed walked from one side of North Island to the other, accepting lifts, calling in on old army mates and handing out biblical tracts to school children. He travelled down the East Coast before heading west near Napier. He was 100 when he died, so it did him no harm.

Today, I got a ride back to Stratford with Dave Digby. In 2000, he and a dozen others walked from the beach at Waitara to the beach at Napier, up and over the Ruahines. He's still hard at work driving tour buses and shuttling cyclists and long distance walking fools all over the country, so it did him no harm either.

My own journey of 734km was made up as I went along. I'd hoped to minimize road walking by taking tracks from Opotiki to Matawai and around Lake Waikaremoana. However, Ngati Porou closed 3 campgrounds, a weather bomb closed the East Coast road anyway, and the Tuhoi nation threatened visitors to Waikaremoana. 

Discretion being the better part of valour, I made it to Whakatane. From there, I re-routed into Kaingaroa Forest.

I am really proud of the route I developed because it was very pretty, very interesting, even educational, very little to no traffic, and fast. I'd encourage others to join Opotiki to Whakatane somehow (there's a new cycle path for some of it), and we'd have a sequel to Te Araroa.

Of the 734 km, I walked 484 or 66% of the route. A pilot vehicle, a truck, a rail cart and a car filled in the rest.

It took 20 walking days, 1 rain day and 2 rest days. Much faster than I'd allowed for, but then I walk 20% faster on roads.

I'm heading home on a bus tomorrow, closing a sort of anticlockwise circular journey without a car. Job done.






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