Whananaki North to Ngunguru
I had one of the best sleep of the trail last night 🙂 Bruce woke Anouck and I up at 8am & we were delighted to be invited to a family breakfast with Bruce’s friends Joe, Michelle, Manea and Vinnie who had arrived the night before and were to walk a stretch of Te Araroa trail with us today.
Trail Angels!
We set off around 9.15am with a much lighter load – as Michelle went ahead in the car to meet us further down the trail. You cant believe how great it is to have a support crew for the morning! The trail began on the Whananaki footbridge, which is the longest footbridge in Southern hemisphere. Then we continued on to the Whananaki Coastal Walkway.
For beautiful variety of scenery, I think today was one of my favourite days. We passed many amazing beaches and little coves. I would love to be able to afford to live somewhere up here! It was lovely to have company on our walk, and we chatted all along the 10km stretch.
Beautiful Northland Bays
All too soon, at Sandy Bay we had to say goodbye to our new buddies and head inland with our packs again. The trail took us to Wooleys Bay and skirted Matapouri before heading inland.
As a hilarious aside, we also met the lovely trial angels who had inadvertently given us the dodgy chicken a couple of days ago. They too had suffered our same fate later the same day and were mortified that they had shared their food with us!
In the afternoon we walked through lovely farmland, through a forestry/logging route then a beautiful woodland stretch before a short road walk took us to Ngunguru.
We texted James from the Nikau Bay Eco camp and he popped over in his little boat to ferry us to our accommodation.
Nikau Bay Eco Camp
James’s place is off grid, and truly magical. I would love to spend weeks here. I upgraded to a bed in a gorgeous wooden cabin and Anouck camped.
We had the best shower of the trail which was a steaming hot outdoor rainshower, and enjoyed a dinner of cheese and crackers gifted to us by Michelle this morning. Fabulous!
