Te Araroa Trail – The Hakarimata Ranges
I woke early and enjoyed a leisurely brekkie with Neil, Anja & Markus. Neil went to work (poor thing) and Anja and Markus left at 7.45am to walk to Hamilton – they are a day ahead of me.
My support team, Yoke and family, picked me up at 8am. We were dropped off at Parker Road to begin the climb up the Hakarimatas at 8.15am. We reached the summit at 12.30pm.
It was lovely to catch up, and great to have a ‘normal’ hike.. i.e carrying a tiny day pack and not 14kgs! The path began with quite an incline (all steps) before following the ridge line for 10kms or so. It wasn’t too muddy, and it was a lovely day.
Hakarimata Summit Track
We lunched at the summit before taking the trail back home. I dropped Yoke back into town afterwards, and did a bit of shopping.
As Neil was hard at work all day I cooked a roast chicken (best roast spuds I think I’ve ever cooked) and we settled in for an evening of Netflix… Ahhhh the luxury of mindless tv!!