No Fixed Abode: A taste of England

Saturday 28th November - Te Ara Hura, Waiheke walk

A triumph - we successfully negotiated getting up and down the ladder in the pitch black during the night without any injuries.

During the night it rain heavily and the air was very humid in the morning still. Showers were expected through the day but it was still warm.

The next village along, Ostend advertises prominently their Saturday morning market and being only 2 miles away we walked there anticipating being able to buy some groceries for the next couple of days. It appeared to be a community based project with locals selling their home made honey and preserves, a stall with a small amount of organic vegetables, handmade jewellery and lots of knitted things from bootees, slippers and hats. The local community here seems quite bohemian, no shoes, hippy style clothes and long unwashed hair. The atmosphere was very English village hall with a jumble sale on. As a token gesture we overpaid for a jar of local honey and then made our way to the local Supermarket.

We hopped on the bus back to our Onetangi home, stopping at the local Liquorland store for some beers. Initially the store seemed to hold a small selection of expensive craft beers. Then we discovered the beer was stored in a refrigerated room at the back of the shop. It was freezing in there but piled high with a vast selection.

In the afternoon we decided to go for a stroll, as Waiheke Island has a good network of hikes along the Te Ara Hura trail that goes completely around the island. Our first point was Trig Hill, the highest point and anticipated great views, however, we were in low cloud with limited visibility (Reminiscent of our many hikes around Snowdonia, always in the clouds!) The tourist map showed a 2 hour trail to Awaawaroa from Trig Hill and advised the path had good signage and walkers should be ‘reasonably fit’ - no problem for us we thought.

OK so we spent a good 30 minutes trying to find the first sign, traipsing through a field of cows and mud, due to the recent rain, before we located where we needed to go. From here it was all quite straightforward, a few steep hills with muddy paths, all very similar to Cornwall. We met a younger walker coming from the direction we were heading to, all mountain booted (us in our trekking sandals) who wanted to confirm the route from our map. As he left he mentioned “gets a bit muddy and steeper further on, use the ropes to pull you up”. We smiled and laughed and went on our way.

Nothing too difficult so far and then of course we hit the vertical and slippery muddy path. The only way to get up it was to grab the slimy rope to the side of the trail and haul yourself up it, taking you through spiky bushes and slipping about with little foot holding. It went on for about 200m before the last gasp over the top to a relatively flat bit with the most splendid views all around us. Definitely worth it.

Down to Awaawaroa we made our way back up and up and up to Onetangi using the unsealed road and took a short cut up through the Onetangi Nature Reserve which wasn't fully signposted yet for the route we wanted. The Bush all looks the same when you don’t know where you want to get to and then the heavens opened in the last 20 minutes and we trudged home. Glenn managed to find our way out of the darkening bush and safely home, grumbling about the poor map and signage. Hurrah for good old Ordnance Survey maps we say!

Shattered and hungry we sparked the BBQ and poor Glenn stood out there in the rain cooking the steaks. Just like in good old England!