Wanganui - Turakina Beach - Bulls - Foxton - Levin - Mt Thompson - Tararuas to Otaki Gorge Road - Otaki Forks -Field Hut - Otaki Forks - Otaki-Raumati Beach - coast walk to Porirua-Colonial Knob-Mt Kaukau- Wellington
From Wanganui we started out with a real boring road walk along SH41 to Turakina, then a further 9km
out to the beach. Johno's parents came out to Turakina beach for dinner and met us at the campsite which was great, even better was that they took our backpacks for us so we only had to carry a daypack for 20km! - fantastic!! The next day was a whole day of beachwalking with pretty good weather; it took us back reminiscing to the very start of our walk on 90 Mile Beach.
out to the beach. Johno's parents came out to Turakina beach for dinner and met us at the campsite which was great, even better was that they took our backpacks for us so we only had to carry a daypack for 20km! - fantastic!! The next day was a whole day of beachwalking with pretty good weather; it took us back reminiscing to the very start of our walk on 90 Mile Beach. We got off the beach the Wanganui side of Tangimoana and walked a few km into the 
small town of Moana Roa to get more water and find out our options for crossing the Rangitikei River (stopping us from walking all the way along the beach). We asked around the 'ghost town' with those that had boats and at the little campsite but no-one could help. One really helpful guy said "can't you just swim"; we hope he wasnt being serious as there was no way in hell we were gonna cross that river. We parked up at the campsite for the night to reconsider our options. After sleeping we decided to road walk to Bulls 20km away (no other option without a boat and virtually no traffic on the road) then get a hitch to the equivalent place further along the beach at Foxton. After reaching Foxton we thought about walking out to the beach and trying to get across our next problem, the Manawatu river and continuing our walk along the beach but after chatting to the locals we figured there wouldn't be much chance of a ride across at this time of day, mid week so rather than waste another day messing around we opted to road walk (nightm
are) through to Levin to resupply our food then go onto the DOC campsite at Manakau North Road. What an ugly few days that was, an initial 'lovely beach walk' turned into a long walk along the road due to no boats to cross the river, thankfully we have a few days in the bush ahead of us now. 
So the start of the Tararua Ranges was at Mt Thompson, straight up for 700m, the weather was a bit ugly with rain and cloud until the afternoon when it stopped for a bit. The tracks were like rivers in some places and a complete maze to get through resulting in constant GPS use and a bit of backtracking but we got through and out to Otaki Gorge Road eventually.
small town of Moana Roa to get more water and find out our options for crossing the Rangitikei River (stopping us from walking all the way along the beach). We asked around the 'ghost town' with those that had boats and at the little campsite but no-one could help. One really helpful guy said "can't you just swim"; we hope he wasnt being serious as there was no way in hell we were gonna cross that river. We parked up at the campsite for the night to reconsider our options. After sleeping we decided to road walk to Bulls 20km away (no other option without a boat and virtually no traffic on the road) then get a hitch to the equivalent place further along the beach at Foxton. After reaching Foxton we thought about walking out to the beach and trying to get across our next problem, the Manawatu river and continuing our walk along the beach but after chatting to the locals we figured there wouldn't be much chance of a ride across at this time of day, mid week so rather than waste another day messing around we opted to road walk (nightm
are) through to Levin to resupply our food then go onto the DOC campsite at Manakau North Road. What an ugly few days that was, an initial 'lovely beach walk' turned into a long walk along the road due to no boats to cross the river, thankfully we have a few days in the bush ahead of us now. 
So the start of the Tararua Ranges was at Mt Thompson, straight up for 700m, the weather was a bit ugly with rain and cloud until the afternoon when it stopped for a bit. The tracks were like rivers in some places and a complete maze to get through resulting in constant GPS use and a bit of backtracking but we got through and out to Otaki Gorge Road eventually.
Danger in Forest: Dodgy dogs growling at you in the forest and owners who can't control them
Action: Get tramping poles in hand, point dog and back away
Result: Dog keeps eye sockets, we keep limbs, owner a bit pissed that we had threatened dogs with sharp spikes on end of poles - Should keep dogs under control!
Walked along the gorge road with diggers clearing slips from the rain off the road then to the start of the track up to Field Hut and the Southern Crossing over the Tararuas, just 3 hours away. Te Araroa's route goes along the beach from Otaki but we wanted to experience some of the Tararuas. However that night in the hut it rained
so heavily all night long that it was impossible to even attempt going anywhere until about 10am the next day when we started off to Kime Hut just another 3 hours up before seeing if we could then carry on to Alpha Hut another 4-5hrs after that. Well we got 45 minutes up the mountain, probably about 1000m and only 300m since Field Hut and the wind was 
attrocious. We could hardly stand up and the mist was very bad making visibility difficult already and with another 500m to climb to the top and me already crouched behind some tussock we decided to return to Field Hut. We thought we might try and give it another go in the afternoon but the wind appeared to be stronger plus some other trampers had come up and told us the forecast 'gale force winds up to 100km/ph and mist not to be clearing anytime soon. So we stayed put in Field Hut for the night and thought we'd check it out the following day maybe but at 5.30am the following morning it hadn't changed and rather than waste another days food we decided to walk back to the car park and out to Otaki to find another route. Malcolm gave us a ride to Otaki (a guy at the hut also turned back by bad weather but on an alternative route) where we bought another topo map of our new route along the coast (The Te Araroa route) so off we headed again following the coast for the day, picking up the sea wall and various parks all the way into Porirua. We stayed at the camp there, right at the start of the track for the final day of the North Island into Wellington, up Colonial Knob (farmland) down through Spicer Forest, up to Mt KauKau and the massive television ariel then down to Wellingtons Botanical Gardens.
North Island Complete
Celebretary Dinner
3 days off in Wellington
Ferry to Picton then start walking the day after.
Thanks for reading everyone, and keeping up with the armchair reading. Hope its not too boring! Happy Christmas to all
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