Live From the City of Sails

Arrived in Auckland two evenings ago. Stayed two nights at Alex's great uncle and aunt's place just north of the city. Walk into the metropolis has been cool as it is just in the last 20 miles or so that there is any significant coastal development, then bam, multiple-million dollar modern/post modern coastal house after house. Rolling green hills similar to Beverly Hills in LA.
Did our biggest day, a bit over 40km from the edge of the Dome Forest to Orewa beach a few days ago.
Saw the city on a rest day yesterday and it was in fact a city- 1.2 million out of NZ's population of a bit over four million! Picked up my parcel at the post office of my extra shoes, soap, batteries etc and walked the city a bit.

I hope all's well with everyone!
Nick

Thanksgiving in Matakana

Not sure what day to celebrate Thanksgiving in NZ, but its Friday here and Thanksgiving at home! I'm into. Matakana about 475km into the trail and still hiking with Alex. We stayed a night with a 'healer' two nights ago who lives on a mountain in Waipu- a 41 year old Harley riding lady who believes in the power of love to slay evil- which spelled backwards is 'live' which you can do as long as you want if you eliminate 'dis- ease' from your life. Oh boy. Anyways that was a cool half day off from walking in the rain. We also hitched a boat across a channel to Marsden Point- an industrial export center of Northland- mainly pines on giant ships bound for places like Singapore. Te Araroa is kind of like a scavenger hunt sometimes and it's nice to have Alex's Kiwi accent getting us random things like boat hitches. There have been beach walks on deserted beaches and road walks and mountain/forest tracks since my last post, and I think I've left 'northland' and am approaching Auckland within a few days.
Happy Thanksgiving !
Nick

Picture is of me atop mount Tamahunga yesterday.

iPhone post!

Alex and I re: dinner at the mousetrap hostel and a picture of sore feet in Kerikeri, ha!

Live from Ngunguru

Hello all,
Apologies for the lack of pictures, but hopefully I'll soon be able to get my iPhone sorted out so that I can update straight from that to the blog. 

Updates:
- Did a five night trip after Ahipara through Herekino, Raetea, Omahuta, Puketi and Waitangi forests.  The first couple forests were the densest jungle walking I've ever been a part of and Alex and I didn't see anyone else on the trail until we reached Kerikeri, a town where there is a pleasant river walk with a waterfall and powerplant on which there were quite a few people.  Raetea forest is probably the most 'feared' forest in the North Island on the Te Araroa track, but it was marked well enough I'd say.  I fell five times in that forest because of crazy steep mud tracks, which I guess NZ is famous for.
- A notable night during the forest stretches was in front of Jon and Erin Collins' house on the outskirts of Takahue township, and we had breakfast with them - fresh snapper fillets and toast!
- Between the Omahuta and Puketi forests, there were 5km of upstream river walking on the Mangamukahukahe Stream and Waipapa River.  We chose to walk on the 'wet weather' trail of the Waipapa in lieu of the river walk, which was a bad idea because it was 2.5km of walking on a vertical slope, but sideways. 
- Did a pretty monster day to try to reach Mangamuka township where there was allegedly a pub, and thus beer, but we got there and the pub was closed and for sale and it was raining and we were on a road and there was a fat Maori guy with a fish branded into his left temple/forehead who was washing his clothes on the ball-hitch of his sedan and smoking a cigarette. 
- Upon arrival in Kerikeri we bee-lined for a cafe/eatery called the "Bake House" which was recommended by a guy we met on the Kerikeri river trail.  I ate 6/8 of a large $13 bacon and mushroom quiche and a selection of Alex's food.  We then began walking to Paihia, where a rest day was planned, but stopped 5km short of town and camped out on Bledisloe mountain which overlooks the Bay of Islands, a 'majestic' area of Northland's east coast. 

-  Took a rest day the following day in Paihia at a cool hostel called the Mousetrap and cooked up some delicious dinner + good cheap wine.  *Note- cheap in NZ is different than cheap in Spain and the best bang for your buck booze is definitely wine as a 12 pack of not good beer is $20 and this is wine country!

- A few more days of walking south has brought us to Ngunguru where last night on the way into town I called up a lady, Linda, who'd left her number and the offer of a free stay on a facebook post I'd made to the Te Araroa group.  So Alex and I spent the night here last night and had cheese + crackers + wine + homemade nachos + salad + fresh fruit and Jim, the husband, has even offered to let us use his kayak today, which we probably are going to do before getting going again on the road. 

Practical Stuff:
-Ngunguru is 315km or so into the Te Araroa track, which is 1700km for the North Island and 1300km for the South Island, and is on the east coast, to which we have traversed from the west coast, where I made my last post from Ahipara.
-My feet are doing pretty well!  A couple of blisters on the balls of my feet mostly due to walking on road after walking up a river a few days ago.  I'm wearing a pair of sneakers, Asics.
-I might have seen a kiwi the other day in a forest, they're the pride of NZ and can't fly and are kind of fat. 
- I'm already ravenous compared to my appetite prior to the non-stop hiking and I've dropped a couple pounds already I'm sure.  That's likely partly to do with only having drank one beer since getting to NZ, ha! 
- Possums are a major nuisance here and the Department of Conservation (DOC) works hard to poison/trap as many possums, ferrets, and rats as possible because they are introduced species which are killing off the native flora and fauna.

Ok, until next time,
Nick

So I was in Costa Rica for two weeks.   The plan was to continue on to South America but I scratched that and came home and am looking for work as a ski instructor.

 I did not go ziplining so don't read any further if that was the first question you were going to ask.  Here's a summary of Costa Rica though

-Arenal Volcano.  Had fried chicken three consecutive nights at a local "soda", which are small little food spots.

- The volcano is almost a perfect cone.  Very pleasing to look at, I mean its basically like a giant geometric triangle and that seems to please some part of my brain.

- Second night there experienced first earthquake, once it was over and realized it wasn't that bad I thought 'that was awesome'.  Then I thought about how the last time the volcano erupted was after an earthquake hit and we were staying 5 miles from the volcano.

 -Did a guided walking tour in the primary rain forest with our guide, Oscar.  He looked like Seth Rogen.  I was most fascinated by the ants in the forest.  So get this.  The queen ant when born leaves her colony and goes off to fornicate with like 200 different colonies and retains all there little ant sperm, then settles down and makes a new colony of her own and just continuously gives birth for 12 years or so.  So I picture this little tiny queen ant being all stoked that life is just all play then all of a sudden shit gets real and she gives birth to thousands of babies.

-Pic to the left in on a bridge through the forest.  DID YOU KNOW:  Trees in Costa Rica can develop roots at any point.  So a branch 84 feet in the air can decided it wants more water up there and just start dropping a long giant root.  Crazy.



-  Our guide had two pieces of advice.  I forgot what the first one was.  The second one was don't stick your fingers in any holes.  Here's a pic of a tarantuala.

-  Had first of many 'casados' - local dish of rice and beans and salad and steak/pork and very delicious.





-  Next went to the beach.  It was remote.  Locals on bikes everywhere.  I dunno how to explain it.  But here's a pic from an afternoon at a 1/4 kilometer beach hidden in the hills.  Black sand too, from volcanos!

- Pura Vida, a Costa Rican phrase.

- Last two nites with my mom stayed at this mountain resort cos I found a ridiculous deal on tripadvisor.  Place was wicked cool.

- Did all of this without a GPS. Refused to let my mom talk me into getting one.  Only got lost once, for about five minutes.

- After saying cya later to my mum at the airport I went up to a mountain town of Monteverde for a week.  Stayed with relatives of a friend and it was awesome.  4 mile walk into town each day, two different 'cloud forest' reserves.  It kinda does this weird misting thing all the time cos the mountains catch the clouds.  Locals call it pelo de gato (hair of the cat).  That was my favorite part of the trip.  No pics.  Then decided to become a ski instructor instead of just floating around.  We'll see how that decision goes.

Mike

Live From Ahipara

Hey all,
Just going to give a quick update here.
-Got into Auckland on the 30th and had to change my return flight at the last second before leaving San Fransisco because of a confused visa issue
-Got through customs and bio-security and ended up on a bus to Kaitaia, farther north on the north island, at 7:45AM (plane got in at 5:30 or so)
- Checked into a hostel, the Mainstreet Lodge, which was full of German travelers working at a zuchini farm
- Met up with a Kiwi girl, Alex, who is also walking the Te Araroa
- Did my food shopping for the week
- Woke up the 31st and hitch-hiked up towards Cape Reinga with Alex
-Got rides with a surf bum middle aged lady and her hairy dog, a young Mauri worker coming back from a break, and a 75 year old ex-cop
-The old cop, a pretty funny Scot named Arch, took us to his place in Pukenui for tea and we saw he and his wife, Fran's, property which had peacocks, chickens, some Arabian horses, avocado trees, and macedamia trees among other things
- We ended up making friends with them to the point that they drove us all the way to Topotupotu Bay just east of Cape Reinga where we strolled up some cool coastal mountains as a little warm-up for the coming walking
-Started the trek on Nov. 1 and made it 25km to Te Paki stream which is near the beginning of the famed 90 mile beach
-Also, my stove works.  I found 'methylated spirits' and the liquid burns well in my Narragansett Lager can stove. Though slightly differently than the denatured alcohol I pretested it with. 
-Nov 2 we did another 25km or so on the beach to just past the 'Bluff'
-Nov 3 -another 25km or so to Hukatere, where we met up with a few other Te Araroa walkers, Mel and Sarah aged 24 and 31, and Stuart aged 54 who is walking the 600km to Auckland. Stayed at a small backpackers' hut and had dinner cooked for us by the owner, a German lady named Gabrielle. 
- Also, I went out scalloping in the low tide with this 77 year old Mauri guy who lives on the Hukatere Lodge property.  He's called 'Uncle' due to a tough to pronounce local name. I found one scallop which was pretty exciting (Uncle only found four or five and he had a wetsuit).
- Nov 4 - still walking with Alex, she's from Blenheim, NZ on the South Island, and we did the last 30km to Ahipara with a strong headwind and a late-ish start.
-Nov 5 - Hitch-hiked 15km to Kaitaia in order to re-supply.  Ride there was with an extremely nationalist Mauri dude who gave a confusing lecture on the legal specifics of land rights concerning the Mauri people and basically how they gotta get their rights and politics are corrupt...met up with Arch and Fran again at the pharmacy by chance and they gave us a lift to the local Pac'n Save, or Pac'n Rob as Arch refers to the giant warehouse grocery store.
-Got a ride back to Ahipara with a long haired surfer looking guy who likes to hunt and lives in the hills near the coast.
-Spent the last two nights at the local campground/holiday park which is occupied by 70% German tourists
-Heading out this afternoon towards the Northland Forests...should be a bit different than long beach trekking
- Hope all's well with everyone back home / wherever you are, I'm doing super well.
Best,
Nick