Te Araroa 26/10/25

Huntly to Ngaruawahia (770)

A cloudy day again with a few sunny intervals and it stayed at a good walking temperature all day.

River and road bridge in the morning 

The first stage was to walk back through the town of Huntly and cross the river on the long road bridge before once again following the river bank up stream.

The Waikato river is the longest in New Zealand 

I had an interesting chat with a local in the campsite kitchen when I was preparing my porridge. Not only did he have a lot of interesting information about the local area but he had also worked in Britain and Ireland and was interested in places he knew there.

At the start of the Hakarimata Walkway 

After about 6k the trail turns away from the river and climbs the Hakarimata Walkway through the bush high above the river.

Steps up into the Bush

There are steps to ascend or descend at both ends but the section in the middle a very rough bush track 

Kauri trees

It was tough walking over the roots and mud with numerous steep accents and decent along the ridge, the whole thing taking me longer than expected. 

A difficult path

There were a few viewpoints on the way but it was a bit misty so the long distances rather blurry.

Looking towards Hamilton 

There were a number of people going up and down the steps at the southern end, obviously a popular route for local keep fit fanatics, someone told me that there are a thousand steps, I believe it.

Some of the thousand steps down 

A nice little place to camp near Ngaruawahia at someone's homestead. I was invited to the house but he had a couple of Mormon Preachers coming in the evening so I regretfully declined the offer.