Te Araroa, September 2025

Getting to the start. 18th to 24th September

I left home on Thursday morning for the start of the journey by bus, train, three flights and minibus to arrive in Auckland on Saturday afternoon, exhausted.

Refueling stop Singapore 

I had booked two nights in a cheap hotel in Auckland to recover and woke, after a good night's horizontal sleep, considerably
refreshed and ready for the sights of Auckland.

Aukland

I was in the center of Aukland and it is similar to most big cities with its modern highrise buildings and a few older ones , but nothing ancient in this relatively new city. It was only in the green spaces with the unusual plants, trees and birds that I felt as if I was in a foreign land, especially as it is suddenly spring.

Albert Park, Aukland

I found the Maritime Museum by the waterfront with a fascinating collection of Polynesian canoes, proas and catermarans as well as big section devoted to Peter Blake's sailing feats. Steinlager 2, the boat he won a round the world race with, is in the harbour along with a pair of 12 meter America's Cup boats. This complements the display of dinghys of various types that were, and are, sailed in Auckland Harbour and the 12 meter yacht that won the America's Cup in 1995 all housed in the museum buildings.

Polynesian canoe

Steinlager 2

A depot boat. These were placed on islands so that shipwrecked sailors could make their way home.

I needed to buy some gas so walked out to Newmarket, a suburb of Aukland, where there is a good outdoor shop and discovered that they sold the Altra shoes that I prefer. Good news as they are part of a chain of shops throughout New Zealand, shoe replacement problem solved.

Aukland and the Sky Tower 

The following day after picking up my Te Araroa package containing the trail pass, for discounts along the way, and other information l climbed onto a bus for the nearly five hour trip to Kerikeri where I had two nights in a motel as there was no bus going further north the next day.

Bus unloading at Kerikeri 

A really good day wandering around Kerikeri which is beside the Bay of Islands and an important historical area.  It is a significant Maori site and was also the site of an early Christian mission, it also has the oldest stone building in New Zealand, a store and shop built in1830. www.kerikeriwalks.kiwi

The Stone Store

Not knowing much about New Zealand history it was fascinating to learn how recently the Maoris had arrived, 1250ce, with Europeans only about 500 years later. In human history it really is new, a point made clearer after being on Orkney with it's 5000 year old remains.

The Kerikeri River meets the sea

Kerikeri was so much better than Auckland and I felt that I had really come to somewhere interesting when I found a subtropical garden full of amazing plants and trees with Tui singing in the branches.

Bird of paradise flower

There was a restaurant there as well that I went to in the evening only getting half drowned by the rain on the walk back to the motel. www.wharepuke.nz

Woodlands Motel Kerikeri 

The very heavy rain that had been forecast for this week came down that night and into the following morning when I took the bus to Kaitaia.

Sculpture in Kerikeri 

The rain eased and by the time the two hour bus journey to Kaitaia was over so was the rain. Kaitaia looks like a wild west town complete with a wide main street , battered pickups driving up and down and a couple of 'interesting' bars.

Bar rules

I stayed at a nice little apartment with the advantage of being picked up from the door by the minibus to Cape Reinga in the morning, it will be good to get started.

Main Street Kaitaia 

Return from Spain 09/09/25

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. 7-8-9th Sept

It took me a day longer than it could have to get from Bujaruelo to Barcelona due to the impenetrability of the Spanish public transport system. Or was it just me being thick?

Looking down from the path to the track to Bujaruelo 

When I left Bujaruelo I was told the bus from Torla was at 11.00, I had found the only bus on the internet was at 18.00, however when I walked to Torla I was told that the bus was definitely at 15.10. Perhaps it's not just me.

Torla

I used the waiting time to take the tourist bus up to the Ordessa car park. A walk up to the waterfalls, that had rather less water than last year, a pleasant way to spend a few hours.

One of the waterfalls 

The buses run up and down from Torla to Ordessa every half hour but there were only four people on the bus to Sabinanigo, obviously everyone drives to Torla.

Back to Torla

At Sabinanigo I looked at the timetable in the ticket office window and realised that it should have been possible to get a bus to Barcelona that evening but I had already booked a bed in Huesca. I went in to buy a ticket for the advertised 17.30 bus to Huesca and was told that it was actually at 16.20!

Hostel in Huesca

On Arrival in the Intermodal station at Huesca I tried to buy a bus ticket to Barcelona for the following day but they were all booked until 14.00 so I decided to go by train, quicker but consideribly more expensive.

Huesca Casino

I wasn't very impressed with Huesca it seemed rather run down but, like most of Spain, there were a lot of people in the bars and restaurants in the late evening.

Snow Whites house in a park in Huesca?

This region of Spain is a major pig production area and the proliferation of mega farms by a small number of major companies must have helped the local population but is now causing big pollution problems as the infertile soils cannot handle the high amounts of nitrogen, leading to contamination of the already limited ground water.

200 mph on the train. The Spanish understand public transport.

I took a regional train to Zaragoza in the morning then the high speed one (300 kph) to Barcelona.

Approach to the Catalan Museum of Art

It was a pity that the Catalan art museum was closed on Mondays but the building itself and the roadway and fountains leading up from the Plaça d'Espanya to it were most impressive.

Basilica de la Sagrada Familia 

An hour's walk then through the busy streets to the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. I was lucky to get a ticket for this last night as it appeared to be sold out for the rest of the week.

Interior 

The Basilica is still under construction but I think it will mainly affect the exterior appearance.

Light effects 

The interior is incredible, the whole design being based on the supporting pillars with their upper spreading branches giving the impression of a forest.

Massive pillars

The stained glass is for colour effect and overall, as the architect Gaudi intended, it feels like walking through a huge stone forest.

Passion sculpture on the outside 

Unlike other Christian buildings most of the icons are on the outside making the interior a clean open space between the columns.

East windows

I found the exterior rather over decorated but then I'm not Catholic!

The cloisters 

Well worth the extra time spent in Spain.

An organic building

The trip home wasn't without drama on Tuesday as the flight from Barcelona was delayed by an hour and a half due to thunderstorms and I only just caught the connecting flight to Inverness.

Spain, Alta Ruta, 06/09/25

Baysselance to Bujaruelo Sat 6th Sept.

Another beautiful morning as loads of people set off from the refuge, a lot of them going the same way as me.

Sunrise at the refuge

I found a space between the fast and slow walkers which gave me a nice quiet walk.

Lots of people 

The climb from the refuge to the ridge stretched out the group and by the time I had descended the steep path to the refuge de Oulettes (closed for renovation) I was on my own for the last steep climb to the Coll des Mulets and back to Spain.

The other side of Vignamales 

There was a strong wind at the coll so I quickly descended into the top of the long valley descending to Bujaruelo.

The Oulettes Valley 

I sat on a rock in the sunshine eating an apple and watched a group of people taking the path down, so I decided to use the one on the other side of the valley!

Starting down to Bujaruelo 

It was getting hotter the further down I went  and it was certainly different to temperature at the high point this morning.

Cows everywhere 

I noticed a lot of cultures flying about and found a carcass that was attracting them and managed to get fairly close.

It was nice to get into the shade of the trees as I got down to the gorge approaching Bujaruelo.

Getting closer to the trees

There were thousands of grasshoppers / crickets on the path that hopped and flew from under my feet, some with beautiful iridescent blue or red wings as well as a few pretty yellow butterflies that I couldn't identify.

Yellow butterfly 

There were lots of little flowers growing on and around the path that did not appear to have any leaves. Plant net identified them as Merendera, I have subsequently found a reference to them in a Spanish document as Quitameriendas.

Quitameriendas 

Arrival at the Refuge was a bit special as I was given a glass of beer in an Alta Ruta glass to take home.

Not sure why it's empty!

The end of another little adventure.

Off to New Zealand in a fortnight for a bigger adventure, just have to get home first!

Spain, Alta Ruta, 05/09/25.

Vignamales, Friday 5th Sept.

A side trip today with the possibility of climbing Vignamales. The weather was good but it looked windy at the top.

A good morning 

Picked up an ice axe and crampons at the refuge and set off back down the way I came up yesterday to where the 'path' up to the glacier turns off.

Down to the glacier path

A high cliffy path leads to a big scree chute that I had to cross before climbing up ice polished limestone that gave surprisingly good grip.

Way up

The start of the glacier 

I avoided some snow patches and continued climbing until reaching the lip of the Corrie where Crampons were attached to boots to climb a snow chute leading to the glacier.

The glacier 

What can I say except AMAZING, a real glacier, not just an everlasting snow patch.

Glacier surface

There was no snow cover so the couple of crevasses were easy to see as I crunched my way over the ice.

Looking down the Glacier 

The Glacier was the main reason for being there but I climbed a horrible scree slope towards the rock slabs leading to the top.

Looking down on the glacier 

I was looking at the next stage when another couple passed me and started roping up. That made the decision for me and I slithered back to the glacier. Not the top but still 3200 meters.

Ice Ice baby

I spent a while wandering about the glacier which was getting wetter in the sunshine before retracing my steps and finding a sunny spot in the rocks that was sheltered from the icy wind coming down the glacier for a late picnic lunch admiring the view.

I'm not the only one 

There was a helicopter ferrying equipment up to the ridge which was interesting to watch particularly the skill of the pilot in the strong gusty wind.

The helicopter 

When I got back to the Refuge I found out that they were drilling for permafrost experiments.

Wow

I found a slightly easier route down through the rock but still had to cross the scree and the nasty, high, cliffy path before rejoining yesterday's path to the refuge.

Back across the scree