2 November 2026

Whananaki to Nikau Bay Eco Camp

16.5 mi/27 km

This is the first morning of changes in the group. For one, Joel is taking a zero day to rest his feet. Also, Izzy and Hannah are headed on a side quest to Tutukaka to dive at the Poor Knights, an area off the coast. They’re very excited, but it does feel like a big moment that we aren’t sure when we’ll see them again. I get them to sign my pack, which I’ve been meaning to do with everyone so far and keep forgetting.

Mash and I pop into the little general store for snacks for the day and a light resupply. I also spot some Whananaki postcards and get one to send to my parents. Then we head out down the gravel road and across the footbridge—apparently the longest footbridge in the Southern Hemisphere. It does go on for quite a while across the estuary.

The path today is mostly road, but at the start it’s quite nice gravel road followed by a grassy path along the coast. We pass Thijs and then catch up to and walk with Sam, Hannah, Sibylle, and Izzy, working our way around lovely sunny ridges and stopping to enjoy the views out to sea. The walking is cruisey and before we know it, we’ve gone over five miles. There’s a beach with a tree swing, and Izzy stops to try it out. I follow but completely wipe out. Oops. At least I didn’t fall on my face.

At a road junction, Hannah and Izzy have to turn left while we follow it right. We hug them and promise to meet up again later, likely in Auckland, where we will be taking at least one zero. It is hard to split up a group you’ve been enjoying, but this is the way of the trail. You have to do the side quests that call to you and hike your own hike.

Mash, Sam, Sibylle, and I hike the uphill windy road quickly. It levels out, then turns left and uphill again. Pretty soon we’re about halfway. Sam and Sibylle stop for lunch on an uphill dirt verge, and Mash and I carry on a few more miles until we get to a gravel road and find a nice layby to sit on. It’s not exactly a beautiful view, but it works. Sam and Sibylle catch up and the four of us continue downhill into Ngunguru.

Ngunguru is a small and very cute coastal town with a convenience store that has basically everything we need for a short resupply. Mash and I get many items, including one pie each and a Cadbury Picnic ice cream for me. We sit outside with Sam and Sibylle and eat our respective snacks—Sam got a delicious looking ice cream cone and Sibylle got what turns out to be a huge pack of freshly cut chips, as in fries. I think we’re entering the era of the hunger. It feels far too early and the terrain is far too easy for this to be hiker hunger, but today I’ve felt like my stomach was gnawing itself open from the inside out. That probably has a lot to do with how long yesterday was, to be fair. It’s like my body is relearning how to manage this kind of distance.

Mash texts James, the guy who runs the ferry over to Nikau Bay Eco Camp, to let him know that we’re about to arrive. Then we walk the half mile through town, use the public bathrooms, and wait at the ferry crossing with a couple of other hikers. James arrives in his small motor boat and takes the other two who were there before us across, and in the meantime, Sibylle and Sam decide to swim across. We watch them from a distance as we wait for the return of the boat, and then we are across the water and in paradise.

This place is beautiful. James has set up a gorgeous and relaxing space, and he clearly loves Te Araroa and its hikers. There is ample camping along the green space by the water, along with a trampoline and a sort of hammock net in the trees, where Thijs and Jack are hanging out. Up the road a bit, there’s a large building wth a wide open doorway and a kitchen, a massive wooden table with benches, and another sitting space in the back. The bathroom is gorgeous, with an incense burner on a bench and an old-timey portrait on the wall. And the shower… my god. It’s open on the top so you can see the trees, and there are shelves and hooks and a bench along the edges and a tree growing right through the middle of the space. The water is scalding hot and I stand there and feel all the crusties falling away, all the sunscreen and sweat and goop just wash away. It’s one of the best showers of my life, and I tell James as much later.

Mash cooks dinner using some of the rice that James has donated to us. It ends up being a sort of an egg fried rice with olive oil and garlic flavor tuna with grated cheese on top. We eat it while we listen to James explain the next couple of days on the TA and its alternates and options. He’s created a whole map, which he uses to demonstrate the geography of the area and where we’ll be headed. This level of dedication screams love for the TA, and reminds me of some of the trail angels along the AT and PCT. After the talk, I try to give him extra cash for the beautiful space, but he vehemently refuses. “No, no. You’re the ones who have paid so much money to come here,” he says as he hands me the change I told him I didn’t need.

I draw out the evening, drinking the beer I got in the convenience store (you thought I didn’t get a beer? Ha.) and writing. Tomorrow is another fairly manageable day on roads, but the next one is a big one. That’s okay. I feel the strength returning to my body. I’ve acquired another blister on my right big toe and the roads hurt my hips, but my knee is, at least so far since the zero, painless, and my bottom-of-foot blisters have reorganized themselves into calluses. I’m recalibrating.