Blog Day 7: Warkworth to Pakiri via Matakana

Miles Hadley

Friday 17th June 2016
Day 6– Warkworth – Pakiri via Matakana

X km (approximately), X hours including a few stops and a 45 minute lunch break

It was about 10am when I left the hostel in Warkworth.  Before I did so, I went to look the river (See picture 1)
and then took the road to Matakana. This road is extremely busy and great care must be taken should you decide to walk it. There are vineyards along the way. One kind passing Motorist stopped his car and insisted that I have a lift to Matakana. I didn’t argue and was dropped off there. It is amazing the amount of times I have been offered a life by kind strangers on this pilgrimage. There are people that would say that people in the world have lost their thought or care for strangers. This journey is certainly proving that such people are wrong when it comes to Kiwi kindness and hospitality. There have been so many times that I have been offered a lift but then refused to accept, because I was supposed to walk the journey! Yet on this occasion, I would have felt rude not to accept the kind offer so I took it.

Once in Matakana I thanked the kind driver and then had lunch in a cafe. I also took a photograph of St Leonards Church (See picture 2) which has a thriving charity shop next door to it. I then walked up the Matakana valley road. At first, this road had plenty of room to walk but as it got steeper, there was less room, so I had to be especially careful of oncoming traffic and keep my wits about me. Once I had passed the Govan Wilson turn, I joined the once again obscured Te Arora way path. This immediately led me through thick vegetation and up a lot of steep hills. There was a lot of mud under foot too. It was admittedly quite exhausting carrying the sixty litre backpack. I climbed Mount Tamahunga which has a huge satellite installation which hums and buzzes away.  Soon the sun was beginning to set and the views were spectacular (See picture 3). I then continued at a quicker pace, for, dusk was settling in (see picture 4) and it was now 6pm. Fortunately it was a full moon and i had a torch with me so I was able to navigate my way to Bathgate road in Pakiri. Here, a kind family provided warm hospitality for the night.